Duplicate Deleter

Constantly downloading stuff from the Internet can not only overburden your PC, clog performance, or simply fill your desktop with a lot of items you don’t use, but there’s also the risk of some files to already be on your computer. For an efficient cleaning, specialized applications like Duplicate Deleter easily scan your computer and remove everything that’s found twice.

Although duplicate files mostly consist of items that don’t take up much space, having one too many duplicates can have an impact on storage in the end. This application puts an intuitive set of tools at your disposal, letting you accommodate in a jiffy, regardless of your level of experience.

Once it runs, a compact main window is brought up, with an initially empty list where all detected files are shown, along with details like name, size, date, and path. Two tabs let you navigate through areas you select for scanning, as well as the list of items that get detected in the process.

An upper toolbar houses all functions you need in order to set up the process, initiate it, and bring it to an end. Unfortunately, the application doesn’t come with preset locations, and isn’t capable of automatically scanning your whole PC. In order for the scan to be possible, you need to manually select a folder using the built-in browse dialog.

You’re free to add more directories through the same window, but it’s a shame drag and drop is not supported. A few options let you also include subdirectories, and adjust specific filters like file date modified, and size, with numerical values for intervals.

Depending on the size of the target folders, the scan process can take some time. There’s a progress prompt that shows current status, but in case it takes too long, you’re free to cancel the operation, with detected elements shown in the main window. Duplicates are selected by default, thus narrowing down your effort to initiating the cleaning session.

To sum it up, Duplicate Deleter is a practical little utility to have around, even if you don’t want or need to use it on a daily basis. The set of features it comes with may seem a bit shallow, and the scan process can take a little while, but it’s accessible to all levels of experience and gets the job properly done, with little effort on your behalf.