FOLDER SPACE DETECTIVE - QUICK START
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Folder Space Detective is a Windows utility for finding what is using space inside a folder or drive, drilling into large folders, searching recursively, and cleaning selected files/folders with guarded actions.

EDITION / LICENSING
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New installations begin with a 14-day Folder Space Detective Pro trial. When the trial ends, the app continues in Free mode; core scanning, analysis, drill-down, recursive views, Storage Overview, search and safe single-item Recycle Bin cleanup remain available.

Pro adds persistent indexing/background refresh, indexed folder autocomplete, all-indexed Quick Search, Cleanup Rules, Rule Matches Only, advanced bulk cleanup workflows and custom size-color rules.

Use:
  Help > License & Upgrade...

to buy, activate, validate or deactivate Pro. Folder Space Detective Pro is a one-time purchase and the license may be activated on up to 3 PCs.

QUICK START
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1. Run FolderSpaceDetective.exe.
2. Choose a folder with Browse, paste/type a path, or use the path autocomplete box.
3. Click Scan.
4. Sort by Size, drill into folders with double-click, or change Type/View to search a complete subtree. Use View > Default View if you want new scans/folder navigation to start recursively instead of on Current folder; Current folder remains the factory default.
5. Optional: use Tools > Excluded Folders... to hide folders you do not want scanned/searched, including an all-drives Windows Recycle Bin option.
6. Check the Cleanup guidance column or right-click an item > Cleanup guidance… when you are unsure what it is. FSD distinguishes usually-safe cleanup candidates, personal files that need review, application/Windows-managed content, and protected system locations, and recommends the safer action.
7. Use Delete to move allowed selected items to the Windows Recycle Bin. FSD blocks direct deletion when Windows or an application should manage the item instead.
8. Use Shift+Delete only when you intentionally want permanent deletion.

QUICK SEARCH (PRO)
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Press Ctrl+Alt+F by default to open Quick Search across every available saved index. The path box shows "All indexed locations"; you do not need to choose a folder, click Scan, change View, or press Enter. If no folder is loaded, simply typing in Find also switches to all-indexed search.

The results include a Path column showing the containing folder. Right-click any result-grid header to show or hide columns; your choices are remembered.

EXCLUDED FOLDERS
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Open Tools > Excluded Folders... to add paths that should be ignored everywhere. Exclusions apply to normal scans, saved-index Quick Search, folder autocomplete, totals and background index refresh.

Use "Exclude the Windows Recycle Bin on all drives" to ignore C:\$Recycle.Bin, D:\$Recycle.Bin and equivalent recycle-bin trees without adding every drive manually. This setting is available in Free as well as Pro.

KEYBOARD NAVIGATION
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- Left/Right in Find behave normally for text editing.
- Plain Down from Find or Min MB moves to the results grid.
- Down in the top folder/path box keeps its folder-autocomplete behavior.
- In the results grid, Up/Down move one row; only Up from the first row returns to Find.
- Page Up/Page Down jump roughly one visible page.
- Home/End jump to the first/last result.
- Tab from any results-grid row returns to Find.
- Ctrl+L focuses/selects the folder/path box; Ctrl+F focuses Find; Ctrl+G focuses the results grid by default.
- F1 opens Help; Escape closes the Help dialog.
- Ctrl+Shift+V cycles View, Ctrl+Shift+T cycles Type, and Ctrl+R toggles Rule matches only by default.
- Enter on a selected grid row reveals/selects that item in Explorer without running it.
- Ctrl+Enter on a selected grid row opens/runs the item using its normal Windows action.
- Shift+Enter opens a selected folder inside Folder Space Detective, exactly like double-clicking that folder.
- Change all ten in-app shortcuts under Tools > Quick Access & Startup, including Ctrl+G for the grid and Alt+Up for the parent folder.

SEARCH
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Find terms are ANDed together. Plain words match item names. Prefix a term with ! to exclude it. Use path: (or a leading backslash) when you specifically want to match a containing path; .exe/.zip-style tokens match extensions.

Examples:
  .mkv \test !.lnk
  name:"final render" !path:\cache
  ext:zip path:\Downloads

Supported prefixes: name:, path:, ext:, type:file, type:folder
Wildcards * and ? are supported.

INDEXING (PRO)
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Indexing is optional. No folder is indexed until you add it under:
  Tools > Indexing & Background Scanning...

Saved indexes make repeat scans, folder-path autocomplete and Quick Search much faster. Freshly rebuilt indexes are kept in memory too, so normal folder Scan can reuse them immediately instead of reopening the saved index file while Quick Search warms in the background. For local NTFS indexes, Monitor changes can keep the in-memory index current while FSD is running by applying file creates/changes/renames/deletes incrementally. To catch up changes made while FSD was closed without running the desktop app as administrator, install the optional NTFS Index Service from the same Indexing dialog; Windows asks for administrator approval only for service install/update/remove. After the next successful full indexed-root refresh establishes a USN checkpoint, later starts can replay valid journal changes. If the service is absent/unavailable, scheduled refresh remains the downtime fallback. Use Rescan when you specifically want a fresh disk walk; rescanning a subfolder does not delete its configured parent index. Refresh Selected Now and foreground Scan/Rescan show files/folders/bytes, elapsed time and estimated percent/ETA when a reliable baseline is available. Background refresh is also optional and only runs while Folder Space Detective is running.

CLEANUP SAFETY
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- The Cleanup guidance column classifies each result conservatively as Usually safe, Review first, Use app/Windows, or Protected.
- Right-click one item > Cleanup guidance… for the reason and the recommended action.
- FSD routes Windows-managed files, installed applications/games, ProgramData/AppData and other managed content away from blind manual deletion and recommends Windows/app/launcher cleanup instead.
- Delete sends selected items to the Windows Recycle Bin when direct cleanup is allowed; managed/protected items are blocked and FSD recommends the safer Windows/app action instead.
- Shift+Delete permanently deletes allowed selected items after confirmation.
- Protected Windows locations, drive roots and other critical system content are guarded.
- Reparse points/junctions are skipped during scanning to avoid loops/double counting.
- Review rule matches before using rule-based cleanup.

LOCAL DATA
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Settings, rules, optional indexes and licensing state are stored under:
  %LocalAppData%\FolderSpaceDetective

PRO LICENCE
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Folder Space Detective Pro is €9.99 once. The paid licence is perpetual and includes updates released during the first 12 months after purchase. When that update period ends, the newest eligible version you received remains licensed and usable; later updates or a future major upgrade may be offered separately.

PRIVACY
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Folder Space Detective does not contain telemetry, analytics, advertising or cloud storage. Internet access is used only for Lemon Squeezy checkout/licensing actions. Scan contents, paths, rules and indexes are not uploaded.

HELP
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Press F1 in the application for the full built-in Help. Several dialogs also open Help directly at the relevant section.
