In another article, we had described several ways to save space on the hard disk of a Windows computer, especially if it does not have too much space and is not too large. When the space on the computer's hard disk is about to run out, in general, all these methods, described in the previous article, are put into practice to eliminate and delete obsolete and duplicate files with automatic tools. On a certain type of file, such as mp3 music files or photo image files, this automatic control has no effect because these programs, such as CCleaner, cannot recognize if two files contain the same information but have a name different.
There are other programs that manage to compare the files with each other, finding the duplicate ones . I specify that two identical files, with the same format and with the same name, on Windows cannot be in the same folder while they can be present on different folders. Windows does not consider files that have the same name and the same content to be the same but have different formats such as the image files foo.jpg and foo.bmp.
READ ALSO: Find and delete double photos and duplicate images .
1) The DoubleKiller software searches for all duplicates and copies of all types of files using any combination of name, size, modification date and data contained. The results are displayed at the end of the scan and here you can manually or automatically select the files to be deleted. Results can also be exported as tab-delimited text which can be imported into a spreadsheet. The standalone program looks like a free version but there is also a more sophisticated paid version. Warning: deleting duplicate files can be risky and not recommended when there are system files and files in the Windows folder. DoubleKiller should never involve these files in its research, but I recommend paying the same attention.
2) DupeKill is a free application to search for duplicate files on your PC. You can then start a search within a folder and scan to find all identical files and duplicates. The program will scan the selected folder and check for duplicates in the detected files. The scan status is displayed in a small box under the "Search" bar. When the scan is complete, the results are displayed in a list with all the file properties including size, name and path, creation date, modification date. At that point you can choose whether to keep or delete the duplicate or create a link to the original file.
There is also the possibility of doing an advanced scan, with more precise criteria in order to include and exclude folders and create exceptions.
3) The second best program for finding duplicate files is Duplicate Cleaner .
Duplicate Cleaner identifies each individual duplicate file and returns a list with a list of files. You can add multiple folders to check together. You can also search only image files or audio files to find music present twice on the computer. The verification is not only in the file name but also in the size, in the creation and modification date and in the internal analysis of the " MD5 Hash Algorithm ". The software comes with its own file preview utility, so you can also view the images directly within Duplicate Cleaner to check if they are truly duplicates or not. The nice thing is that all the duplicates found can be removed, moved to another folder or, you can create a hard link so that the duplicate is deleted, while remaining its icon where it was before. Clicking on it opens the original image so you won't have to revolutionize albums and folders.
4) Find Equal Files is another duplicate file finder program with some extra functionality.
You can search for wildcard files *. * Or include only image types, for example * jpg or audio files, for example * mp3 in the search. Duplicates are automatically grouped in the lower pane of the interface. You will then have to check each duplicate one by one to choose what to do with it. the nice thing is that you can delete a duplicate, but create a symbolic link in its place so that Windows doesn't notice the deletion. In this way, space is gained, without risking any malfunction of the programs.
5) The third possibility to find duplicates on the disk is Auslogic Dupicate Find Finder which has different criteria for identifying duplicates of images, texts, documents, music, videos, zip and rar archives and much more.
6) Another excellent program to find duplicate files on your pc is called CloneSpy .
7) Dup Scout scans the computer and finds all the duplicate files on the disk, dividing them by categories and types.
8) AllDup is a program with eight different search options that can be combined with each other to find all duplicate files on the PC. It is possible to search by name and extension, by size, content (byte by byte), author, date of modification of the file and date of creation or link. If you select the search by file content, you can choose to ignore the ID3 and exif data. In the search options you can also enable the scanning of the contents of ZIP and RAR files and to exclude files that are larger or smaller than a certain defined size. Filters allow you to exclude files and folders from scanning.
8) dupeGuru is one of the best programs to find duplicate files with rules, filters, empty folder removal capabilities and intelligent search for music and images. Of all the proven duplicate finders, dupeFinder is the simplest, as well as the best.
9) To compare folders and check the files inside them you can also use DiffDir which allows you to check the files in two folders to find similarities and duplicates.
10) Duplicate File Eraser is a free software that allows you to search within folders and sub-directories, including hidden files and system files to find duplicate files, using file comparison algorithms.
The WinMerge program allows you to compare two versions of a text document, including Word, by placing them side by side on the screen and automatically applying different colors to the various sections to highlight the differences. You can drag paragraphs from one document to another, mix them and use automated filters.
TextDiff is a portable program that shows the differences between two text files, coloring them to highlight them. Very useful for making comparisons on the fly and quickly.
In another article it is written how to find duplicates between mp3 music on the computer and in iTunes .
