Exclude symbolic links from the folder size calculation

[KageDev]

When previewing the folder with symlinks inside, it's showing the wrong size.
In my example, 334 GB instead of actual size of 8.41 GB

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. create a new folder, for example C:\TestFolder
2. make a symlink using command: mklink /d "C:\TestFolder\test" "OTHER_FOLDER_PATH"
3. select TestFolder folder and press spacebar to view it's info

Expected behavior
Preview should show 0 KB size

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• Windows 11 24H2
• QuickLook v4.3.0 (UWP)

[emako]

I can't reproduce the problem you mentioned.

[KageDev]

You are reproducing the problem :)
The size of ole32-cfb-list2 should be 0 KB (the size of symlink itself)

[emako]

I don’t think there’s a problem. Why do you need 0KB?

[KageDev]

Because symbolic links don’t contain real data themselves, they are just pointers that refer to other files or directories somewhere else, even on another drive, like a shortcut.
So it should be reported as 0 KB, because the link object itself occupies effectively zero data.
I expect the size display to reflect the real size inside the folder, not what the symlink points to.
Right now if there’s a symlink pointing to a huge folder, QuickLook will include the entire size of huge_folder when calculating parent folder's size.

[emako]

Thank you for the report! However, I'd like to respectfully disagree with the expected behavior of showing 0 KB for symbolic links.

Consistency with Other Tools:

• Most file managers (Windows Explorer, macOS Finder) follow symbolic links and calculate the actual size when computing folder sizes
• Breaking this consistency would confuse users who expect similar behavior across different tools