Duplicate File Finder

In the category of software products with suggestive names comes Duplicate File Finder, a pretty simple-to-use tool that can scan the hard disk for identical files, enabling you to keep the original and remove the duplicates, thus decluttering the hard drive and maybe even freeing up some valuable space in the process.

Installing the tool is a fast and easy job. Those to want to skip it and run the app directly from a pen drive may resort to its portable twin, Duplicate File Finder Portable.

As for the interface, the program has a plain appearance and it is easy to navigate.

The first step is configuring the search parameters when it comes to the drives and/or folders to look into, file masks, sorting mode and match algorithm (MD5 or CRC32). Additional filters may be defined to exclude files by taking into account the size, date of modification, and file attributes (e.g. read-only, archive). Directories may be checked for duplicates too.

Apart from deleting the duplicates, it is possible to copy or move them to other locations, open their locations in Windows Explorer, view file properties, use a search function when looking for something in particular, as well as print or save the list to file for closer examination. The toolbar and status bar may be hidden.

Duplicate File Finder may take a while to finish a scan job, depending on the size of the locations and applied search parameters. We have not come across any unpleasant surprises in our tests, since it did not hang, crash or pop up error messages.

The interface needs a lot of work from the visual point of view. Other than that, Duplicate File Finder serves its purpose. However, the entire package seems a bit too expensive, especially considering that other tools with the same functionality are free.