Home » Amount in excel » A program for deleting identical files on a computer. A program to search for identical files and folders on a computer. How to remove duplicate photos

A program for deleting identical files on a computer. A program to search for identical files and folders on a computer. How to remove duplicate photos

A program for finding duplicate files is most often needed by users who store a large amount of music, photos and documents on disk.

And, although you can delete such unnecessary copies manually, specialized applications can save a lot of time.

Especially if the files are located in different folders or hidden directories. You can search for such duplicates using the universal software or designed for a specific data type.

In the first case, the search speed increases, in the second, the probability of finding all copies increases.

Universal Applications

Universal applications for finding copies mainly work on the principle of comparing file sizes. And, since the probability of the same number of bytes in different photos is practically zero, identical values are considered a sign of a duplicate.

Sometimes the algorithm provides for checking names - also an important parameter for the search, especially since the same data in most cases also matches by name.

The advantages of the programs are the ability to find files of any type with their help and the relatively high speed of operation. Disadvantage: lower detection accuracy. For example, none of these utilities will consider the same photo saved at different resolutions to be a duplicate.

1. DupKiller

The application, which allows you to search for files with almost any extension, can be downloaded for free on the official website of its manufacturer.

Among the differences of the program are the interface in Russian, fast operation and a large number of settings.

With DupKiller, you can compare files by size, date, and content (the latter feature is only supported for certain types).

Rice. 1. DupKiller program window.

2. Duplicate Finder

The Duplicate Finder application allows you not only to search for duplicate files from different extensions, but also to sort them.

For user convenience, the utility settings allow you to search both by size and by checksums, and by name.

In addition, it can be used to remove empty folders and "zero" files. And among the shortcomings we can only mention the lack of support for the Russian language.

Rice. 2. The result of the Duplicate Finder application.

3. Glary Utilities

The program is not one utility, but several at once - for fixing the registry, for cleaning up the disk, and even for managing security.

One of the applications in the set allows you to search for duplicate files. Among the advantages of the utility is the Russian interface.

The disadvantages include a certain slowdown of the computer when using the application.

Rice. 3. Duplicate search utility included in the Glary Utilities package.

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4. CCleaner

The main task of the multifunctional CCleaner programs is to clean the computer’s hard drive (as well as tablets and smartphones, since the application also has versions for Android). And among its advantages we can note:

ease of setup;
setting multiple search criteria;
the ability to ignore some files (with a certain size or creation date, as well as system or hidden ones).

Important: If files with a size of zero are found, they do not have to be deleted. Sometimes this may be information created on another operating system (for example, Linux).

Rice. 4. CCleaner system optimization program can also search for duplicate files.

5.AllDup

Among the advantages of another program, AllDup, we can note support for any modern Windows operating system - from XP to 10. At the same time, the search is also carried out inside hidden folders, and even in the archives.

Although the comparison of information by default occurs by file names, so it is advisable to change the settings immediately. But during the search process, each duplicate found can be viewed without closing the application.

And if a copy is found, you can not only delete it, but also rename it or move it to another location. Additional advantages of the application include a Russian-language menu and completely free work for any period of time.

In addition, the manufacturer also produces a portable version in order to search for copies on those computers on which the installation of third-party software is prohibited (for example, on a work PC).

Rice. 5. Search for files using the portable version of AllDup.

6. DupeGuru

One more useful application DupeGuru searches for duplicates with any extension. Its only drawback is the lack of new versions for Windows (although updates for Linux and MacOS appear regularly).

However, even the relatively outdated utility for Windows 7 copes well with its tasks when working in newer operating systems. With its help, even system files are easily detected, and the menu is intuitive and in Russian.

Rice. 6. Detecting copies using the DupeGuru utility.

It is noteworthy that, in addition to the usual universal option, the manufacturing company has created a utility for searching for files of a certain type. There is a separate version for images and another for music.

And, if necessary, clean your computer not only of documents and system files(which, by the way, need to be deleted very carefully - sometimes it’s even worth leaving an “extra” copy, rather than disrupting the system’s performance), it’s worth downloading these applications as well.

