Duplicate files can be very annoying for a couple of reasons – they take up valuable disk space and they make managing your files a nightmare. Just imagine going through your photos and continually stumbling upon the same shot in different folders! Luckily, there is an easy and free way to delete duplicate files with a program that you may already have – CCleaner.
CCleaner is a really useful Windows maintenance and cleanup tool. With its help you can delete junk files (I’m talking about useless Temporary Internet Files, Windows Temp files, logs, cookies and so on), manage your Windows startup list to make your PC boot faster, uninstall programs, clean the registry, and even shred files and wipe free disk space to protect your privacy. But it gets better and better – the latest version of CCleaner includes a duplicate file finder.
To find and delete duplicates with CCleaner, you’ll need to open the program and go to the Tools tab.
Then click on the File Finder button to open the duplicate finder. You will see a number of options already pre-checked for you. While you can keep them all as is, I recommend that you uncheck Modified Date under Match By and File Size Under in the Ignore category. Make sure you don’t uncheck the option to ignore system files because deleting a system file that appears to be a duplicate can ruin your PC.
And now is the time to select the files and folders you want to check for duplicates. By default, CCleaner will have all your drives selected. But scanning your whole PC will take a really long time. So, it’s best to select one or two folders that you think might have duplicates. I’ll add my Images folder for the scan.
To select a folder, click on the Add button. A new window will open where you need to click on the Browse button to select files and folders.
When done, click on the Search button to start the scan.
When the scan is complete, CCleaner will show you the list of duplicate files that it found. Pairs of duplicates will be displayed together, which makes it easy to select the files you want to delete. Simply check the relevant checkboxes and click on the Delete Selected button. CCleaner will ask you to confirm that you really want to delete the files you selected and then it will do the rest.
As you can see, deleting duplicate files with CCleaner is quick and easy. Not to mention very useful.
~ Liz D.
Is ‘file finder’ only available on the paid version of CCCleaner? It doesn’t appear on the CCCleaner I have.
I’d appreciate your feedback.
I would recommend you to try Duplicate Files Deleter program.
Upper left tools icon looks like the wrench click that and whamo…..
While I agree wholeheartedly with the author that CCleaner is a great program, unless it ships on Windows 8 it is not automatically present on your machine. CCleaner is freeware program that y9u can download from the internet. There is a “pro” version also. I highly recommend CCleaner and specifically recommend buying the “pro” version.
One of the really awsome tasks that this program handles is to clean out your registry file. I have seen several machine boot much faster after running CCleaner. Also, some recalcitrant programs will “suddenly” start working properly after a CCleaner regristry run.
Great program but again, IFAIK… not supplied by MicroSoft.
@toni, the most current free version of CCleaner does have the duplicate file finder option. Check the Piriform dot com website and make sure you are up to date.
@Bill, the article did not say it was a Microsoft product or otherwise preinstalled on a system, but rather was saying that you MAY have it due to havig installed a version at one time or another for taking care of other computer items. I believe they are only pointing out that the newest version is now including the Duplicate File Finder as a new tool.
I just downloaded the current free version update and did not find the duplicate file finder option. Does it go by a different “name?”
Robert, what’s your version number? The version I use is 4.04.4197. The File Finder is the third option under Tools.
I have used this program to find duplicate files on my hard drive. The program is a good and comfortable, but too long to work. To search for duplicates I prefer to use Duplicate Remover Free http://manyprog.com/duplicate-remover-free.php . It is easier but faster.
Duplicatefilesdeleter find and delete duplicate files from your system I am using still performing well
The latest CCleaner Duplicate Finder does not find duplicate files unless you select the complete drive to conduct the search (ie C:) using Win10. It finds no duplicates when a folder is selected (ie C:UsersRickPictures*.*). This is irritating as it takes well over a day to scan the whole drive, when I just want to scan separate directories. I have tried C:UsersRickPictures*.jpeg, but the same as usual, within half a second, it reports “File Search is Completed”, and it has not found one duplicate when I know there are thousands. Any help will be gratefully received. Merry Christmas and best regards, Rick Clark
This app might work but I usually use Duplicate Files Deleter as it is very effective. It is 100% accurate and performs the scan quickly.
Try Dupliacte FIles Deleter it is highly efficient
This software is good at make pc speedy but not for the duplicate file delete well. I tried the software but believe it or not I lost many valuable data from my laptop. At last I use Duplicate Files Deleter, it works very well. It makes it sure to keep the important files in back up.
Thanks
Duplicate files deleter software helps you dash off some more space by eliminating copied or
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name, and it does it effectively and quickly. You would not believe how much space it raids off.
Having trouble with duplicate files? just use “DuplicateFilesDeleter program”
Try the DuplicateFilesDeleter, which is the best tool on the market