Automatic removal of duplicate files. How to easily find duplicate files in Windows and remove them! Files that can be deleted

Good day...Today in thisIn this article we’ll talk about such a good program as Auslogics Duplicate File Finder - This is an absolutely free program for finding and removing duplicate files from your computer. Using this Auslogics programs Duplicate File Finder you can find duplicate files located on your computer, and also remove them from your computer.

What is a duplicate file

This is a copy of a file located on the computer in a completely different directory, or disk, folder and has the same name as the original file, weight, and extension. There are duplicate files on almost everyone personal computer, even if you did not make a copy (duplicate) of your files (for the purpose of any system failures), they will still be on your computer.

Where do duplicate files come from?

For example, you downloaded two albums of songs by the same artist from the Internet; basically, the compositions of the songs in the collections are repeated, i.e. the same, and the same with photographs - there are identical photos in different folders, over time, these duplicate files become more and more numerous on the computer, respectively, they take up a lot of space on the hard drives of your computer or flash drive, and this also leads to slowdown of your PC system.

Therefore, they must be removed periodically. By deleting duplicate files, you can significantly increase the free space on your PC’s hard drives - . Download this program Can via this link. The program is in Russian and has an intuitive interface, so understanding the program will not be that difficult.

Find and remove duplicate files using the program - Auslogics Duplicate File Finder

Unpack the archive, click on installation file program, in the program window that opens, click “NEXT”

In the next window, we agree to the license “I accept the agreement” and click “NEXT”

Then check the box "Create a desktor icon " create a shortcut on the desktop, click “Next”

Setting up Auslogics Duplicate File Finder

We launch the program and in the window that opens on the left, select the one we need HDD or external media, I recommend selecting all disks to scan for duplicates.In the center of the window, select the types of files that the program will search on the PC. There are two search options. “Among all file types” and “Among only these file types” „.

I recommend selecting the second “Among only these file types” to avoid deletion necessary files, which are used by the system. You can also uncheck a section if you do not want to scan it for duplicate files. After selecting the desired settings, click “Next”.

The next window will have the settings “ignore files smaller than 1 MB.” You can also select the setting for “ignore files larger than 1 GB.” You can also change the created values ​​in the program to your own. I'll check both boxes. Click “Next”.

In the next step, you can select settings for searching for duplicates, ignoring the file name and creation date. By default, the program has a checkmark in the “ignore file creation date” checkbox.You can select both items, then the program will do a wider scan of the selected hard drives. Choose required settings and click “Next”.

In the next window, choose what to do with the found duplicates. The program defaults to deleting to the trash so that you can restore those files that you think were deleted by mistake.In the second point, file recovery will occur from the already created archive. In the third point, everything is clear; files from the computer are deleted permanently. Select the desired settings and click “Search”.

Finding duplicate files

The program will begin searching for duplicate files. Scanning hard drives takes place in 3 stages

• The program determines the number of folders
• After this, the program finds those folders that contain the types of files that you selected in the search settings, then the date and name of the file creation are checked
• After which a full check of hard drives and external media is performed

Upon completion of the search, a window will open with the result of scanning the program for duplicates. On my computer, the program found 71 duplicate files, size 635.88. The program window displays the file name, its location on the disk, the file size, and the date it was last modified.

Next, click on the “Select” button " at the bottom of the window and select the most appropriate item to remove duplicate files. I selected “Select all duplicates in each group” then click “Delete selected files” " and confirm in the window that opens with the OK button.

You can also mark files manually by checking the box next to the selected files, and then click on the corresponding delete button. All duplicate files that you marked will be deleted in the directory in which you previously specified to delete them (in our case, this is the trash).

Then close this program. Auslogics Duplicate File Finder designed to search for duplicate files on hard drives and external media. This is where I will end this post, I hope it turned out useful.

A modern hard drive is created with an impressive amount of free space for storing information. However, this does not mean that there is no need to “take care” of the disk, freeing it from garbage and duplicate files.

The presence of duplicate files clogs the disk with unnecessary records of information. When it's time to increase free space“littered” disks, significant time will be spent on detecting duplicates - after all, the volume of your hard drive is very large. Therefore, finding and deleting duplicate files must be done on time. Let's look at a number of applications that can search for such duplicate files.

Total Commander

The first application we will consider is the popular Total Commander. Its functionality is wide, it also provides a tool for searching for duplicate files located in different directories of your hard drive. The operation we need is available in the general search module.

The search module is called using hotkeys or by traditionally going to the main menu, where you will need to select the “Search files” function. A call via hot keys is made by simultaneously pressing the combination “Alt+F7”.

