

Here’s a selection of 10 free utilities that can help you search for and identify these duplicate files and help reclaim some of your hard drive space.Īs with any tool that allows you to delete files from the system, a degree of care is needed because removing files that belong to Windows or software could cause Windows or the application/game to become unusable. Simply searching for a certain file name usually isn’t enough on its own which is why many tools employ advanced methods to try and find identical files, even though they may not look the same on the face of it. The rest are now taking up extra space and making organization more complicated. This means there are now multiple copies of the files on the drive where a single copy would be enough. It’s easily done that you can copy several files onto your drive and either give them different names that help recognize them easier or forget they are there and then copy them over again into a different folder. Another type of data you probably don’t really want is duplicate files. These can come in various forms such as junk files, temporary files, or even those which you just don’t need anymore. Duplicate Images Finder is open source.Even though the size of hard drives these days stretches well into the Terabytes, it still doesn’t take long to start filling them up with all kinds of files which don’t necessarily belong or need to be there. This is an excellent tool for someone who takes a ton of pictures and wants to easily find the best ones to keep or print. But the comparisons are much more difficult than those performed by the other apps on this list.

Now be prepared –the matching can take quite some time. Figure D dupeGuru Music Edition 5: Duplicate Images Finderĭuplicate Images Finder ( Figure E) is a special-purpose application that compares image files and detects duplicates based on image similarity.

It also follows a “fairware” pricing model: You can see how many hours the developers put into the application and how many have been paid for by donations and then make a donation yourself. dupeGuru runs on Windows, OS X, and Linux. Using a smart filename comparison algorithm, dupeGuru Music Edition finds duplicates even when the files have different names. It adds the music functionality on top of a robust duplicate finding application. Figure C Easy Duplicate Finder 4: dupeGuru Music Editionĭespite its name, dupeGuru Music Edition ( Figure D) is not just for comparing music files.
OPEN SOURCE DUPLICATE FILE CLEANER INSTALL
Easy Duplicate Finder is free with a restricted license (which can be upgraded), but it will look to add browser toolbars when you install it. And it can hook into Outlook to detect duplicate emails, which can be a useful function for some. But it also includes some advanced duplicate detection options, like MP3 tag and JPEG EXIF comparison. Figure B DoubleKiller 3: Easy Duplicate FinderĮasy Duplicate Finder ( Figure C) lives up to its name, being easy to use indeed. The paid version is substantially more useful than the free version. It’s available as both a free version and a paid version. One neat feature is the ability to compare a small number of “fresh” files against a collection of “known” files, which could be a considerable help in a team or collaborative environment. Figure A WinMerge 2: DoubleKillerĭoubleKiller ( Figure B) offers powerful comparison features, including hash comparison and filtering of which files to include in the comparison. And because you can run it directly from the executable file, it’s useful on a desktop support tech’s USB drive. The tool can perform some advanced folder comparison, which is a great feature for developers and system administrators. The upcoming version 3 will work on both Windows and Linux platforms. WinMerge ( Figure A) is an open source package for Windows that can find duplicate files and perform merge and comparison of various text file types. Note: This list is also available as a photo gallery. Although manually tracking down dupes is hardly practical, a number of specialized tools can handle the task. If your system has gotten gunked up with duplicate files, clean up the mess with one of the handy tools on this list.ĭuplicate files and folders can clutter up a user’s computer, and they can wreak havoc on collaborative work. Five tools for getting rid of duplicate files
