Duplicate Cleaner V1.3
FREEWARE October 2008
For Updates and more great software check www.digitalvolcano.co.uk
Requirements
Installation
Usage
Search Location
Size Range
Scanning
Results
Image Preview
Selecting Duplicate Files for Further
Action
Deleting, Moving, or Hard Linking
Files
Importing/Exporting scan
results
Language
Files
Update History V1.1 , V1.2 , V1.3,
V1.3.1
Requirements
Microsoft Windows 98,ME,2000,XP,Vista
Requires minimum 800x600 screen resolution.
For Windows 95, 98 and ME you will need
the Unicode driver from Microsoft.
Download it here- Microsoft Unicode Driver
Installation
Double click on the DuplicateCleaner.exe file in Windows Explorer.
You will be guided through a simple automatic install process to the location of your
choice.
You should only use duplicate
cleaner if you understand your computer's file system, and you know what you are
doing!
Always remember that data should be backed up regularly. We take no liability for any
data lost or damaged through use or misuse of this software. We
recommend that important data is backed up prior to the use of this software, and
deletion to the recycle bin is always selected. Also, you should always check that your
recycle bin is enabled in Windows' own settings (right click-properties on
bin).
Duplicate Cleaner looks for files on your hard disc that appear twice. There may be a good reason for this - a program may require a file in a certain place to work. If in doubt, do not delete a file!
Search Location - where to
look.
First we need to tell the program where to search. On the 'Search Criteria' tab you can choose folders by selecting from the list and dragging to the 'Search Paths' windows, or by clicking the Add Path button. Alternately paths can be dragged and dropped from Windows Explorer. Right clicking on a path names brings up extra options. Specific paths can be excluded from the search.
The program will also search all subfolders contained within the folders in the list as well. If you don't want this to happen, untick the 'Scan Subfolders' menu option.
There are two modes of operation - File Search and Music Search.
File Search
This default mode will scan any file according to the filter criteria you specify. You can choose from one of the preset filters (graphics file, MS Office files, Movies, etc) by clicking on the 'Select' button, or you can type in your own. Multiple filters are separated by a semicolon (;).
You may specify to search for duplicates by any combination of:
Same content (CRC) is the default option. When this option is ticked files will be classed as duplicates if they have identical content. This means they could have a different date, file name, etc.
Music Search
This special mode will seas music files and read the extra information contained within the file - Song title, Artist, Length, Bit Rate, etc. The currently supported formats are MP3, WMA,OGG,APE and FLAC. This information can then be used as an additional tool when deciding which files to delete.
You may specify to search for duplicates by any combination of:.
Some examples:
I want to find duplicates that are exactly the
same
I want to find if I have multiple copies of MP3 files
In both modes you can specify and minimum and maximum file size in KB (Kilobytes). If either is set to 0 then that value is ignored.
Scanning
Now you are ready to start the scan. Click on the 'Go' button to the bottom left to
begin. This may take a while depending on the number of files in your folders and the
size of the files. It may take longer to scan a networked drive than a local
one. A Percentage progress is displayed to the bottom left of the
window. Once the scan is complete a summary is displayed and any
duplicate sets are show in the main window. You can cancel the scan
by clicking on the 'Cancel' button which appears in place of the 'Start' button once
the scan is underway. Note that this may take a short time to
respond depending on the status of the scanning process.
Results
Results are displayed in the various tabs:
Duplicate files
The duplicate sets are listed here. They are divided into groups.
Each item in a group is classed as 'the same' according your search criteria.
You can right-click on a file to get a context menu with additional actions for the
selected file. You can perform such operations as renaming, un-hardlinking, or
viewing/executing a file.
All Files
Scanned
This is a list of all files included in the scan, with attribute information. Double
click on a file to open/view it.
Zero Size Files
This is a list of files which have a size of 0, ie. No content. Technically, they are
all duplicates. They will be listed in the main duplicate files list
if specified in the
options.
Image Preview
You may view a preview image of a graphics file using the Image Preview window.
Click on the View-->Image Preview Window menu to obtain the window. Click on an
image file (JPG,BMP,ICO,GIF,WMF) in the results list to view it. You can zoom the image
using the slider bar, or pan around by clicking and dragging the mouse on the
image.
Selecting duplicate files for further
action
You can now select files to delete, move or hard link. If in doubt, leave alone.
To mark a file, in the 'Duplicate Files' tab either click on the checkbox or use the
right-click context menu. You can also double click on a file to open it in it's native
application for further investigation.
The selection assistant can also help with the marking of files. It can-
Additionally, when in Music Search mode you can select for deletion by audio tags. Options are-
You can also select by a pattern in the file or folder name. For instance if you want to mark everything contained in a 'temp' folder you can use the expression */temp/* in the Path section. Or to select all .bak files you could enter *.bak in the Filename section.
When you are happy with your selection, click on the 'Delete/Move Files' button to action your selection.
Deleting, Moving or Hard Linking Files
After clicking on the 'Delete/Move Files' button a window will pop up summarizing your selections. You now have three options -
Delete Files
This button will delete the selected files. If 'Delete to Recycle Bin' is not
checked they will be deleted permanently.
Move Files
You can move your selected files to another folder for safe-keeping, or until such time
as you see fit to delete them. With the 'Retain Folder Structure' option selected the
files will be placed in folders named according to their original
structure.
Create Hard Links
(What is a Hard Link? From Microsoft.com) A hard link is a directory entry for a file. Every
file can be considered to have at least one hard link. On NTFS volumes, each file can
have multiple hard links, and thus a single file can appear in many directories (or
even in the same directory with different names). Because all of the links reference
the same file, programs can open any of the links and modify the file. A file is
deleted from the file system only after all links to it have been deleted. After you
create a hard link, programs can use it like any other file name.
You can only create hard links on NTFS volumes using Windows XP, 2000, or Vista. You cannot create hard links between volumes (different hard drives or network shares). Duplicate Cleaner will only let you hard link CRC-matched (same content) files.
When creating Hard Links there needs to be at least one file in each duplicate group left unticked. This will be the 'original' file to which the other ticked files in the group are linked. Once linked there will appear to be no difference between the linked file and the original in Windows Explorer. In addition, hard linked files will appear again as duplicates if you re-scan. (Something to be addressed in future versions of Duplicate Cleaner).
Exporting / Importing Scan Results-Language defaults to English on first run.
-Localized language support
-XP control Styles.
-Updated folder tree type interface
-Drag/drop folders from explorer
-Display/Ignore hardlinked files
-Un-hardlink files
-Export all files to CSV
-Rename files
-Invert Selection
-Select by master folder
-Date sort bug fixed
-Protect DLL/EXE files
-Remove empty folders
-Hide orphaned groups
-Two-colour scheme in dupe list
-Remember column widths in dupe list
-Confirm on exit
- CRC Scanning optimized - improved memory
footprint
- Multiple folder scans
- Multiple speed optimizations - can run up to 10 times faster.
- Specify file size range
- Faster support for more music formats & improved music search.
- Tabbed interface
Additional
Credits
This program uses AudioGenie (http://www.audiogenie.de/)
Translation Credits:
French -kapoue3.
Chinese-Cain
Estonian-Tanel
Deutsch-BS
Nederlands-PimvanDijk
Português do Brasil-Salviano Lucena
Russian-PavelPromin