Sifting through files and deciding what’s worth keeping or not, can be very time-consuming. Disk cleanup is usually speedier when using a disk space analyzer, showing you which are the largest files and folders occupying precious space. Removing duplicate files is equally important, since obviously having two copies of the same file is completely useless.
Spyglass is a tool with a “less is more” type of interface that includes both of the above mentioned features and offers a simple, intuitive approach to disk cleanup.
Installation & Requirements
Spyglass has a straightforward setup process which completes in a few seconds. Once the installation is complete you can start using the program right away. Also, at first run Spyglass will automatically perform an update check and prompt you to install the latest version, if such is the case.
Spyglass runs on Windows versions starting with XP and has no additional requirements.
Interface
Spyglass has a dark-themed, clean UI which reminds me of Windows Phone apps. The main window offers a large “+” button that lets you browse for a folder, partition or hard drive (you can also use drag & drop if you want). Once you’ve selected a folder a beautiful visual representation similar to a futuristic pie chart will show you how much space is occupied by the contents of that folder. To simplify the analysis files are shown as orange arcs and folders as blue arcs. Holding the mouse on top of any arc will show you the complete path to that file or folder and if you click on any blue arc you will dive into that folder’s contents. It’s a very intuitive way to navigate through files and folders and perform a thorough yet quick clean up.
The program will also launch a scan for finding duplicate files and folders within the selected locations. The process can be lengthy for large folders or if you selected an entire drive, but once it’s done the Duplicate Finder pane lists the results which can be sorted by file name/size/modification date or duplicate count.
Clicking on any file will show all its duplicates and the small arrow located next to the file’s name lets you open it in Windows Explorer. If you click the flag icon once turns it red, meaning the file was selected for deletion. Clicking it once again will turn it yellow and the file is selected for relocation. From the bottom of the screen you can choose to show all files marked for either deletion or relocation as well as move or delete them according to the case.
Pros
– Straightforward, quick setup.
– Clean, polished interface with drag and drop support.
– Analyzes the contents of the selected folder/partition/hard drive and displays the result as a layered pie chart with intuitive navigation.
– The duplicate file finder allows simple management of duplicate files.
– Unique help mode applies annotations on top of the program window, explaining all the options and features.
Cons
– The duplicate file finder scan process can be a bit resource consuming.
Conclusion
Spyglass offers both disk space analysis and duplicate file detection in a single program, but it’s also amazingly simple and intuitive, unlike most functional utilities which are usually not so polished.
