A program for finding copies of files on a computer. The best programs to find duplicate photos

What a pity that hard drives not rubber! I wanted to download a couple of movies for the weekend and install a new game on my PC, but here's the annoyance - the free space is almost over. And you can’t free it, because only important and necessary things are stored on the disk.

Chin up! You can increase the volume free space by 5-50% without the risk of losing valuable information. How? By deleting identical copies of documents, photographs, audio recordings, videos and other goodness, which accumulates several hundred in a year of computer operation. So, how to search and remove duplicate files in Windows

Unfortunately, the disk cleanup tool built into the system is not trained to look for identical copies of data, and we will have to turn our eyes to third party applications. In today's review - 5 free utilities who do the job quickly, clearly and cleanly.

Auslogics Duplicate File Finder

The only thing that declares a certain level of quality and claims the trust of users. The program supports everything Windows editions, is regularly updated, has a Russian language and is very easy to learn. To search for duplicates, it uses a special intelligent algorithm - it compares not only the names, but also the internal contents of the files, which guarantees high accuracy of the results.

Functions and Features of Auslogics Duplicate File Finder

• Setting the filter by object type: all or only images, audio, video, archives and applications.
• Exclusion from search for files less than and more than given size.
• Exclusion from the search criteria of names, dates of creation/modification of files and "hidden" attributes.
• Finding duplicates with certain names or a given fragment in a name.
• 3 ways to delete duplicates: to the trash, permanently and by saving to the archive.
• Restoring data from an archive.
• Preview objects before deleting.
• Support for custom exclusion lists from scanning files and folders.
• Reverting the system to a restore point from the program interface.

Use Auslogics Duplicate File Finder easy and convenient. In addition, you can not be afraid that the program will destroy any data without your knowledge and the possibility of recovery (only if you yourself have not chosen the option to delete by the trash). The impression is spoiled only by an "unobtrusive" offer to install other products of the developer, which sometimes appears at startup.

CloneSpy

The utility is designed to search for duplicate files not only on the hard drive, but also on portable drives. It is slightly more difficult to use than Auslogics Duplicate File Finder, but more functional and able to work without installation on a computer - when starting the installer, the user can choose its standard or portable version.

Functions and features of CloneSpy

• Support for any file types.
• Search for duplicates by identical content or the same name in conjunction with another criterion - extension, name, size.
• Finding objects of zero length.
• Many options for operations with file copies: deletion manually or automatically (you can choose in advance which object to delete - new or old), placing it in a specific folder, creating a list of duplicates without deleting, and so on.
• Any operations with found duplicates (including pending) using batch batch files.
• Replacing deleted copies with shortcuts or hard links.
• Calculation of checksums for the possibility of checking objects for identity.
• Support for custom search filters.

CloneSpy functions quickly and smoothly, supports all versions of Windows, receives regular updates, but does not have a Russian language, which makes it somewhat difficult to master. In addition, some users are put off by the Windows 98-style interface.

Soft4Boost Dup File Finder

The developers of the utility took care not only about the functionality, but also about the beauty of their product: at your service are 11 stylish design options (skins). In addition, the application has been translated into 9 languages, including Russian, and has intuitive controls.

Soft4Boost Dup File Finder gets down to business right away - when you first start it, a wizard window opens in the background of the main window, which will guide you step by step through all the setup steps. You can't get confused and make a mistake.

Functions and Features of Soft4Boost Dup File Finder

• Finding copies of objects by content.
• Select a search category: among all files or only images, audio, video, archives or applications.
• Option to ignore object names.
• Scanning local and network folders, as well as removable media (you can select more than one).
• 2 ways to delete: to the trash and permanently.

Unlike many “free” applications that try to recoup their freeness by installing junk along the way or intrusive display of ads, Soft4Boost Dup File Finder only modestly offers to buy products from the same developer in bulk for 1399 rubles. If you don't need them, just don't click on the banner.

Like the rest of the programs of today's review, Soft4Boost Dup File Finder supports all Windows versions and is updated regularly.