7. Duplicate Cleaner Free

Duplicate Cleaner Free, a utility for detecting copies of any file, has the following features:

filtering data by extension;
Russian interface language;
opportunity free use;
high speed work.

Its disadvantages include minor limitations when searching for images (for this it is recommended to purchase paid version) and not entirely accurate translation individual elements menu with English language. However, due to its effectiveness and ease of use, the application enjoys some popularity.

Rice. 7. Find duplicates using the Duplicate Cleaner Free utility.

Finding duplicate audio files

If the search results for duplicates are not satisfactory for the user, you can consider an option designed for specific files. For example, for music accumulated on a disk.

This need often arises when downloading several albums and collections of the same artist at once - often the same tracks end up in different folders.

They can have similar sizes and differ, by and large, only in names. Especially for this, there are utilities for searching for similar melodies.

8.Music Duplicate Remover

Among the features of the Music Duplicate Remover program are relatively fast search and good efficiency. In fact, this application “listens” to the composition and compares it with other audio files.

At the same time, naturally, its operating time is longer than that of universal utilities. However, the amount of data checked by the program is usually tens of times less, so the average duration of the scan rarely exceeds a couple of hours.

Rice. 8. Detection of copies of music and audio files by album.

9.Audio Comparer

Among the advantages Audio utilities Comparer – a very simple menu and quick search for copies of music. So, among several thousand audio files, she finds copies and duplicates (of course, if available) in just 1–2 hours.

In this case, neither the size of the track nor its bitrate matters for detection (bit rate, that is, sound quality, a change in which leads to a different amount of data for the same duration of the melody).

Rice. 9. Find duplicates using Audio Comparer.

10. DupeGuru Music Edition

The application is one of the additional versions free utility DupeGuru. Its operating speed is lower than that of the universal version, but the probability of detecting a duplicate audio file is several times higher.

The principles of operation and interface are almost completely the same basic program, and one of the main advantages is that Music Edition considers the music with the best bitrate as “originals”. This means that removing duplicates will not lead to the loss of more quality audio files.

Rice. 10. DupeGuru version for finding duplicate music.

Finding copies of photos and other images

Just as often, the user may need to remove duplicate images. Especially if there are several collections of personal photographs on your hard drive, sorted by date or location of shooting.

With the help of special software, unnecessary photos and pictures will be detected and destroyed, and there will be more space on the HDD (SDD, flash drive or other drive).

11. DupeGuru Picture Edition

The application for finding identical pictures is another version of the DupeGuru utility, which can also be (and even desirable) downloaded even if there is a universal version. At the same time, photo analysis also takes longer compared to searching for files of any extension, but the result is worth it.

Images are detected even when there are several duplicates of the same image on the disk, but with different resolutions and, accordingly, sizes. In addition, to increase efficiency, files with any graphic extensions are checked – from .jpg to .png.

Rice. 11. Search for pictures using another version of DupeGuru.

12. ImageDupeless

The ImageDupeless program is characterized by high speed and small size, which may be important when used, for example, to download 2G mobile Internet.

Moreover, it is distributed free of charge and has a Russian interface. And the manufacturer periodically releases updates to it, increasing the efficiency of image search.

Rice. 12. Stylish interface of the ImageDupeless application.

13. Image Comparer

The benefits of the Image Comparer app include: simple interface, you can call the presence of a step-by-step wizard that allows you to learn how to quickly and efficiently search for images.

This feature distinguishes the utility from most others, to work with which you will have to read help files that are not always translated correctly (and sometimes even provided only in English).

In fact, the application is another Audio version Comparer, and is also distributed under a “shareware” license - that is, for certain functions the user will have to pay.

Rice. 13. The Image Comparer app is a good way to find duplicate pictures.

Finding copies of movies and videos

In addition to music and images, another type of data for which duplicates are searched separately are video files. After all, if you have 1–2 or even 4 terabytes of space on your hard drive, even movies can be “lost” on it.

Or home videos distributed across different directories. You can save space by deleting copies of videos using specialized utilities, the number of which is much smaller compared to applications for searching other files.

14. Duplicate Video Search

Duplicate Video Search works based on comparing bitrates, sizes and titles.

At the same time, they also compare different formats– .avi, .mpeg4, .mkv, etc. And the results are presented in the form of thumbnails with the characteristics of the files.