The search module offers a range of general and advanced function tabs. However, initially we will need to select the disk or directory in which we need to conduct discovery. This is done on the tab general parameters. Then, let's go to the "Advanced" tab.

In the search module, open “Disks” and select drive “D”.

Let's go to the "Advanced" tab.

At the bottom of the selected section there is a function for finding duplicate files. We only need to configure this function by checking the required boxes next to the desired options. For example, as shown in the image below. In our case, search actions occur on volume D.

Total Commander displays the found duplicates in a small window in which you can barely see anything.

By clicking the “Files to panel” button, we will display them in the main window. Now, you can freely remove them if you are sure that such an action will not cause unstable operation of programs and the entire system as a whole.

We get the result in the main window.

Looking for duplicate files in CCleaner

The recently updated CCleaner also provides a duplicate file search feature. This application is a well-known and popular garbage cleaner on PC, so the presence of such an option in it is absolutely natural. The “Search for duplicates” function can be easily found on the “Service” tab of the program.

CCleaner detects duplicate files using several parameters: name, size, date, content. It also offers a number of useful options that allow us to skip or add a number of special files to our operation: hidden, system, read-only, zero size. To launch the search module, just click the “Find” button.

After completing the operation, the user has the opportunity to select and delete detected duplicates.

Size Explorer Pro

This application - powerful tool exploration of disk volumes and connected disk devices. One of its functions is to search for duplicate files.

In order for SizeExplorer to begin detecting duplicates, it first needs to analyze the section where it needs to search.

The menu that opens will offer you a number of functions, including “Find duplicates.” Clicking this option will open a dialog with options for setting up the search module.

Let's define the detection functions.

Let's search for duplicate files using the size-name-content scheme. Detection will take some time, but after the process is complete, we will see a complete list of duplicates in a separate window. At the same time, the program gave us many duplicates of incomplete similarity, according to a certain percentage of similarity.

Search results for identical files:

This is how you can select duplicates:

Let's use Ainvo Duplicate File Finder

There is another program available on the Internet that is of interest for detecting duplicate files. This is Ainvo Duplicate File Finder. This application is easy to use, so even the least experienced can use it. advanced user computer technologies. To use the program, just click “Search for identical files”.

The application immediately begins a search, which lasts quite a long time, so you will have to be patient.

First, the disks are examined, then the application processes the found material, and only after that additional processing occurs, the result of which is the detection of duplicate files. To see the duplicates found, you will need to open the “Identical files” window.

As you can see, in the settings two sections are selected for the operation.

Master Ainvo has completed the operation - now we can open a window with links to duplicates.

As you can see, there are a lot of duplicates and the program immediately selects what it thinks are duplicate files.

There are 2137 duplicates selected that can be removed using the wizard. It is also possible to view a report on duplicates.

The report opens in a web browser.

Brief summary

The hard drive needs maintenance from time to time. One of the preventive procedures is to clean volumes of garbage, most of which are duplicated files. To detect duplicate files located in different directories, you can use special programs. Among the most worthy applications that can detect duplicate files are: Total Commander, CCleaner, SizeExplorer Pro, Ainvo Duplicate File Finder.

Very convenient function CCleaner application is a search for duplicate files. Very often, there are files on your computer that are identical in date, size and name. Of course, some of them are needed, and some may have been created accidentally or downloaded several times from the Internet. All these files eventually accumulate, the free space becomes less and less, and, as a result, the computer begins to slow down. Therefore, from time to time, you need to get rid of such files. If you are an advanced PC user, then it will not be difficult for you to find CCleaner duplicate files which to delete, but if you are new to this matter, then we will help you figure it out.

What files should not be deleted

Before we start searching for duplicates and deleting them, let's look at whether it is possible to delete duplicate files using Cyclener? To begin with, I would like to note that the program will not allow you to delete absolutely all copies of a file. One of them must remain untouched. Further, we do not recommend deleting system files. It is quite normal for them to have duplicates. Typically, system files are located on drive C in the Windows folder.

Files that can be deleted

Typically, a computer consists of several partitions (disks). The amount of information that is stored on each of them is most likely impressive. There are pictures, music, videos, photographs, and much more. Some of the duplicate files could have been duplicated by the user by mistake, for example, due to forgetfulness, the file was saved in different sections. Some files may have been downloaded from the Internet several times, etc. And when the program finds such files, you can safely delete them from your computer.

Find duplicates

In the " Service"there is a section" Search for duplicates».

In this section, at the user's discretion, you can set search criteria. You can search for duplicates by any one search parameter: by size, by date, by name and by content, or by several parameters at the same time, marking them with checkboxes.