AllDup

The utility is not as intuitive as the previous one, but rich in features. Without the Russian language in it, not everyone could master all the possibilities in 5 minutes. Although there is nothing complicated in this program. At the first start, along with the main window, a small prompt opens - the window " Fast start” with three buttons: “Select source folder”, “Select search method” and “Start search”. Pressing these buttons in turn opens areas where you need to select or configure something.

Users who speak English can learn AllDup using the built-in help, which opens in right place by clicking on the question marks.

Features and functionality of AllDup

• A large list of search criteria: name, extension, size, content, creation and modification dates, file attributes, hard links, similar images. Search by a combination of several criteria.
• Scanning the contents of archives (finding individual duplicates in archives).
• Customizable way to compare object names: by complete match, by initial characters in the name, by a specified number of matching characters, etc.
• Finding files with similar names.
• File content comparison.
• Flexible search options with the ability to select additional actions before and after it.
• Scan logging.
• A highly customizable filter for ignoring objects.
• Creating a hard link or shortcut to a saved file in place of a deleted duplicate.
• No limits on the number of scanned directories.
• Removable media scanning.
• Preview found files with display various options- in case of difficulty in making a decision to remove.
• Drafting convenient lists search results. Export lists to txt or csv format.
• Saving the scan result. Allows you to close the program without waiting for the end of the scan. And after a restart, start not from the beginning, but from the moment it stopped.
• Create and save multiple settings profiles.

AllDup differs from many competitors by its high scanning speed and the completeness of detecting duplicated objects. By the way, thanks to the function of searching for similar files, the program can be used to find any data on the hard drive without deleting it.

Another nice feature of the AllDup utility is the complete absence of advertising. Instead, the button “Support the author” has been placed on the top panel with any acceptable amount, if you want it yourself.

DiskBoss

It cannot be fully attributed to the class of programs for removing duplicate files. This is just one of the functions, in addition to which the utility can do very, very much. DiskBoss is a disk space optimizer and advanced file manager. It is designed to analyze the use of drives and manage all the objects that are on them.

DiskBoss features and capabilities

• Study of disk space with a pie chart displaying how much space is occupied by certain objects.
• Classify, sort and group files and folders according to a variety of criteria, including user rules.
• Finding and cleaning duplicates on workstations and servers under Windows control. Flexible search criteria.
• Several options for dealing with duplicates found - deletion, archiving, moving to another location, etc.
• Replacing deleted duplicates with links.
• Saving reports of scanning and cleaning disks from duplicated data in html formats, excel, pdf, txt, csv and xml.
• Displaying the result of the search for duplicates on pie charts.
• Creation and execution of automatic disk cleanup scripts.
• Improved disk search system.
• Synchronization of data in the specified directories.
• Delete groups of files based on specified criteria.
• Monitoring changes in file system drives in real time.
• Integrity analysis and other operations with files.
• Much more.

The DiskBoss utility will good choice for those who need a complete picture of the contents and status of disks, as well as the ability to manage all the data on them using manual and automatic methods. The application is available in free and several paid versions, with the first containing almost everything that is in paid version pro, apart from a few automation tools.

Perhaps the only drawback of DiskBoss is the lack of a Russian language, but for the sake of such a wealth of functions, you can put up with it. Otherwise, the utility is very good, and for some tasks it is indispensable.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of programs designed to remove identical copies of files. There are dozens, maybe hundreds. However, this modest set is enough to satisfy the needs of 90% of Windows users. I hope that some of them will be useful to you as well.

Find and remove duplicate files in Windows with five free programs updated: August 4, 2018 by: Johnny Mnemonic

This program will help you remove duplicate music from your computer easily and quickly. If you have a large collection of songs or music on your PC's hard drive, you probably have the same songs there. Duplicate music takes up space on the hard drive of your computer or laptop, clutters it up, which is why it is so important to remove duplicate audio files from your PC in time. Use Duplicate Music Remover Free for this purpose. This tool will help you find duplicate songs automatically in much less time than if you did it manually. Run the program and wait until the process of finding duplicates is over. In the resulting report, mark the duplicate music that you do not need, and give the program a command to remove them.