Rice. 14. Video search results using Duplicate Video Search.

15.Video Comparer

Video Comparer app is highly efficient. However, it has a significant drawback for domestic users - the utility is free only for the first 30 days (after which you will either have to purchase full version, or thoroughly clean the registry and install the trial again).

In addition, the program interface is only English. However, for those people who constantly work with video on professional level, you might want to think about purchasing the app.

Moreover, it costs only 20 euros for home use and has a very high speed - up to 500 videos of any size are checked in 40 minutes.

Rice. 15. Detecting duplicate videos from using Video Comparer.

Conclusions

The advantages of programs for searching for copies of files are serious enough for at least one of them to be installed on every computer.

Especially if the user constantly downloads various information from the network. Using utilities that detect duplicates, you can save more than one hour of your time and several gigabytes of disk space.

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

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. That's why this process I won't consider it.

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 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 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 in standard program Windows, through which you usually open all files of the selected type.

To remove 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 should 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 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 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 - very convenient program to find 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 is also similar programs, which probably also do their job well. So far I have only tried AllDup and I don’t see any point in changing it yet.

An excellent free program for finding duplicate files (pictures, photos, music, etc.).

Let's imagine this situation... Six months ago you purchased a brand new terabyte hard drive. And so, when you try to download another movie from torrents, your PC tells you that this is how it is, but there is no more space on your hard drive :). Nightmare!!! Guard!!! How can this be, it was a whole terabyte:(((?!!

And the whole problem may lie in the fact that too many duplicate files or even entire folders have accumulated on the new hard drive.

If you start manually rummaging through your “treasures” downloaded from the Internet, you can spend more than one day finally finding two identical installers of the same program or several copies of the same song!

But you can do much wiser - instruct your PC to carry out “soul-searching” and, based on the results of this process, decide what needs to be thrown away and what to leave.

However, in basic Windows versions There is no function for searching for copies of files, so we will have to use third-party software for this matter. One of the best free solutions to this type of problem is the program DupKiller.

She knows almost everything you need for a comfortable and quick search duplicate files, so it can easily compete with paid applications eg Duplicate File Remover:

Comparison of the DupKiller program with its paid analogue Duplicate File Remover

The only major drawback of DupKiller is the lack of support for NTFS Hard Links. That is, the program cannot create links to the selected file for its work with several separate applications(without harm to the latter) :(.

If you are not going to rummage through folders with setup files of various programs installed on your PC, then DupKiller is just the tool that will allow you to put things in order on your hard drive.

Installing DupKiller

To install the program, we need, as always, to open the downloaded archive and run the installation file. In the first window that appears, we will be asked to select the installation language (we choose, of course, “Russian”), and then it all comes down to simple acceptance licensing agreements and confirmation of all proposals :). Once the installation is complete, we will see the DupKiller working window:

DupKiller Interface

The program interface is quite simple and convenient. At the top we see a standard menu bar, which we will hardly use, on the left is a section bar, and on the right is a direct workspace with the necessary buttons and options.

A rather big advantage of DupKiller is the step-by-step automatic switching of tabs on the left panel after you perform one action or another. Thus, something like a step-by-step wizard for working with the program is implemented, which is undoubtedly very convenient for a user who is not familiar with the new interface.

By default, after launching DupKiller, we are taken to the “Disks” tab. Here we can use checkboxes to indicate those sections that should be scanned for duplicates.

For the first time, I advise you to perform a full scan in order to find out the real picture of what is going on on your entire hard drive, so don’t linger on this tab and click the “Scan” button.

After the scanning process is initialized hard drive we automatically go to the “Statistics” tab:

Here the entire process of scanning the hard drive is displayed in a visual form. In addition to the log file window in which DupKiller operation statistics are recorded, we can obtain some information from the status line at the very bottom of the program’s working window.

First of all, this is the number of files found. While in the statistics section, we can pause or completely cancel the scanning process, but in the latter case we will have to start new search from the very beginning.

