WizFile

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smaragdus
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Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:24 am
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WizFile

#1 Post by smaragdus »

Preamble
Everything is one of my all-times favourites, an absolutely indispensable program which I use daily. It satisfies my needs for lightning-fast search, yet I appreciate newcomers like CSearcher for example-it is always better to have alternatives. Such a brand new alternative is WizFile which first public release came out on 2018-04-09.

Synopsis
What is WizFile?
WizFile is a very fast file search utility that can find files on your hard drive almost instantly. The entire file system can be quickly sorted by name, size or date. WizFile currently only supports NTFS formatted hard drives but support for other hard drive types is planned.

What makes WizFile so fast?
When scanning NTFS formatted hard drives (most modern hard drives use this format), WizFile reads the hard drive's Master File Table (MFT) directly from the disk. The MFT is a special hidden file used by the NTFS file system to keep track of all files and folders on a hard drive. Scanning for files this way completely bypasses the operating system (Windows) and provides a huge performance boost.
Features
  • Finds the files and folders using the most space on your hard drive
  • VERY Fast! WizTree reads the master file table (MFT) directly from NTFS formatted hard drives (similar to the way Everything Search Engine works)
  • Visual Treemap allows you to spot large files and large collections of smaller files at a glance
  • Finds the largest files on your hard drive. Every single file on your hard drive can be sorted in order of size.
  • File Name Search - quickly locate files by name or wildcard match
  • Export file data to CSV (comma separated values) file or clipboard
  • Command line CSV file export
  • Sort the contents of your entire hard drive by folder size and optionally delete files and folders
  • Scan ALL hard drive file system types (NTFS, FAT, FAT32, network, etc) and/or individual folders
Links
Website
Publisher
gHacks

Downloads
Direct download links for WizFile version 1.02 (released on 2018-04-09): Images

WizFile - program window:

Image

WizFile - file:

Image

WizFile - options:

Image

WizFile - search:

Image

WizFile - About:

Image

Portability
WizFile has native portable version- settings file (WizFile.ini) is saved in program folder.

Instructions
  • Download the archive;
  • Extract the archive to a folder of your choice;
  • Run the executable (either WizFile.exe for x32 systems or WizFile64.exe for x64 systems);
Requirements
Works on 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8 and 10
License
WizFile is released as DONATIONWARE. It may not be resold.
Note
WizFile was created by Antibody Software, the developer who also published WizTree (which is in the database and has been discussed in the forum).
If the user donates to WizFile they will get a unique supporter code plus instructions how to use it and remove "Donate" button from WizFile.
I tested the x64 version of WizFile and although it worked fine (no crashes, no errors) I noticed it was using too much memory for a program of this kind- on my x64 system WizFile used about 360 MB of RAM. I do not know whether this is a memory leak but I hope that the developer will be able to slim down the memory usage (I have already contacted him about that).

Details
File details for WizFile version 1.02 (released on 2018-04-09):

==

Archive:
Name: wizfile_1_02_portable.zip
File Size: 5140823 Byte(s) (4.90 MB)
Modified Date: 2018-04-09 02:12
MD5: c42d635b9d6d7bc7cd44b10d04b1ecbf
SHA1: 0325aad6c0ef2769ec33c8fdae7e05a5edeeb404
SHA256: 933345f3f0892c6ec8926aa3b8daefc960673329c156443ab6b89914e85f19be
SHA512: f1453a8850249eef3efcda96407fc34ba000bd8280374408cc91b451cea2a36e83e625297bbcb2068ebb20f73ce909a02def4655dfd82683d5eb54abb5cef450

==

Installer:
Name: wizfile_1_02_setup.exe
File Size: 3492136 Byte(s) (3.33 MB)
Modified Date: 2018-04-09 02:12
Version: 0.0.0.0
MD5: 5799b9dad171c99a5f62432c8fc76e54
SHA1: 301bf1025f802e79c7e82a11f4204cd2d66dfb14
SHA256: a260145dabc752ca84978aa29e6608904b8bb417d7f9130a16ddbaba17eaeccc
SHA512: bd35ab3e4c07efa76d5cd97c01a2ea0267e36d6907bd329e5635af8469a3ad8b957db44a9deec3f5d900242799e753b63976c2484592709fe725542d8db9d202