Convenient and fast tool for music lovers

This simple tool will be useful, first of all, to music lovers who have a huge amount of musical compositions stored on their PC hard drive. Music files are usually small in size, but if there are several thousand of these files stored on a PC's hard drive, then duplicate music can take up a significant amount. Very often duplicate audio files accumulate due to the fact that different albums of the same artist contain several of the same songs, or because different music collections sometimes contain several of the same songs.

Search for duplicate music of any format

This application allows you to remove duplicates of almost all common audio formats (*.m4a; *.m4p; *.mp2; *.aac; *.aiff; *.ape; *.au; *.flac; *.mid; *.mp3 ; *.ogg; *.wav; *.wma; *.mp3pro; *.rm; *.ra, etc.), and the user has the ability to specify the format music files among which duplicates will be searched. For example, you can only search for duplicate songs in mp3 format, or only in m4p and mp3 format, and so on. The utility allows you to search not only for exactly the same duplicates of music, but also for similar musical compositions. To do this, the program provides a search for similar songs by music tags. In this case, it will search for duplicate songs with the same name, with the same artist or with the same album name. In this case, you can choose either one of these criteria, or several, for example, instruct the program to search for copies of songs by the same artist that have the same name.

Fast, free and efficient

If you are looking for the best free software to help you remove duplicate music, you can use Duplicate Music Remover Free. You can download this simple program from the link below the screenshot. You should not be afraid that this program will remove something you need without your knowledge. The utility removes only those files that you marked for deletion in the list of found duplicates. The main thing is not to forget to leave one copy of each composition from this list, because the program indicates in the report on found duplicates all instances of a file that has copies on disk. This software is suitable for use on computers with operating system Windows, including Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10.

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

Let's imagine such a situation… Six months ago you bought a brand new terabyte hard drive. And when you try to download another movie from torrents, your PC tells you that, they say, so and so, but there is no more space on the hard drive :). Nightmare!!! Guard!!! How is it, after all, there was a whole terabyte: (((?!!

And the whole problem may lie in the fact that too many duplicated 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 conduct "self-digging" and, based on the results of this process, decide what needs to be thrown away and what to leave.

However, in basic version Windows features searching for copies of files is not provided, so we will have to use third-party software for this business. One of the best free solutions this kind of problem is a program DupKiller.

It can do almost everything you need to comfortably and quickly find duplicate files, so it can compete with paid applications, for example, Duplicate File Remover:

Comparison of the DupKiller program with a 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 to work with several individual applications(no harm to the latter) :(.

If you are not going to rummage through folders with configuration 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 to open the downloaded archive as always 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 simply accepting the license agreements and confirming all offers :). Upon completion of the installation, we will see the DupKiller working window:

DupKiller Interface

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

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

By default, after starting DupKiller, we get to the "Drives" tab. Here we can use the 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 happening on your entire hard drive, so do not linger on this tab and click the "Scan" button.

After initializing the scanning process hard drive we automatically get into the "Statistics" tab:

Here, in a visual form, the entire process of scanning the hard drive is displayed. In addition to the log file window, which records DupKiller operation statistics, we can get 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. Being in the statistics section, we can pause or completely cancel the scanning process, however, in the latter case, we will have to start new search from the very beginning.

The scan will not take too long (depending on the size of your hard drive). For example, 80 GB were scanned for me in a little less than three minutes :). At the end of the process of finding 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 to expand DupKiller either to full screen, or to stretch its window horizontally in order to conveniently see the entire status bar below.

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

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

After that, 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 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 extracting junk files. In the main list, they are divided into groups that display duplicates of the same file in different folders (of course, with their indication).

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

For small files, the use of this function seems to be quite convenient, however large files open long enough, which greatly slows down both 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 list of files).

When all the preparations are finished, we will only have to tick the unnecessary duplicate files and click the "Delete selected files" button on the toolbar. That's it - we got rid of the extra ballast on the hard drive and freed up the space we needed so much for re-littering :).