The scanning will not take too long (it all depends on the size of your hard drive). For example, I had 80 Gigabytes scanned in a little less than three minutes :). At the end of the process of searching for duplicates, we will be immediately redirected to the last section “List”:

Removing duplicates and other unnecessary files

In fact, this is the most important window of the program, so let’s look at it in detail. The first thing I advise you to do is expand DupKiller either to the full screen, or stretch its window horizontally so that it is convenient to see the entire status line at the bottom.

On it we will see the number of duplicate files, their total size, and when selecting duplicates to be ruthlessly destroyed, also the total size that will be freed up after their removal.

The next step is to sort all the duplicates found by the amount of space they occupy on the hard drive. To do this, you just need to left-click on the “Size” inscription (fourth column of the list).

After this, all files will be sorted in ascending order of their “appetites” for hard disk space. That is, the “heaviest” files will be at the end of the table, and the smallest ones will be at the top (you can do the opposite by clicking on “Size” again and waiting for a new list to be compiled).

Now you can start selecting unnecessary files. In the main list they are divided into groups that display duplicates of the same file in different folders (with their indication, of course).

For some types of files (text and graphic, and when the plugin is activated, also audio) DupKiller has a preview function. That is, as soon as you select a specific file, a window immediately pops up in which you can see its contents without opening it.

For small files, using this function seems quite convenient, however large files open for quite a long time, which greatly slows down both the operation of the program and the system in general.

Therefore, I advise you to deactivate this function by clicking the “Disable Preview” button (you can re-enable it by clicking the “Preview” button on the toolbar above the file list).

When all the preparations are completed, all we have to do is tick the unnecessary duplicate files and click the “Delete selected files” button on the toolbar. That's it - we got rid of excess ballast on the hard drive and freed up much-needed space for re-cluttering :).

As you can see, everything turned out to be quite simple - you will do it right the first time without any additional installations were able to “conquer” an impressive amount of space on the hard drive.

However, DupKiller is not without fine adjustments, but on the contrary, it is simply replete with them. As you understand them, more and more new functions of the program will open up for you! Let's look at the most important of them.

Additional features

So, DupKiller allows you to scan not only the entire hard drive at once, but also individual folders:

Files and folders

To configure the directories to be checked for duplicate files, you need to go to the “Files and Folders” tab. There are two sections here.

In the top (“Searched files”) you can specify which types of files need to be compared (all are activated by default). And in the lower one (“Searched folders”), switching to the “Only specified folders” mode, set a list of folders that should be checked for duplicates.

Folders can be added either using the “Add” button or by simply dragging and dropping, which can sometimes be an even more convenient option.

Exceptions

The next tab - “Exceptions” - allows us, on the contrary, to specify those file extensions and folders that should not be included in the scanning process:

Settings

Working with this tab is similar to the previous one, so we will not focus our attention on it, but move on to the next section - “Settings”:

This is where you can have fun! :) Here we can set the criteria by which files should be compared, the degree of similarity at which the files will be considered the same, the sizes of the processed files, as well as many other parameters.

If these settings are not enough for you, then DupKiller also has “Other settings” :)

If in the previous section there were parameters related directly to the process of scanning files and folders, then these settings are more related to the program interface.

Here you can set the priority of the search process, change some parameters for displaying the list of duplicate files, and also work on saving and restoring settings. Regarding the latter, there is a little secret ;).

DupKiller can be made to work in portable mode (from a flash drive or disk). To do this, you need to activate the “Save settings” item in the “File” menu and save the file with program parameters in the folder where DupKiller is installed (by default C:\Program Files\DupKiller). Now all that remains is to copy the above folder to removable media and you're done ;).

The last group of program settings concerns the “Delete” parameters of files:

Here all the settings are extremely clear, so we do not focus on them, but consider the global Advantages and Disadvantages of DupKiller.

Advantages and disadvantages of DupKiller

byte-by-byte file comparison;
file preview function;
flexible scanning settings;
auto file selection function;
ability to use as a portable application.

There is no way to create hard links to files.

Conclusions

As you can see, DupKiller has virtually no disadvantages, so it can be recommended as an ideal free program for war with clones of files on your hard drive! Good luck to you and may the FORCE be with you!!! :)

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

Last time we looked at it, and today we’ll look at a free program for finding identical files on a computer (as well as music and images).

