A simple program to find duplicate files. Programs for finding duplicate files (or how to find identical pictures, photos, documents, audio and video in different folders)

Good day!

I think that many users have dozens (or even hundreds) of gigabytes of pictures, wallpapers, videos, music, and other files on their disks. And I should note that in different catalogs (in wallpaper collections, for example) there may be quite a lot of copies (duplicates). Often, after removing them, it is possible to free up several gigabytes of space on the HDD!

There are special programs and utilities to search for duplicates. They are ways to scan your hard drive(s) in a relatively short time and present you with everything that is the same. Then, as a rule, all you have to do is tick off what to delete - and voila, the place is cleared!

In this article I will give several such “cleaners” that will help you free up space on your hard drive. So...

Addition!

Universal (search for any files)

Universal programs for finding duplicates are suitable for working with any files: documents, photographs, videos, etc. As a rule, their work is based on searching for files of the same size and checksum. Those. these programs look for exact copies that match 100%!

Thanks to this, their work speed is quite high. However, they cannot find, for example, almost identical pictures that are saved in different formats and with excellent resolution. To do this you need to use special. The software I recommend below...

CCleaner

One of the most famous PC cleaning utilities. However, not many users know that it has a duplicate search function (and a very good function!).

To open this option: you must download the latest version of the program, in the menu "Service" choose "Search for duplicates" , specify settings and click the button "Find" .

I note that the search is quite fast, you can filter files by their size and name date. You can also manually specify specific drives (folders) to search. In general, quite convenient!

Glary Utilities (Glary Duplicate Cleaner)

Glary Utilities is an excellent set of utilities for all occasions. Contains all the most necessary tools for cleaning, maintaining and optimizing Windows. I have already recommended this complex several times on the pages of my blog...

In its arsenal of built-in software there is one small utility Glary Duplicate Cleaner. It allows you to quickly find duplicates of a wide variety of file formats: TXT, RAR, ZIP, MP3, WAV, AVI, JPG, BMP, etc. (in general, all the most popular ones are definitely there, see the screenshot below).

Setting Scan Settings / Glary Duplicate Cleaner

There is also a small filter with search criteria: by name, size, time. There is an option to skip files of a certain size (for example, you can skip files that weigh less than 100 KB).

I note that the package Glary Utilities is free and fully translated into Russian. In general, rating 5 on a 5-point scale!

AllDup

This is a small free utility that can very quickly scan all your drives and remove all duplicate files. The developers note that their search algorithm is 10-30% faster than other similar products.

Personally, I haven’t checked the speed, but I would note the following: the utility works on all Windows 2000, XP, 7, 8, 10 operating systems (this is a certain advantage!).

After the search, the AllDup utility will present you with the results: you can familiarize yourself with each duplicate and delete it directly from the program interface. Comfortable!

Duplicate File Finder

A free tool for cleaning disks of duplicate files. The program compares files on the specified disk (directory) byte by byte. There are standard filters: file extension, file name, creation date, and size.

You can either view the search result (an example is shown in the screenshot above) in the program itself (and make a decision) or export it to HTML, CSV and TXT files. By the way, I would note that the program has a fairly convenient viewer that allows you to view a picture, text, video.

Total Commander

This famous Commander (a good Explorer replacement) also has a file search function. To open it, click on the “magnifying glass” icon in the top menu of the program (see screenshot above).

Of course, there are not many opportunities here, but nevertheless...

To search for photos, pictures, graphics

These programs can search not only by the size (checksum) of the file, but also by the contents of the picture. For example, you have several identical desktop wallpapers located in two different folders (but these pictures have different sizes and resolutions).

So, the programs given above would not have found these duplicates, because... they “cannot” appreciate what is shown in the pictures. In this case, you need to use special. tools (more about them below)...

Image Comparer

This is a very small utility that specializes in searching for similar images. I note that she compares not just the size, but what is shown in the picture (see screenshot above). All popular image and photo formats are supported: RAW, JPEG, J2K, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF, TGA, etc.

After the search, you will be presented with a list of duplicates: after going through it, you can view all copies and delete those that you do not need. What’s interesting: the program shows you the percentage of similarity of certain pictures (the difference between them stands out as squares when viewed).

Of the minuses: if you specify a large disk (several terabytes), the program will take a very long time to scan. I recommend that you go through the pictures using rougher tools before using it. (for example, CCleaner, AllDup, etc., see above).

DupeGuru Picture Edition

A very simple utility that is designed to quickly search for identical pictures. I note that similar pictures will be found even if they have different formats (for example, JPG and Tiff as in the screenshot above).