As you can see, everything turned out to be quite simple - you are the first time without any additional installations were able to "win back" an impressive amount of space on the hard drive.

However, DupKiller is by no means devoid of subtle settings, but on the contrary, it simply abounds with them. As you understand them, more and more new features of the program will open up for you! Let's consider the most important of them.

Additional functions

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, go to the "Files and folders" tab. There are two sections here.

In the upper one (“Searched files”) you can specify which types of files should be compared (all are enabled 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 by using the Add button or by simple drag and drop, which can sometimes be even more convenient.

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 on it, but move on to the next section - "Settings":

Here's where you can roam! :) 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, and many other parameters.

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

If the previous section contained 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 options for displaying the list of duplicated files, and 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 the program parameters in the folder where DupKiller is installed (by default C:\Program Files\DupKiller). Now it remains only to copy the above folder to removable media and you're done ;).

The last group of program settings concerns the "Delete" file options:

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

Advantages and disadvantages of DupKiller

• byte comparison of files;
• file preview function;
• flexible scanning settings;
• automatic file selection function;
• the ability to use as a portable application.

• there is no way to create "hard" links to files.

conclusions

As you can see, DupKiller has practically no drawbacks, so it can be recommended as an ideal free program for the war against file clones on your hard drive! Good luck and may the FORCE be with you!!! :)

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

In this article, we will talk about tools for detecting duplicate photos. In particular, today our review will visit six programs for finding duplicate photos on a computer running Windows. We will compare and choose among them the best and fastest.

Search for identical photos: programs and their comparison

There may be several reasons for the demand for programs to search for identical photos on a computer, for example:

• Your collection may have grown so large that duplicates are already taking up a lot of space;
• You need a tool that will find the same or similar photos, saving you the trouble of looking through those images yourself.

In our selection, there was a place for six interesting programs, four of which are free. Below we are:

1. Let's talk about each of these search programs and help you quickly navigate their interface;
2. Let's compare all programs, in which we'll see how they cope with the search for identical images with their slight modification;
3. Let's check how well the programs can cope with big set photo weighing several gigabytes.

Find duplicate photos with Image Comparer

The first program in our review that looks for duplicate photos is called Image Comparer. Her strengths: good functionality and interface translated into Russian, including detailed help information.

Now for the disadvantages. First, the program is not free. However, the cost of the license is a humane 350 rubles (although for some reason the site indicates the number 500). In addition, you can use Image Comparer for free for the first 30 days.

The second negative point is the slight confusion that can confuse an inexperienced user. For example, in order to search within one folder (in which others can be nested), you need to click on the "create gallery" button and select the desired directory in which the scan will be performed.

Next, you will immediately be prompted to give a name and save the file of the created gallery to any convenient place (this file will be needed by the program itself). Once this is done, you will see a list of all the images in the specified folder and its subfolders in the form of a list or thumbnails:

The buttons marked with arrows start the search for duplicates. The first button is a search within one gallery (the folder you have chosen), the second button is a little to the right - within several galleries. We went with the first option.

Next, the program offered to create another service file in which the results will be saved for further convenient access to them. Actually, creating a file for the gallery and this file with search results can just confuse an inexperienced user a little. However, then everything is already simple. The found duplicates will appear in front of you:

They can be viewed as thumbnails, or by clicking on the “image pairs” tab, go to the view where the photos will already be compared with each other:

The slider in the center allows you to adjust the image similarity threshold. Set to 100% and you will only have a list of identical pictures that are perfectly similar to each other. Lower values ​​will display only similar photos.

In the settings you can see a huge list of formats from basic JPG and PNG to more exotic ones that the program works with. Formats can be added and excluded from the search. You can also configure the accounting of reflected and inverted images.

• Image Comparer. Official site ;
• Russian language;

Finding identical photos in three clicks with VisiPics

The next program is VisiPics. Unlike the Image Comparer discussed above, VisiPics is free application, also specializing in photo duplicates. Alas, there is no localization into Russian here, but you definitely shouldn’t get upset about this: everything is very simple and extremely clear.