You can also define the files that need to be skipped. There are several options here:

• Zero size files;
• Files that are read-only;
• Hidden files;
• System files;
• Files whose size does not exceed the megabyte size you specify;
• Files larger than the specified megabyte size.

In the " Inclusions» you can specify the places where the search will be carried out. To scan a specific folder, you must select " Add" The following window will appear

Click on the button " Review" and select the desired folder, indicating the path to it.

In the " Exceptions» you can specify those folders that should not be affected during the search.

You can add them similarly to the “ Inclusions" Click " Review" and select this folder.

After setting all search parameters, click on the button “ Find».

Duplicate search results

After searching, the results will be shown in table form.

It will indicate the file names, locations where they are located, their sizes and creation dates.

To remove duplicates, check the boxes next to them. If you right-click on any file, a context menu will appear.

Select all	Possibility to mark all found duplicates. All files will have only one copy - the bottom one.
Remove selection	The ability to uncheck all found duplicates if they are selected.
Select type / Remove from type	Ability to check (uncheck) all files of the same type.
Exclude/Limit/Select Duplicates	The ability to perform the selected action in relation to one of the folders in which the file is located.
Save report...	Ability to save the report in a text document.
Open folder	Allows you to open the folder in which this file is located.

After you have selected all the duplicates that you want to delete, click on the “ Delete».

After constantly using a computer, large amounts of data accumulate on its disks, i.e. all sorts of photographs, videos, films, music, documents, etc. This data takes up a lot of space. But very often duplicate files take up too much space.

In Windows, unfortunately, there are no normal built-in tools for finding duplicate files. There is an option to do this via command line PowerShell, but this is very inconvenient, especially for beginners it will be difficult. Therefore it is easier to use third party programs. One of these is called AllDup. It is completely free, available in Russian, supported by everyone operating systems Windows is finally quite easy to use.

Downloading and installing the AllDup program

The program can be downloaded for free from the official AllDup website. Below is the link to the download section:

The program is available in 2 versions: regular installation and portable (Portable). The portable version is different in that it does not require installation on a computer, i.e. the program can be launched directly from the downloaded folder.

To download, click the “Server #1”, or “Server #2” or “Server #3” button (if the first button does not download, backup servers are given) under the required version programs.

For the latest versions, always refer to the official AllDup website!

Installing the program is very simple, one might say it consists of successive clicks “Next”; no special settings need to be made. Therefore, this process will not be considered. See also How to disable or remove OneDrive in Windows 10 and.

Finding duplicates using AllDup

After installing the program, run it. The main window for search settings will open:

Setting up a search includes several steps:

Select folders on your drives where AllDup will look for duplicates.

Folders are selected in the "Source Folders" section. You can mark as integers local disks, and individual folders on your computer. Usually, users roughly guess where duplicates may be located, and in this case it is better to select specific folders, because a complete search across all disks, firstly, can take a lot of time (depending on the amount of data stored), and secondly, it will give you a bunch of duplicates of those files that are not of interest to you (for example, duplicates of any system Windows files, which are better not to touch at all).

So, select the desired folders/drives to search in the window by checking the boxes next to them. If the folder you need is not in the list, you can add it manually by right-clicking (hereinafter “RMB”) in the window and selecting “Add Folder”.



Explorer will open, where you just need to select the desired folder and it will be added to the list.

It is better to leave the remaining parameters as they are at this stage. See also Ways to hack your passwords and Limiting operating time in Windows 10.

Method for finding duplicates.

This is an important step where you configure what criteria AllDup will use to determine the presence of duplicates. You can set several criteria at once. The thing is that similar files cannot always be considered duplicates. For example, you have 2 identical photographs, but one of them has a small black dot, even if it is 1 pixel in size. In this case, it is a different photograph because its content is different. On the other hand, these 2 photos may have the same file name, the same file extension, and when you select the last 3 criteria, the program will regard these photos as the same when searching.

• File name;

  File extension;

  File size;

  File contents.

With this choice, you will certainly accurately find duplicate files.

Thus, mark the criteria and you don’t have to configure anything else at this stage.



File filtering.

You can configure the program so that during the search it finds only files with the extensions you need, for example, only JPG photos, only MP4 videos. This is very convenient when you know which duplicates you want to get rid of first (for example, from a video, because it can take up a lot of space) and then you don’t want to rummage through all the files in the search results, of which there can be thousands. Or you can filter files by size, for example, find only those larger than 1 GB.

Thus, on the “File Filter” tab, enable the “Use file filter” option (1), check “Inclusive” (2), and then below (3) select the file extensions that the program will find. Files with any other extensions will not appear in search results.



