Dup Scout Pro

Duplicate data is a concern for many devices: we all have a few sets of photos on our phone containing the same shot twice, so the magnitude should naturally be much higher when it comes to our computers. A few sets of identical documents here, a video copied twice, and so on: drives have so much storage now that we tend to be less wary in how we use it.

The storage hit might be negligible at first, but it can compound to something more severe with time. A tool like Dup Scout Pro is most suitable in such a situation: it scans your system for duplicate files and lays them all for you in a compact, functional interface.

The software doesn't involve any complex operations for the end user: simply install it, boot it up, then commence a search. To do so, you'll have to create a profile in the app — the default one works, too — and select the target directories. You may also elect for the program to scan your entire drive, or your NAS devices and servers.

After that, the scanning may begin. It doesn't take long for the tool to recognize duplicate files: it instantly recognized ours in less than 30 seconds. They're all laid out nicely on the interface, where information about the disk space usage, the number of duplicates, as well as their respective extensions is neatly presented.

When it comes to dealing with the duplicate files found by the utility, users can first generate charts to help them better visualize the situation. Charts to display the duplicates by category, extension, file size, date and creation time, and many other such parameters can be generated in an instant.

Should they not want to completely erase them, users can choose to replace the duplicate files with shortcuts, move them to another directory, and even compress everything. This is all accessible via the Actions menu, which can also delete all the detected duplicates at once.

You never know how many identical files you have on your computer and how much space they occupy, which is why a tool like Dup Scout Pro is useful. When you feel like deleting some stuff on your drives, running a scan through this utility wouldn't be a bad idea.