Using the side navigation bar (we circled it in a box), select the desired directory. Next, click the arrow with the "+" sign to add this folder to the list that will be searched. You can select more folders in the same way if you wish. Finally, in the third step, click the Play button to start the process of finding duplicates.

To the right of it is a special slider where you can adjust the level of "attentiveness" of the program. In the case of the default baseline, VisiPics found only two groups of duplicates for us, one of which consisted of three images, and the other of two:

These are the images that the program considers almost identical duplicates. However, if you lower the slider to Loose, then there will be images that simply look alike. In our case, when installing Loose instead of Basic, the application found four more (in the final test below - 5) groups of duplicates, and added one more picture to one of the two already found:

There are relatively few additional options for the program. Here you can configure search in subfolders (it is enabled by default), display hidden folders, accounting for photos rotated by 90 degrees. On the loader tab, you can ask VisiPics to ignore small files or, on the contrary, pictures with too high a resolution. The latter is important for speed.

• VisiPics program. Official site ;
• English language;
• Distribution: free.

Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder

If you are looking for the ultimate a simple program for a quality search for duplicate photos and images, which would be easy to figure out, then pay attention to the Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder. The interface is in English, but it is so simple that everyone will understand it.

Using the "+" button, specify the directory or several directories you need to search, then click Start Search and the search will start. The Scan Subdirectories option is enabled by default and is responsible for searching subfolders. The program copes with its tasks, finding both very similar:

Here are some slightly different pictures:

In the program settings, you can set the match to 100% if you only need exactly the same photos.

The settings themselves, as you can see, are few. Perhaps the saddest thing is that the program works with only five main formats: BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF and TIFF. Moreover, the latter is not taken into account by default.

There are also options to ensure that duplicates are deleted directly to the trash and to disable the confirmation popup. The program can also be updated automatically.

Official site ;
• English language;
• Distribution: free.

The Similar Images Finder application greets us with an unkind message in English that you need to pay $34 for it. Nevertheless, for 30 days the program is ready to work for free. Next, a window appears prompting you to select directories to search for duplicates:

From it, we learn that Similar Images Finder supports 29 image formats, and the user can select specific formats for searching or exclude unnecessary ones. In the list, among other things, you can see ico and wbmp.

Clicking Next will start the search for duplicates, and when it is finished, click Next again to see additional settings. By adjusting them, you can fine-tune what appears in the results list. Finally, by clicking Next a third time, you will see the result itself:

You can go to the next found picture by pressing the miniature arrow in the upper right corner. The entire list of found duplicates is opened by clicking on the big button at the top with the addresses of the current files.

In turn, pressing the Next button at the bottom will lead to the final stage of work. There, the program will display a list of what, in its opinion, are definitely duplicates and offer to delete them. In the screenshot above, the Similar Images Finder has dealt with the image where a watermark has been added and the histogram contrast has been changed.

Distinguishing between the pictures, the program calculated at the level of 5.5%. At the same time, in another example, where we added a strong blur effect to the second picture, the differences, according to the application version, for some reason amounted to only 1.2%:

Alas, the program, finding real duplicates, by default also shows many images that are completely different from each other, as if they have something in common:

• Similar Images Finder. Official site ;
• English language;
• Distribution: paid, 30 days free use.

Universal Duplicate Finder with Duplicate Remover Free

Duplicate Remover Free is the only program in our review that focuses not specifically on duplicate photos, but on finding duplicates in general.

As practice shows, such universal solutions do not perform very well in tasks related to some narrower area.

However, today we are giving one such program a chance. As the word Free suggests, it is distributed free of charge. The second advantage of the application is the Russian language, and the third is the relative modernity against the background of other programs in this collection, many of which, unfortunately, have not been updated for many years.

You should click on the "add directory" button and select desired folders. By default, the program in the specified directory did not find anything for us at all, however, when we selected the item “similar images” instead of “exact duplicates” at the top, four groups of duplicates were immediately found, one of which consisted of three files at once:

The application has very few additional features. In particular, you can exclude files before and after a certain size from the search.

