SpaceObServer 4.1

SpaceObServer 4.1  is a powerful and flexible hard disk space manager for Windows that scans local and network drives using a background service and stores their structure, sizes and properties in an SQL database

This tool consists of a system service named "SpaceObServer Agent" that executes scans for the selected file system trees and stores the collected information in an SQL database (MS SQL Server, ORACLE, MySQL, IBM DB2 or MS Access). Network scans are full supported, without the need to install additional software on the network servers.

The SpaceObServer user interface enables you to display the stored data in different kinds of visualization (3D bar, pie, line charts or tree maps as well as tabular enumerations, if desired grouped by file types or users). The application features an intuitive Explorer-like user interface, to present you detailed information (e.g. size, allocated space, number of files, last access and change date, file owner,...) about directories or drives you choose. You are able to trace the development of the size of directories you choose and get approximated size development for the future. It is possible to store diagrams using common image formats, export tables to XML-, Excel-, PDF-, HTML- or Text files and print a detailed report for the selected directory tree.

You can use OLE Automation to generate exports from within your own scripts or programs. Use extensive search criteria to discover files with special characteristics (e.g. size, file extension, last change,...). A duplicate file search is also included, optional with MD5 checksum identification. The data storage, as well as all text output, works with the Unicode international character set standard, thus SpaceObServer can also administer directories and files, whose names cannot be represented in the ASCII character set.

The SpaceObServer Client application is a management tool to configure scans, view scan results and generate exports remotely from additional machines in your network. SpaceObServer Client has the same user interface like SpaceObServer, without the scan service.

Major Features:

1. The size of each folder is displayed directly in the file system tree. This way you can easily discover which folders occupy most of your hard disk space.
2. A background service, the SpaceObServer Agent, regularly scans selected drives and stores the collected data in an SQL database.
3.  Supported databases: MS Access, MS SQL Server 2000/2005, ORACLE 9/10, MySQL or IBM DB2 including the free Express editions.
4. Scan network drives without the need to install additional software on the servers you want to observe.
5. By using the NTFS Change Journals SpaceObServer is able to update information about local NTFS drives continuously, which results in disk usage information that is always up to date.
6. Linux and Unix filesystems can be scanned directly via SSH (Secure Shell).
7. A space usage history shows development over time and provides an approximated forecast for the future.
8. A highly customizable file search allows filtering your files by size, last change, last access and creation date, extension, filename pattern, file attributes or owner. Filter options are applied directly to the directory tree and all other views.
9. Duplicate files can be identified by the MD5 checksum of their content or a combination of name, size and last change date.
10. SpaceObServer supports the international character standard Unicode.
11. View, print and export 3D bar, pie, line charts and tree maps.
12. Several exporting and reporting possibilities: Printed report (showing the directory structure), Excel, XML, PDF, HTML, text file or clipboard.
13.  Show checkboxes directly in the file system tree and details view. Directories and files marked this way can be easily moved, zipped or deleted. You can choose to keep file permissions and create stub files for moved files.
14. The OLE Automation interface allows scheduling your exports from within your own scripts or applications, written in any programming language that supports OLE Automation (e.g. VBScript, VB.NET, C#, Delphi). Programming examples are included.
15. Support for the file based NTFS compression, hard links and Alternate Data Streams (ADS)
16. A list displays the size for each folder grouped by users or file extensions.
17. Visibility and order of the columns can be configured for the details view and each export type separately.
18. You can easily customize the output format, e.g. number of decimals, size unit (Byte, KB, MB, GB), etc.
19. Explorer context menu is supported inside the SpaceObServer.

Enhancements:

1. SpaceObServer can now identify duplicate files by comparing the MD5 checksum of the file content. The MD5 checksums are optionally stored in the database (“Scan > Configure Scans > Scan Options > Calculate MD5 checksums”). You can tell SpaceObServer to use the checksums for comparison at "Tools > Options > Duplicates".
2. Added the new column "Owner" to the "Duplicate Files" list. The "look and feel" of this list has also been improved.
3. Several minor improvements and modifications in the tree map, bar, pie and line charts.
4. You can now customize the used colors in the tree map, bar and pie charts by a new color picker in the toolbar of the "Charts" tab.
5. When showing "Allocated Space" in the directory tree ("View > Allocated Space") the bar chart now shows the "Allocated Space" instead of the "Real Size" plus the "Wasted Space".
6. File Search: The search for file name pattern has been improved.
   
7. Within the silent installation of SpaceObServer ("/SILENT") Now you can use the command lines "/SERVICEUSER " and "/SERVICEPWD " to configure the login.
   
8. The selected History interval ("From" and "To" dates) is now also shown in the "Overview" panel ("View > Toolbars > Overview").
9. The "Edit Annotations" function has been added to the context menu of the directory tree (sub menu "SpaceObServer"). The annotations are saved in the database and can be displayed in column "Annotation" the "Details" list.
10. Bugfix: The shown results when using "Automatic Units" (menu "View") has been improved.
11. Bugfix: In rare cases, when using more than one instance of SpaceObServer with the same database, it could happen that a scan was executed by the wrong scan service.
12. Bugfix: When a file search, or a filter by extension or user, was activated, the "Details" list did not show any owners, attributes or annotations for directories.
13. Bugfix: When using the function "Copy Files to Clipboard" from the context menu of the directory tree with an activated file search, an error could occur in some cases.
14. OLE Automation:

• Introduced the new properties "HistoryIntervalBegin" and "HistoryIntervalEnd", to configure the interval of the "History". "FileAgesCount" and "SizeDistributionCount" have been added, that holds the number of currently configured distribution intervals.
  
• Introduced the new Filter "ExcludeUserNamePattern" to exclude files owned by certain users.
  
• You can now use the variables "%DATE%" and "%TIME%" in the Excel export also for the "SheetName" parameter.
  
• Bugfix: The function "ScheduleScan" did not work with all kind of time formats for the "ScanTime" parameter. Valid formats are "HH", "HH-MM" or "HH-MM-SS".
  
• A few minor bug fixes and improvements have been incorporated.
  

 Requirements:

• Windows 200X/XP/Vista
• 256 MB RAM