The program is called Duplicate Cleaner Free, you can download it from my disk :

The program has Russian language. After launching, you may get a feeling about how to use it))) But everything is very easy...

When launched, the search criteria window immediately appears. There are separate settings for searching for images and music. Select what you need and go to the scan path section.

Here you need to choose where to search for duplicates. I selected the information disc. And click scan.

The process of searching for duplicates will begin.

Once found, a list of duplicates will appear. Using the assistant selection, you can set selection criteria or select everything manually by checking the boxes on the side. We delete what is not needed using the button at the top in the panel.

The program is free, but there is also paid feature, which helps you more conveniently find identical folders. But this function is not particularly needed.

Like this with with help free program to find duplicates you can find many similar files and folders.

File garbage accumulated during computer operation usually consists of more than just temporary or unnecessary files. A separate category are duplicate files, which are identical in content, but are stored in different folders or on different computer drives.

This could be, for example, documents that were saved repeatedly, duplicate or similar photographs, the same music compositions that you downloaded from the Internet and saved in different folders or under different names. It is important to understand that duplicates are essentially two versions of the same photo that have different resolutions. Or the same song by the same artist, but recorded at different concerts. Or two versions of the same musical composition, but recorded in different audio formats.

An example of duplicate files can also be two versions of a movie, saved with different quality or, again, in different video formats. Of course, it is quite difficult to manually detect such duplicates, so we will call for help special programs, which search for duplicate files. As you probably already understood from the previous paragraph, duplicates of each type of file (drawings, music, videos, documents) have their own characteristics.

Algorithms for finding duplicates of all types of files differ significantly from each other, and therefore the search for duplicate files different types usually do different programs. Let's look at some of them. In addition, it is important not only to detect duplicates, but also to choose the most latest version document or the highest quality video or audio file. We will look at each type of file separately, and also provide a list of popular programs for working with duplicates.

Search for duplicate images

The most striking example of duplicate pictures can be identical or very similar photographs. Many modern cameras allow you to shoot in burst mode, when pictures are taken at very short intervals - from a few fractions of a second to several seconds. However, the resulting images differ from each other very slightly. As practice shows, there is no real need to store similar photographs; it is enough to select one or two successful photographs from a series and delete the rest.

Another case where duplicate image files may appear is when creating backup copies photos on the hard drive, a selection of pictures for a presentation, in which they are copied to another folder. In general, the user often creates copies of images himself and then forgets to delete them. However, the reasons for the appearance of duplicate images can be very different. Our task is to get rid of such duplicates and clear up space on your hard drive. Among the most common programs designed to search for duplicate images on a computer are the following.

SWMole Clone Remover. Website address: http://www.clone-remover.com/. The program is paid. Can search not only for duplicate images (including similar pictures, and not just exact copies), but also copies music files. In the unregistered version, the user has the ability to delete no more than 20 files. Finds copies of images in pairs, even if there are more than two on the disk similar images. Has a Russian-language interface.
Image Comparer. Website: http://www.bolidesoft.com/rus/imagecomparer.html. The program is shareware and has a trial period of 30 days. A multilingual user interface is supported, including Russian. It is possible to search for duplicate pictures both within one folder and between several folders. The program interface is somewhat complicated for a novice user, but it is possible to use a step-by-step wizard mode that will help you find and remove duplicate image files.
Picasa. Official program page: https://picasa.google.com. The program itself includes many different tools for working with photographs. The program also has a function to search for duplicate images. To use this function, you need to select Tools>>Experimental functions>>Show duplicate files in the main menu of the program. Let us immediately draw your attention to the fact that the program searches for duplicate image files, that is, absolutely identical pictures. But it finds them regardless of location and with virtually no user intervention. The program is absolutely free and has a Russian-language interface. In addition, using Picasa, you can process images, apply various filters to them, find people's faces, mark shooting locations, and perform many other useful actions.
Similar Images Finder. Program website: http://www.crown-s-soft.com/ru/sifinder.htm. The program is shareware. You can use it for 30 days without purchasing, but there is a limit on the number of duplicate files found. The program interface is in English. It is possible to adjust the depth of “similarity” of photos, as well as set preferences for found duplicates: for example, you can tell the program to automatically delete the older duplicate file that has less color or smaller size. The program has a duplicate search wizard, which allows you to specify criteria for comparing image files in a step-by-step mode.