• Duplicate Remover Free. Official site ;
• Russian language;
• Distribution: free.

Search for matching photos using various algorithms with AntiDupl

The final participant in our review - the AntiDupl program may appeal to you for several reasons at once. First, it's free. Secondly, it has a Russian interface. The latter, however, is not obvious. In order to enable Russian, open the View menu and in the Language section select the appropriate item:

Unlike others, this program is not installed, but is located in a self-extracting archive, which extracts it, along with the necessary files, into a separate folder.

To prepare the search for duplicates, click on the button labeled Open and add the necessary directories in the window that appears:

Next, you can click OK, and then activate the green “start search” button on the toolbar. Using a basic algorithm, the program found several groups of duplicates for us:

Switching the algorithm to a more free SSIM at the top, we already got two more groups of duplicates, and after increasing the “freedom” of the search from 20 to 35%, the program gave us an even more detailed list:

At the same time, in all cases, images were found that were at least noticeably similar to each other. So feel free to experiment with the settings.

The program has a lot of additional options:

On the "search" tab, you can find out that AntiDupl supports 13 formats, among which, in addition to traditional JPG / PNG, there are ICON, PSD and EXIF. Of course, formats can be chosen. There is also a check for defects, blockiness and blurring in the options, and in the last two cases, you can set a threshold. It is possible to search in hidden and system directories.

• Anti Dupl program. ;
• Russian language;
• Distribution: free.

When searching for duplicates, some users are interested in 100% matching in order to get rid of duplicates in their collection. However, the task often arises to find just similar pictures.

And here is a huge scope for possible differences. This can be different formats, resolutions, cropped versions of the same image, adding frames and watermarks, changed colors and captions on pictures.

We tried to take into account most of these factors, and after all the tests, we ended up with a small set with more than six dozen pictures. In them, we created nine groups of duplicates. To be honest, our experience does not exactly claim to be the ultimate truth, but it was interesting to try. The results are as follows:

• Duplicator Remover Free: found only 3 groups of duplicates;
• Similar Images Finder: found 4 groups, but an inconvenient interface, a lot of false results, and at the same time, the paid application greatly spoiled the overall impression;
• AntiDupl found 3 types of duplicates by default, setting the SSIM algorithm increased the search result to 5 groups;
• VisiPics at basic level the search found only 2 groups of duplicates, however, setting the slider to the Loose level made it possible to find 7 groups already;
• Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder found 7 groups of duplicates;
• Image Comparer was also able to detect 7 groups.

In doing so, Image Comparer was able to find images that were missed by Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder and VisiPics, which, in turn, filled in the gaps of Image Comparer.

The fastest program to find duplicate photos

At the same time, the quality of the program also depends on its speed. 60+ pictures is, of course, not something that users can work with. So we did another test. This time for speed. To do this, we took a selection of 4450 of the most different images, the total weight of which exceeded 2.1 GB.

Two programs from this review, alas, did not take any place in the test. As it turns out, Similar Images Finder, which costs $34, is free version ready to process no more than 200 images at a time.

In turn, the universal search engine for duplicates Duplicate Remover Free, faced with a catalog of a serious size, worked intensively for more than five minutes, and then thoroughly froze. The rest of the programs showed the following times:

• AntiDupl: 0:39;
• Image Comparer: 1:02 (35 seconds to create a gallery and 27 seconds to search);
• VisiPics: 2:37;
• Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder: 3:17.

As a result, Image Comparer and AntiDupl clearly took the lead in the speed test. It took them about or, in the case of AntiDupl, less than a minute to process our archive.

Conclusion

Let's summarize. If you need to find not the same, but exactly similar photos that differ, for example, by a signature or a watermark, then Image Comparer, Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder and VisiPics in Loose mode will do the job better than others.

In terms of the speed of processing a large collection of images, the undisputed leaders are AntiDupl and Image Comparer.