Among the advantages of the utility:

• visual comparison of pictures;
• the program is completely free;
• simple interface, designed in a minimalist style;
• Russian language support;
• ability to export search results;
• support for all the most popular versions of Windows XP, 7, 8, 10.

ImageDupeless

Program ImageDupeless allows you to find duplicate pictures, regardless of file size, format, resolution, etc. characteristics (it will “look” at all the pictures for you and find similar ones).

The program also has a very interesting function for burning images to CDs (creating a kind of CD galleries).

Note: to save time, compare newly received pictures with an existing gallery (this way you will save a lot of time, because a complete scan of all the pictures on the disk is much longer than searching in the created gallery).

Comparison result: please note that the resolution and size of the pictures are different!

Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder

The program uses advanced algorithms to compare graphic images found in pictures and photographs. Thanks to this, it is possible to find similar and identical images, even if they have different formats (GIF, PNG, JPG, etc.) and resolution.

I note that the user has the option to specify a similarity feature (that is, you can set, say, to find only those pictures that are 95% similar to each other).

After conducting a search: you will be able to view all found duplicates and manually delete all unnecessary ones. By the way, the program places 2 identical images next to each other (see example above) so that you can clearly see the difference. Very convenient!

To search audio and video files

Audio Comparer (Electronic Ear)

Audio Comparer - the program will listen to almost 300 tracks in 10 minutes.

Audio Comparer is not as simple an application for finding duplicates among music files (MP3, MP2, MP1, WMA, AIF, WAV, WavPack, FLAC, APE, AAC and OGG) as it might seem at first glance... It " listens to music and compares tracks with each other using a special algorithm: the comparison is made by audio track, and not by size or file name (as is done in many other analogues).

Thanks to this, identical tracks can be found even if they are saved in different formats. Audio Comparer is a kind of electronic ear that can listen to all your music very quickly.

I note that there are quite a few such programs, so each deserves special attention! I recommend you to get acquainted!

DupeGuru Music Edition

A very interesting program dupeGuru Music Edition for searching for identical and similar music tracks. There are filters for searching: by bitrate, information in tags, duration, size, etc.

All the most popular formats are supported: MP3, WMA, AAC, WMA, OGG, FLAC. After the search, the found duplicates can either be deleted or moved to other directories.

I would also note the presence of the Russian language and support for modern OS Windows 7, 8, 10 (including 64 bits).

Music Duplicate Remover

Music Duplicate Remover - a utility that allows you to easily and quickly find copies of audio files located in different folders (disks) and saved in different formats. Thanks to its electronic ear technology, it can listen to all your songs on the disc, analyze them and provide you with a report with all similar tracks (an example of such a report is shown in the screenshot above).

I note that the utility works great with standard presets (that is, after downloading and launching it, there is no need to delve into the settings for a long time, you can immediately start scanning).

Note! Music Duplicate Remover supports the following audio formats: MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, APE, WAV.

Duplicate Video Search

Quite a powerful program for deleting identical videos saved in different folders (suitable for those who have a lot of different videos, music videos, top 100 collections, etc.). It will help you “go through” your collection of files and remove all duplicates.

I note that the program uses a unique “cast” technology (i.e., a kind of “electronic eye”), which allows you to find similar videos, even if they are saved in a different format, they have a different resolution and they are compressed with a different codec.

Peculiarities:

1. The following video formats are supported: AVI, MKV, 3GP, MPG, SWF, MP4, WMV, WTV and FLV (see screenshot above);
2. search for full copies of videos and similar ones (where excellent resolution, bitrate, format, codec);
3. the program automatically selects the video with the worst quality among all takes (however, you can manually specify which copy to delete);
4. convenient and visual presentation of search results: thumbnails for each video and the path to the directory where it is stored;
5. You can either view the video or delete it directly from the program window.

Video Comparer

Video Comparer - a program designed to search and compare videos on your hard drive. In a relatively short period of time, she can view all your videos and show you in a convenient table all the files that repeat each other (complete takes, similar videos, videos with the same content but different quality, etc.).

I note that the program has various filters that will allow, for example, to search for videos only of a certain format (or set the duration of the video).

Peculiarities:

1. supports formats: 3GP, AVI, ASF, ASX, WMV, VOB, XVID, MP4, MPEG;
2. the ability to search among hidden files;
3. the ability to automatically select similar videos for deletion;
4. video filters by duration, quality and extension;
5. convenient presentation of search results: previews for each video; size; the folder where it is located; Name; similarity percentage.
6. the ability to backup to a separate folder;
7. logging;
8. support for almost all popular Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 (32/64 bits).

