Windows Top 10 Largest File Scanner

Problem to solve

On Windows systems, disk usage issues often come down to locating a few unexpectedly large files. Manually browsing C:/Users, project folders, or log directories is slow, especially when large files may be nested several levels deep or spread across many subdirectories.

How the skill works

The skill runs a PowerShell scan pipeline with a small set of controls:

• Scope the scan: pass a directory with -path; the script resolves the path and exits if the location is missing or inaccessible.
• Collect files only: Get-ChildItem -File gathers files, while -depth can limit recursion; -1 scans without a depth cap.
• Rank results: files are sorted by size in descending order and truncated to the top 10, with total file count, total size, and duration also reported.
• Readable output: a colored table shows rank, byte size, human-readable size, relative path, and a proportional bar.
• Machine-readable output: a JSON block between ---JSON_OUTPUT_START--- and ---JSON_OUTPUT_END--- exposes top10, paths, sizes, modification times, and scan statistics.

Boundaries to keep in mind

This is useful for quick Windows file-level triage, not a full disk audit or permission review. Unlimited depth can be slow on large trees, inaccessible files are skipped, and results rank individual files rather than aggregate folder size. For automation, parse the JSON section instead of the colored table.