Windows Explorer and the command console both enable you to
view the contents of folders, along with file and folder attributes. In most
situations, these two tools give you all the information you need. Sometimes,
however, you could probably use more information and more options for sorting
the folder and file information. For example, you might be researching file
changes between two otherwise identical computers and need to save the output
to an Excel spreadsheet for comparison.

The Windows Resource Kit includes a tool called Visual File
Information that can give you more expansive information about files. You can
also use Visual File Information to store the resulting file listing to a
tab-delimited file or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The program enables you to
add multiple folder paths to the view so you can evaluate non-contiguous
folders as needed.

To open Visual File Information on a computer where the
Windows Resource Kit is installed, follow these steps:

  1. Open
    the Tools link in the Resource Kit menu (on the Start menu).
  2. Click
    the File And Disk Tools link, and double-click
    Visual File Information.

If you want to add folders to the view, you need to go
through a few more steps:

  1. Click
    the Add Folder button on the toolbar and click the path you want to add.
  2. Repeat
    the process to add other folder paths as necessary.
  3. When
    you’re ready to save the information, go to File | Save specify a file
    name and location, choose between text and Excel format, and click Save.

Now you can open the file in Excel or other applications for
analysis, or you can export it to applications such as Microsoft Access.

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