Additions, as always, are welcome.

Good luck!

Hello Dear Friend.

When working with files and documents, we often make backup copies of important data. In one folder in another in a third... And then we even forget how many copies of this or that file we made and where on the disk they are stored.

As a result, free disk space is eaten up by unnecessary copies of files and folders. How can you find duplicate files on all your drives and delete them?

Everything is very simple, we will use a small free utility with support for the Russian language - Soft4Boost Dup File Finder.

You can download the program here:

After installing the program, the main window will open:

If we check the box next to “Ignore file names”, then the search will not use matching file names, the search will be based on the internal contents of the file. This is very important, because identical files can have different names. Fortunately, all the tips in the program are in Russian.

Just below you can select the type of files to search for duplicates.

Select the required drives or individual folders (by clicking on the plus signs). Then you need to click on the folder image with the right arrow to add the desired list of folders for scanning by the program.

In this window, select the method for deleting files. The first option is added to the trash can with the option of recovery. Please remember that the basket size is limited. To increase the size of the recycle bin, go to the properties of the recycle bin icon on the desktop and set the size in megabytes.

You can also choose the permanent option, but I recommend deleting to trash first. If something goes wrong, you can always restore the file.

Click the “Search” button.

After the scanning is completed, a window with duplicate files found will open in front of you.

Select the checkboxes of the files that you want to delete and click on the button at the top of the “Fix problems” window; the selected duplicates will be deleted.

In this simple way you can get rid of numerous duplicate files on your disks.

Among the disadvantages of the program, I would note the inability to view found files by double-clicking the mouse. It would be very convenient to immediately view the file and remember what kind of file it is.

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After a long, constant use of a computer, large amounts of data, i.e., all sorts of photographs, videos, films, music, documents, etc., accumulate on its disks, whatever one may say. When data takes up a lot of space, this is normal, for example, I myself have more than 600 GB of necessary data, and for others it’s even more. But very often duplicate files take up too much space.

Such files can appear when, for example, you transfer them from somewhere to a new location on the disk, forgetting that you already have such files on this disk. And it’s okay if there are a lot of duplicates of all kinds of documents, but when there are a lot of duplicate photos, music and especially videos, then this, as a rule, will take up a lot of your disk space. I recently checked and found that duplicates are eating up about 100 GB. on the hard drive, which, in my opinion, is quite a lot :)

In this article, I will show you an easy way to find all duplicate files in Windows on your drives, so you can easily check them and quickly delete everything you don't need.

In Windows, unfortunately, there are no normal built-in tools for finding duplicate files. There is an option to do this via the PowerShell command line, but this is very inconvenient, especially for beginners. Therefore, it is easier to use third-party programs. One of these is called AllDup. It is completely free, available in Russian, supported by all Windows operating systems and, 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 two 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 download button does not occur, backup servers are provided) under the desired version of the program.

Direct links to download the latest version (March 2017) of AllDup: standard version, portable version. 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, I will not consider this process.

Learn more about the nuances of installing programs for Windows

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:

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.

The more files in the folders you specify are 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 now close this window with the results, then you will have to perform the search again. To save, click the button with the image of a floppy disk, or select “Search result” in the top menu 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 best to configure for ease of viewing 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 through a standard Windows program, through which you usually open all files of the selected type.

To delete duplicates, check them, right-click and select one of the options: deleting the file to the Windows Recycle Bin or permanently deleting it.

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 a 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. That is, in 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, select the desired 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 the whole process :) To exit the search results, simply 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 is a very convenient program for finding duplicates of your files on your computer. In fact, there is 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 your computer's disk space, along with using automatic Windows cleaning programs, also requires manual work to remove unnecessary files and duplicate files. To track unnecessary files, special programs are designed - disk space analyzers; they help filter the contents of computer disks according to certain criteria (in particular, by weight) so that the user can decide whether to delete files or leave them. There is also special software to search for duplicate files - either in the form of separate programs or small utilities, or as part of comprehensive software for cleaning and optimizing Windows. Below we will look at five programs for finding duplicate files. The top five included completely free programs with support for the Russian language.

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 Windows working 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 the 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 tabs - be it basic operations or 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, and other actions provided by the program can be applied.

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.

The AllDup program has a portable version that does not require installation on 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 - paid Pro and free 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. The context menu of DupeGuru search results contains 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, received a function to search for duplicate files. 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 participant in the review, the CCleaner program in the duplicate search results environment is not particularly rich in functionality, but the 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.