Most likely, the list of extensions will not contain all the ones you may need. To add an extension there, right-click and select “Add filter by entering text.”



In the window that opens (1), enter *.file_extension, where instead of “file_extension”, respectively, indicate the file extension you need so that the program finds these files in the search.



For example, if you want the program to find videos in AVI format, write *.avi and click “OK” (2). The "*" symbol means that the file names can be anything.

At the same stage, you can configure filtering of files as a result of a search by their size, for example, to filter out those that are smaller than the size you specify. Enter the options you want below, under the "File Size" heading. In my example, the option is enabled to exclude files whose size is less than 500 KB. You will also be interested in the Tool for recording user actions when problems occur and Computers and laptops on Windows 10 do not start. How to fix it? .

These are all the main stages of setting up a search; the rest can be omitted.

Now, to start searching for duplicates, click the “Search” button at the top of the AllDup window:

The search process will begin.

How more files in the folders you specified is located on your disks, the longer the search will take.

After the search is completed, the program will display the found files with duplicates in the form of a table.

The first thing that is better to do right away is to save the search results, because if you close this window with the results now, then you will have to perform the search again. To save, click the button with the image of a floppy disk, or select top menu“Search Result” and click “Save Search Result”.

Now, even if you turn off your computer, and then launch the program again, you will be able to get to the search results again.

You can sort the search results by different parameters by clicking on the column headings in the table. The most useful sorting criterion, in my opinion, is file size. Therefore, if you want the largest files found to be displayed at the top of the table, then click on the “Size (Bytes)” column.

The next thing that is better to configure for ease of viewing the results is the displayed size. Initially, the program shows the file size in bytes, which is not very convenient. It is better to display in megabytes or even gigabytes. To do this, click the button marked in the screenshot below (1), then check one of the options (2):

Now I’ll dwell on how to actually use the search results, how to view and remove unnecessary duplicates...

The program divides the found duplicates into so-called groups. One group is all found copies of the same file, including the original (it will also be displayed in this group).

To view duplicates of one of the groups, you need to open it by clicking on the arrow. Example:

Once you have expanded a specific group, you can check what kind of file it is by opening it. To do this, simply double-click on the file in the group, or right-click and select “Open file”. The file will be opened in standard program Windows, through which you usually open all files of the selected type.

To delete duplicates, check them, right-click and select one of the options: delete file in Windows Recycle Bin, or permanent deletion.

Accordingly, do not delete all files from the group, because this way you will delete both duplicates and the original at once! For example, if there are 3 files in a group, then by deleting 3 at once, you will delete both the original and 2 duplicates. In this case, to keep only one single copy of the file, you need to remove 2 files from the group.

This way you can check each group separately and remove duplicates. But if a lot of information has been found, it can be done simpler. Make sure that the program automatically selects all files in each group except one (i.e., only duplicates), after which you can get rid of all duplicates at once, or before that, go through and double-check whether everything marked is exactly to be deleted.

To automatically mark duplicates, go to the “Select” menu (1) and check and enable one of the options there (2), for example, “Select all files except the first file.”

As a result, the program will select 2 duplicates in each group, and leave the first file in the list unselected. Those. this way you will mark 2 duplicates, and the original will remain unmarked. Or you can use the “Select” menu to try other options that are convenient for you.

Once the program has marked the files, you can double-check your selection if required. And to quickly delete everything unnecessary or perform some other action, click the button marked in the screenshot below:

In the window that opens, you will see the total volume of the selected files, i.e. how much space the found duplicates take up and the number of selected files. At the bottom you need to select an action on the selected files. You can delete files through the recycle bin, delete them permanently (the “Delete files” item), copy or move files to a folder, and also rename the found duplicates. If you are sure that the marked files are duplicates and you no longer need them, then it is easier to delete them, but in any case, the choice is yours.

So choose required action(1) and click OK (2). You don't have to configure anything else here.

After this, the program will perform the action you selected on the previously marked files!

That's basically the whole process :) To exit the search results, just close this window. If you have saved your search results, then if you need this result again, you can get to it through the “Search Result” section (1) in the main program window. The results you saved will be displayed in the table (2). To open the desired result, simply double-click on it.

Conclusion

AllDup - very convenient program to find duplicates of your files on your computer. There is essentially nothing superfluous in the program; it has all the necessary tools, filters and parameters for quickly processing a large volume of found duplicates. Of course, there are similar programs that probably also do their job well. So far I have only tried AllDup and I don’t see any point in changing it yet.