Find duplicate music files

Just like images, music files can sometimes take up a lot of space. disk space, and in some cases, finding the same or similar music compositions manually can be problematic. Specialized applications that automate this process will come to the rescue. Let's talk about some of the most popular ones.

Audio comparer. You can download the program on the website: http://audiocomparer.com/rus/. The application is shareware. It can be used for 30 days without registration. The analysis of musical compositions is based on a comparison of the names of performers and song titles. This data is taken from the file name and internal service information, the so-called ID3 tags. It is possible to specify the threshold of similarity of names at which the compositions will be considered the same. The application allows you to compare files both within one directory on your computer disk and between several directories. The program interface is somewhat complicated for a novice user, but this is compensated by the presence of a step-by-step wizard that facilitates the process of finding duplicates.
Music Duplicate Remover. Internet site: http://www.maniactools.com/. Key Difference this application from analogues - the ability to search for duplicates by sound. This function allows you to find duplicates even among files that are incorrectly named. The program is shareware and allows an unregistered user to work for 30 days. It has a simple user interface in Russian.
SWMole Clone Remover. As already mentioned, this application can search not only for duplicate images, but also for repeated musical compositions. Program website address: http://www.clone-remover.com/. The program interface is a bit complicated, but thanks to the Russian language support, it’s easy to figure it out on your own. The application can search for duplicate music files only by file name and ID3 tags, without taking into account the sound. By using one of the programs listed or all of them at once, you can free up a lot of useful space on your computer's disks.

Finding duplicate video files

Dealing with duplicate video files has its own characteristics compared to finding duplicate pictures or music. Due to the large size of video files, there are usually not as many of them on computer drives as music or images. In addition, the appearance of duplicate films or videos is not as common as the “cloning” of photographs or songs. But deleting even one clone of a video file will help free up a significant amount of disk space. In addition, the algorithm for comparing video streams is much more complex than drawings or even the sound of music. For this reason, there are not many programs designed to find duplicate video files. Let's look at some of them.

Duplicate Video Search. Web address: http://duplicatevideosearch.com/rus/. The program is shareware - with a trial period of 30 days. It has an English-language interface, which, however, is not overloaded unnecessary elements, and therefore quite understandable. The user must specify in which folders to search for video duplicates. The application can compare the contents of video files of ten different formats. It is possible to specify the comparison depth.
Teemoon Video Matching. Home page programs: http://teemoon.name/videoid/Default.html. Unlike its “brothers”, this application is free. Working with the program involves two stages. The first is indexing, which is done on the Indexing tab. This process creates index files for each video file in the specified folder. The process is lengthy, but it only needs to be done once, then the existing index files will be used when comparing files. The second stage is comparison, which is carried out on the Matching tab. The disadvantages of the program include the lack of support for the Russian language and a non-obvious operating algorithm.
Video Comparer. Program website: http://www.video-comparer.com/. The application has a paid and free version. The free one is quite suitable for home use. The program interface is quite simple. The user only needs to specify the folders in which to search for duplicate files and click the button to start the comparison process. User Interface English-speaking.

If you are a film fan and store a large collection of different films on your computer, or are engaged in video editing and have many video clips on your hard drive, then you should take an “inventory” of the video archive. Perhaps you will find hidden reserves of your computer.

Finding other duplicates

As you probably already understood, there is no universal program, which allows you to get rid of all duplicate files in one fell swoop - each type of data requires its own tool. However, if you leave aside the complex algorithms for comparing images and sounds, and limit yourself to simply comparing the name, size and date of the file, you can find many duplicates among those file types that we have not yet mentioned here. These can be documents, files of other formats that waste disk space. To find such duplicates, you can often do without specialized programs. For example, if you use a popular file manager, you can use its tools to find and delete duplicate files. Among the file managers that have the function of searching for duplicate files are:

FAR Manager;
FreeCommander;
Total Commander.

If you are not used to using file managers, then you shouldn’t install them on your computer just to find duplicates. There are specialized applications for this task: