Tessera
Support & FAQ
Everything worth knowing before you buy, and the things people hit afterwards.
Before you buy
What do I need to run it?
64-bit Windows 10 or 11. Nothing else — no .NET runtime, no Visual C++ redistributable, no administrator rights.
What exactly do I get?
One self-contained Tessera.exe of about 102 MB. Put it anywhere
and run it. Nothing is installed, no registry keys are written, and nothing is
left behind outside the folder you put it in.
Is it a subscription?
No. One payment, and the version you buy is yours. There is no account, no licence server to phone home to, and nothing expires.
Can I run it on more than one machine?
Yes — for your own use, on machines you own or use. It is a portable file; put it on a USB stick if that suits you. See the licence for the exact terms.
Does it send anything anywhere?
No. No telemetry, no analytics, no update checks, no crash reporting. You can confirm this by running it with the network disconnected, or by watching it with a firewall.
Can I get a refund?
Refunds are handled through Gumroad under their buyer refund policy. If the tool does not do what this site says it does, ask for one.
After you buy
Where is my download?
Gumroad emails a receipt with a download link immediately after purchase, and the file also stays available in your Gumroad library. If the email has not arrived, check spam before anything else — that is nearly always where it is.
Windows says “Windows protected your PC”. Is something wrong?
No. That is SmartScreen, and it appears for any executable that has not yet built up a download reputation with Microsoft — which a small independent tool takes a long time to do. Click More info, then Run anyway.
If you would rather verify the file first, upload it to a service like VirusTotal and check it against the hash published with your download.
How do updates work?
The app never updates itself and never checks for updates. When a new version is released, it appears in your Gumroad library and Gumroad emails you. Replace the old executable with the new one.
A folder shows as unreadable, or the total looks too small.
Some folders are locked down by Windows even for administrators — System Volume Information is the usual one. Tessera flags and counts these rather than showing them as empty, so the number you see is the number it could actually measure. Running it elevated will let it read more, though it is not required.
I deleted something and want it back.
On a local drive it went to the Recycle Bin — restore it from there. On a network share there is no Recycle Bin, and the confirmation dialog said so before the deletion: that one is gone. See the disclaimer.
Known limitations
Stated plainly, so you can decide before you pay rather than after.
- Windows only. It runs on Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit, and nothing else.
- Junctions and symlinks are not followed. This is deliberate — it prevents double-counting and scan loops — but it means a link’s target is counted where it actually lives, not where the link is.
- No deduplication of hard links. A file with several hard links is measured once per path it appears under.
- Network shares have no Recycle Bin. Deletion there is permanent, because Windows provides no undo. The app says so at the point of deletion.
- The executable is not code-signed. SmartScreen will warn on first run. See above.
Still stuck?
Support runs through Gumroad’s contact form on the product page. Using Gumroad means your message arrives attached to your purchase, so there is no licence key to dig out and no proof to send.
Tell me what you were scanning, what you expected and what happened instead. If there is an error message, include it exactly.