Privacy Policy — DriveVisualizer
Last updated: July 31, 2026 · All privacy policies · Source
Summary: DriveVisualizer scans your disk and draws the results on your own machine. It has no network code at all — no telemetry, no analytics, no update check. What it saves (scan snapshots and history) stays in your local app data folder.
What the app works with
DriveVisualizer enumerates files and folders on the drive or folder you choose, reading metadata only — names, paths, sizes (logical and on-disk), attributes, and timestamps. It does not read file contents, and it does not open, execute, or upload anything it finds. File names and paths are used to classify entries into categories (apps, pictures, documents, temp & logs, and so on) entirely on-device.
It also reads facts about the drive hardware itself — model, media and bus type, capacity, partitions, firmware and serial number, plus S.M.A.R.T. health readings like temperature, wear, power-on hours, and lifetime bytes written. These come from Windows (a read-only device query and the storage WMI namespace) and are shown in the drive info dialog. The serial number and firmware version are displayed there only — they are not written into snapshots, history, or reports.
What leaves your device
Nothing. The app contains no HTTP client, socket code, telemetry, analytics, or crash-reporting SDK — there is no server for it to talk to, mine or anyone else's. It never checks for updates on its own; the Microsoft Store build is updated by the Store, and I receive no data from it beyond the anonymous install and rating counts Microsoft shows every publisher.
What's stored on your device
All of it local, under %LOCALAPPDATA%\DriveVisualizer\ (or the packaged app's local folder when installed as MSIX):
- Scan snapshots (
autosnap\*.dvsnap) — one automatic baseline per scanned target, so the next scan can show what changed. These contain the folder and file structure you scanned with sizes, so treat them like a directory listing. Each one also stamps the drive's model, media and bus type, free space, and S.M.A.R.T. readings at that moment — but not its serial number. - Daily history (
history\) — one snapshot per day of use per target, which feeds the size-over-time chart. - Settings — your view preferences, in the app's local settings store.
- A crash log (
crash.log) — timestamps and exception stack traces, written only when something goes wrong. - Generated reports — diff, history, and comparison HTML reports are written to your temp folder (
%TEMP%\DriveVisualizer-*.html) when you open one; snapshots and reports you explicitly save go wherever you choose.
Nothing here is encrypted, because none of it leaves the machine. Delete the folder any time to reset the app's memory of your drives.
Files you delete
Deleting from within the app is a real delete: Delete sends the item to the Recycle Bin, Delete permanently does not, and compress to zip removes the original after zipping. DriveVisualizer keeps no copy of anything it deletes.