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Display File Size in Bytes on Windows Explorer

Anonymous
2010-10-08T15:52:08+00:00

Hello,

Is there any way that I can display the File Size within the Windows Explorer in Bytes (instead of KB, GB, etc.)?

I have looked all over the internet for this but I couldn't find any answer that would not require me to buy yet another piece of software. And I really can't believe it that MS doesn't have this somewhere buried within some Registry key or something.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

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Anonymous
2010-10-09T06:14:29+00:00

Hi,

This cannot be changed. Windows Explorer will display the size column in the smallest unit, “KB” for simplicity. If you select your file and view the details pane, you will see the file in its true form, whether it’s MB or GB.

There are third party programs that are able to do what you are asking, but unfortunately, I do not think it would come for free.

THIRD PARTY DISCLAIMERUsing Third Party Software, including hardware drivers can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Third Party Software can be solved. Using Third Party Software is at your own risk.

Azeez Nadeem - Microsoft Support

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-04-17T07:51:07+00:00

    This is not an answer to your problem, but a workaround. If you open command prompt to the folder and do a "dir" you can see the file sizes in bytes.

    Note that the actual file size is displayed, not the file allocation size (space on disk reserved for the file). Compression of the file by Windows will not affect the size displayed.

    To open a command prompt easily, right-click the folder when holding Shift key, and select "Open command window here".

    "dir /-c" will avoid the thousand-separators (commas).

    "dir /?" will show you additional options you can apply to the "dir" command.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-04-24T16:47:27+00:00

    The problem with that is that the file size reported is the size on disk, not the actual file size. If the file is compressed, the dir command reports the compressed size, so it may not be the actual amount of data that is in the file when not compressed.

    I noticed your subsequent reply but I just want to make it clear to future readers. Btw you could edit your original reply instead of making a new one :)

    The first part is not true. I created a text file with 8 characters. When I right-clicked the file and checked Properties, the size was reported to be 8 bytes (which is what's required for 8 characters in ANSI), and the "size on disk" is 4 KB (4096 bytes, the space allocated for the file). When I used command prompt to look at the file size, it reports "8" and not "4096".

    The second part is also not true. I then modified the text file to make it worth a total of 6 KB by repeating a 4-character word making the whole text file contain 6144 bytes. When uncompressed, this file takes up 8 KB of space. But when I compress it, it only requires 4 KB of space (these are the values reported for "size on disk" in file properties). But the size of the file remains 6 KB in both cases, and the dir command reports this size as "6144".

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-12-12T18:02:36+00:00

    Not really relevant.  The Issue at hand is, Microsoft decided, "we will hide some information from you that we don't think you need", and when they did so, they actually hid the bytes with the most information content from a perspective of determining if a file changed or not.  Networks have nothing to do with the issue.

    When  people say Microsoft is arrogant, this is exactly the kind of thing they are talking about.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-10-09T19:05:48+00:00

    I have looked all over the internet for this but I couldn't find any answer that would not require me to buy yet another piece of software. And I really can't believe it that MS doesn't have this somewhere buried within some Registry key or something.

    No, there is no hidden key:

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/10/29/5750353.aspx

    "A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" CLIP- Stellvertreter http://www.winvistaside.de/

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