==

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Userfriendly
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Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 11:41 pm

Re: WizFile

#2 Post by Userfriendly »

Just using a lot of memory doesn't mean its a memory leak. That's not what a memory leak is. From what I tested, it seems like it just seems the amount of memory it uses depends on the number of files it scans. If I deselect all my drives from being scanned then it shrinks to about 100MB usage. If I select only My C Drive then its 160MB. All drives selected it uses about 620MB. Deselect all of them again then it shrinks back down to 100MB. So not a memory leak at all.

As what its bullet point feature states "Does not require a separate database file - all file data is kept in memory". Unlike Everything which writes an actual database file to remember recently scanned files. WizFile scans fast enough to not need a database file. But of course thats at the expense of more memory usage. Sometimes using more memory means the application can perform better.

I think Everything is all around still better at um everything... It just has way more options. WizFile is pretty simple and barebones but it gets the job done fast. I think simplicity is what its going for.

If you're using Windows 10, I wouldn't worry too much about memory usage. It's a tad bit better at managing memory compared to previous OS versions.

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smaragdus
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Re: WizFile

#3 Post by smaragdus »

@Userfriendly

I was short of time and my test was superficial. I also somehow missed that WizFile "Does not require a separate database file - all file data is kept in memory".

In the meantime I got a kind and helpful response from developer who explained that the x32 version uses less resources than x64 one:
The 32 bit version uses a lot less memory than the 64 bit version (due to pointers being 8 bytes in size on 64 bit Windows and only 4 bytes in size on 32 bit Windows). The 32 bit WizFile.exe will launch the 64 bit version if it detects WizFile64.exe in the same folder. If you use the portable version remove WizFile64.exe from the folder to only use the 32 bit version.
I tested the x32 version and it is really slimmer on memory usage- on my Windows 8 system it used about 100 MB less than the x64 version.

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Userfriendly
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Re: WizFile

#4 Post by Userfriendly »

Try starting the program with no drives selected. both x32 and x64 gives me 5.4MB memory usage. Then add drives to scan while its running. I added Drive C and both x32 and x64 increase the same amount of 138MB. Oddly not much of a difference on my end. Either way, the memory usage is actually small by itself. The database size is the what determines the large chunk of memory used.

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smaragdus
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Re: WizFile

#5 Post by smaragdus »

@Userfriendly
Thanks for the tips.
In fact currently my main machine has 16 GB of RAM and rarely more than 25% is being used. Since I initially missed out the fact that the program was not using a database I was surprised by the resource usage, that is all. The developer mentioned that he would try to limit memory usage in the next release. As far as I know version 1.02 was the first public release and I suppose that more polished versions would follow.

Special
Posts: 219
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:22 am

Re: WizFile

#6 Post by Special »

I gave this a try and I like it as an alternative to Everything, I'd rather it use memory over I/O'ing a DB file, so that's a plus in my book. I wish there was a way to blacklist a folder or two though, like have it ignore the C:\Windows\ folder, as I don't need to be searching in there for general purpose things, so having it ignore that unless asked to would result in cleaner and faster searches, that'd be my number one feature request for this.

Also it seems a little buggy, window positions don't save correctly on multi-monitor setups, and I think the .ini files even gets bugged/corrupted too when windows get saved in weird ways, requiring a delete to start fresh, also some DPI issues I've seen as well.

There is also little things like how closing the program just puts it on your taskbar instead of you know... closing the program, if I wanted to hide it, I'd minimize it. Buts I'm sure these things will get worked out eventually, it's the initial release after all.