Carrying out effective general cleaning of the computer disk space, along with the use of programs for automatic cleaning Windows still requires manual removal work unnecessary files and duplicate files. Designed to track unnecessary files special programs– disk space analyzers, they help filter the contents of computer disks according to certain criteria (in particular, weight) so that the user can decide whether to delete files or leave them. To find duplicate files there is also special software– either in the form of separate programs or small utilities, or as part of comprehensive software for cleaning and Windows optimization. Below we will look at five programs for finding duplicate files. Completely included in the top five free programs with Russian language support.

When searching for duplicate files on the system drive C, it is better to indicate not the entire partition, but only individual folders where user files are stored. Duplicates found in workers Windows folders, cannot be deleted. If you find some heavy folders or files with unfamiliar names on your C drive, it is recommended that you get help about them on the Internet.

1.AllDup

AllDup is equipped with many different options for fine tuning search for duplicate files. Customizable options include choosing a comparison method, search criteria, priority for checking duplicates, using exclusion filters, including the contents of archived files, etc. It is even possible to change design themes and individual interface settings. The program is good, however, with a somewhat ill-thought-out interface. On its toolbar, all the tabs - even basic operations, even additional functions– are listed as equivalent. And to help the user who launched AllDup for the first time master the specifics of the program, its creators equipped the interface with a floating widget in the form of a short guide, which step should be taken. In the “Source Folders” tab, you specify the search area - disk partitions, connected devices, or individual user folders on the system drive C.

Next, in the “Search Method” tab, set the search criteria. Here you can specify the search for duplicates and add extension, size, content, etc. to the preset search criteria for file names.

Duplicate search results can be sorted by size, path, file modification date, etc. Detected files can be deleted, their location can be opened in Windows Explorer, apply other actions provided for by the program.

To return to analyzing AllDup's duplicate search results at a later time without waiting for the scan to complete, the current results can be saved to a program file format or exported to TXT and CSV files.

AllDup has portable version, which does not require installation into the system.

2. Duplicate Cleaner

Another functional program for a highly customizable search for duplicate files is Duplicate Cleaner. The Duplicate Cleaner program exists in two editions - in paid Pro And free. Although the latter is limited by the unavailability of some functions, its capabilities will be sufficient to effectively search for duplicates. Duplicate Cleaner Free allows you to set search criteria by file name, content, size, and creation date. Additional search criteria are provided for audio file data, as well as filtering by content types and file extensions. All these points are configured in the first tab of the program “Search Criteria”.

In the second tab of the program – “Scan path” – the search area is selected.

In the search results window, duplicates can be sorted, deleted, their location can be opened in Explorer, and other program options can be applied to them.

Duplicate Cleaner search results can be exported to a CSV tabular data format file. Data export is carried out both for the entire list of duplicates and for only files marked by the user. Duplicate Cleaner's advantages include a user-friendly interface and well-thought-out organization.

3. DupeGuru

DupeGuru is the simplest duplicate file search engine for those who do not have the time or desire to master all the intricacies of functional, highly specialized programs such as those discussed above. At the bottom of the small program window, a search area is selected and scanning starts.

Duplicate search results can be sorted by location path and file size. Context menu DupeGuru search results contain only the operations necessary to work with found duplicates.

Search results are saved to a program file or exported to HTML.

DupeGuru is a cross-platform program, but only its older versions are adapted for Windows. The program installer for Windows 7 offered on the official website is also suitable for system versions 8.1 and 10.

4. CCleaner

At one of the stages of its improvement, the most popular cleaner for Windows CCleaner Got a duplicate file search function. You can use this function in the “Service” section. To search for duplicates, search criteria are available by name, creation date, file contents, and file size.

Like the previous reviewer, CCleaner program in the duplicate search results environment it is not particularly rich in functionality, but basic operations are present. This, in particular, sorts search results and deletes files.

5. Glary Utilities 5

A comprehensive program for cleaning and optimizing Windows Glary Utilities 5 includes a utility for finding duplicate files. The same utility, if desired, can be downloaded separately from the official website of the program if the full power of the software package is not required.

The duplicate finder included in Glary Utilities 5 is simple, but convenient and customizable. You can start scanning duplicates immediately by selecting only the search area - disk partitions, removable devices or individual folders. You can further refine your search by clicking the “Options” button.

The options configure the criteria for searching for duplicates - by name, by size, by time of file creation. In some cases of thorough cleaning of disk space, you can change the preset selection of searching only among common file types to scanning all types.

The search results provide only the necessary operations for working with duplicates, in particular, deleting and opening the placement path in Windows Explorer.

For the convenience of the user, Glary Utilities 5 catalogs found duplicates by content type - documents, pictures, videos, programs, etc. For each type, the total weight of found files is displayed.