Finally, in terms of the convenience of the interface, we liked Image Comparer and VisiPics, which allow you to visually evaluate all groups of duplicates on the go. In turn, for the clarity of comparing the characteristics of individual duplicates, we also note AntiDupl.

In this manual about several free and simple ways find duplicate files on your computer in Windows 10, 8 or 7 and remove them if necessary. First of all, we will talk about programs that allow you to search for duplicate files, but if you are interested in more interesting methods, the instructions also cover the topic of finding and deleting them using Windows PowerShell.

Why might this be required? Almost any user who saves archives of photos, videos, music and documents to his disks for a sufficiently long time (it doesn’t matter if they are internal or external storage) is very likely to “form” duplicates of the same files that take up extra space on the HDD , SSD or other storage device.

DupeGuru is another great free duplicate file finder in Russian. Unfortunately, the developers have recently stopped updating the Windows version (but update DupeGuru for MacOS and ubuntu linux), but the version for Windows 7 available on the official website http://hardcoded.net/dupeguru (at the bottom of the page) also works fine in Windows 10.

All that is required to use the program is to add folders to search for duplicates in the list and start scanning. Upon completion, you will see a list of found duplicate files, their location, size and "percentage", how much this file matches any other file (you can sort the list by any of these values).

For example, in my case, one of the programs I tested recently, as it turned out, copied its installation files to the Windows folder and left (1, 2) there, taking away my precious 200+ MB, the same file remained in the downloads folder.

As you can see in the screenshot, only one of the found samples has a mark for selecting files (and only it can be deleted) - in this case, in my case, it is more logical to delete not from Windows folders(there, in theory, the file may be needed), but from the downloads folder. If the selection needs to be changed, mark the files that do not need to be deleted and then, in the right-click menu of the mouse - "Make selected as a standard", then the selection mark will disappear for the current files and appear for their duplicates.

I think it will not be difficult for you to figure out the settings and other menu items of DupeGuru: they are all in Russian and are quite understandable. And the program itself searches for duplicates quickly and reliably (the main thing is not to delete any system files).

Duplicate Cleaner Free

The Duplicate Cleaner Free program for finding duplicate files on a computer is another more good than bad solution, especially for novice users (in my opinion, this option is easier). Despite the fact that relatively unobtrusively offers to purchase Pro version and limits some functions, in particular, the search for only identical photos and images (but at the same time filters by extensions are available, which also allows you to search only for pictures, you can search only for the same music).

Also, like previous programs, Duplicate Cleaner has a Russian interface language, but some elements, apparently, have been translated using machine translation. Nevertheless, almost everything will be clear and, as mentioned above, working with the program will most likely be very simple for a novice user who needs to find and delete identical files on the computer.

You can download Duplicate Cleaner Free for free from the official website https://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/dcdownloads.html

How to Find Duplicate Files with Windows PowerShell

If desired, you can do without third party programs to find and remove duplicate files. I recently wrote about how in PowerShell and the same function can be used to search identical files on disks or folders.

At the same time, you can find many different implementations of Windows PowerShell scripts that allow you to find duplicate files, here are some options (I myself am not an expert in writing such programs):

Below in the screenshot is an example of using a slightly modified (so that it does not delete duplicate files, but displays their list) of the first script in the images folder (where two identical pictures are located - the same ones that the AllDup program found).

If creation is for you PowerShell scripts- a common thing, then, I think, in the given examples you can find useful approaches that will help you implement the search for duplicate files in the way you need or even automate the process.

Additional Information

In addition to the above programs for finding duplicate files, there are many other utilities of this kind, many of them are not free or limit functions until registration. Also, when writing this review, I came across dummy programs (which pretend to be looking for duplicates, but in fact only offer to install or buy the “main” product) from pretty well-known developers who are on everyone’s lips.

In my opinion, freely distributed utilities for finding duplicates, especially the first two from this review, are more than sufficient for any search for identical files, including music, photos and pictures, documents.

If the above options did not seem sufficient to you, when downloading other programs you found (and those I listed, too), be careful during installation (to avoid installing potentially unwanted software), and even better -.