Czkawka

Cleaning duplicates and freeing up storage space on your computer is part of the maintenance tasks you are advised to perform on a regular basis. While come operations cam be conducted manually, others require specialized tools to get the job done. Czkawka can be the solution you are looking for when needing to get rid of unnecessary files on a PC.

This open-source and cross-platform application makes it possible to look for duplicates and other unneeded files located on your computer to delete them and save more storage space. Installation is not required, so you can launch Czkawka directly from the main executable in the archive file.   You can add multiple directories to the input list and Czkawka will search inside all of them, one by one, recursively. There are filtering options available: the application allows you to choose directories and sub-folders to exclude from the search, and filter the results using wildcards and the file type as criteria.

The main function of Czkawka is to help you eliminate duplicates. Additional filters are available at this point, allowing you to enter a minimum file size and a hash type to use (Blake3, CRC32 or XXH3). The list of files and their duplicates are displayed in an organized table, along with their path and the last modification date. Similar images and music files can also be displayed. Thanks to the custom selection tools, managing duplicates is easy.  Aside from duplicates, Czkawka can also find empty directories and files, temporary data and zeroed files that are unnecessarily stored on your PC. Moreover, you can use it to free up the system from broken files, invalid symlinks, and large files. This way, you save storage space and make sure you PC is running at top performance.

Removing unnecessary files from a PC is mandatory, as files pile up, ultimately occupying storage space that would otherwise take up stoarge space unnecessarily.  Czkawka is one of the tools you can use when wanting to perform a duplicate cleanup. It is available both as a GUI app and as a console application, allowing quick integration in a development project.