DupeDestroyer

Unless you intend to back up important data, keeping duplicate files on the hard drive is a waste of space. Duplicates can be created by mistake or left over from large projects and it can take a long time to locate them. This is where DupeDestroyer comes in. You can use it to look for duplicates in one or more locations on the hard drive and store them in a single location, from which you can delete them or handle them differently.

The software is free to try for a limited period of time. Its trial version comes with a few disabled features, but you can still use its core features for a proper evaluation. The installation package is roughly 2 MB, so it doesn't take long to download the application, even with a slow Internet connection. Additionally, the software can be installed quickly and it works on all popular Windows platforms.

DupeDestroyer guides you through the entire procedure like a wizard. You can navigate through different sets of options with Next and Back buttons. First, you must decide where to scan for duplicates. The software allows you to target one or more folders or entire partitions. Additionally, you can set up a filter, if you wish to look for files with specific names or extensions.

The software incorporates several file comparison methods. You can set it to compare file names or contents, compare images by their Bitmap contents, compare files based on name and size or name and contents. Identified duplicates are neatly grouped in a tree structure. A series of options are available on the same page, which can be used to select all duplicates or unique items.

Once you select the duplicate files, in the aforementioned tree structure, you can proceed to the next step and decide how to handle the files. DupeDestroyer places three options at your disposal. You may quarantine the files, but you can also copy or move them to a folder of your choice, with or without their original folder structure. If you choose the quarantine option, the targeted files will be sent to a temporary folder. Thus, you can make sure that you won't remove critical system files.