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smaragdus
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Re: WizFile 1.03

#7 Post by smaragdus »

WizFile at version 1.03, changes:
WizFile 1.03 (11 April 2018)
  • Memory use is significantly reduced (especially in the 64 bit version) and it will now attempt to swap out as much memory as possible to the paging file when it's not actively displaying search results. It should have minimal impact on any other memory hungry applications when it's running in the background.
  • Fixed bug that could crash WizFile if a lot of file changes were occurring while viewing a huge result set
I can confirm that memory usage is considerably reduced indeed- on my system the x64 version uses about 133 MB of RAM max.

Special
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Re: WizFile

#8 Post by Special »

Why does this mess with scheduled tasks? I catch it doing...

"schtasks /Delete /TN WizFile /F"

antibody
Posts: 18
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Location: New Zealand

Re: WizFile

#9 Post by antibody »

Special wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:40 am Why does this mess with scheduled tasks? I catch it doing...

"schtasks /Delete /TN WizFile /F"
Hi - I'm the author of WizFile. If you enable the "Start with Windows" option WizFile will update the task scheduler to start WizFile when you log in. It's done this way so that it can start without the Windows UAC prompt appearing. What you're seeing above is WizFile removing itself from the task scheduler. It does this when it starts up if the "start with windows" option is off just to make sure it's not still enabled in the task scheduler.

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webfork
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Re: WizFile

#10 Post by webfork »

antibody wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:28 pm
Special wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:40 am Hi - I'm the author of WizFile. If you enable the "Start with Windows" option WizFile will update the task scheduler to start WizFile when you log in. It's done this way so that it can start without the Windows UAC prompt appearing. What you're seeing above is WizFile removing itself from the task scheduler. It does this when it starts up if the "start with windows" option is off just to make sure it's not still enabled in the task scheduler.
Welcome to the forums and thanks for the background.

StewCam
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Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 3:37 pm

Re: WizFile

#11 Post by StewCam »

WizFile works well but would benefit from some additional features. My top three would be:
* Option to set a hotkey to open main window
* Option to add a portable NTFS volume
* Option to specify custom file explorer when opening path from a search result

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webfork
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Re: WizFile

#12 Post by webfork »

StewCam wrote: Sat Apr 14, 2018 3:47 pm WizFile works well but would benefit from some additional features. My top three would be:
Another new user. Thanks for the post and welcome to the forums.

Special
Posts: 219
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:22 am

Re: WizFile

#13 Post by Special »

antibody wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:28 pm Hi - I'm the author of WizFile. If you enable the "Start with Windows" option WizFile will update the task scheduler to start WizFile when you log in. It's done this way so that it can start without the Windows UAC prompt appearing. What you're seeing above is WizFile removing itself from the task scheduler. It does this when it starts up if the "start with windows" option is off just to make sure it's not still enabled in the task scheduler.
Heya, thanks for the reply, sorry mines a bit late but this site likes to log me out constantly and I just couldn't find the time. Anyway what WizFile does here is something I find quite annoying requiring certain permissions to run because of it, it would make more sense to run this command only if you changed options from "start with windows" -> "not start with windows", but at every time seems kinda pointless, and like I said because of this depending on security setup, rules need to be permitted here just for a simple search.

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smaragdus
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Re: WizFile 1.04

#14 Post by smaragdus »

WizFile at version 1.04, changes:
  • Background file change monitoring updated to prevent any possible interference with other applications (e.g. renaming operations might have failed while WizFile was active)
  • Searching for certain Unicode characters would fail due to upper/lowercase conversion issues (fixed)
  • Files can now be selected by dragging a rectangle around them

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smaragdus
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Re: WizFile 1.05

#15 Post by smaragdus »

WizFile at version 1.05, changes:
  • "Monitor file system for changes" option added (on by default)
  • "Minimize to tray when closed" option added (on by default)
  • "Rename" function added (Right click on a file/folder and select "Rename" or press F2)
  • Improved background file monitoring - (less CPU use - better for slower PCs, more reliable)
  • Folder renaming was not being processed correctly (fixed)
  • folders created in the root would not be detected correctly (fixed)
  • New Slovak translation by Vladimír Kubala

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