There's a lot to like about simple software - especially simple utilities such as Auslogics' Duplicate File Finder. Duplicate File Finder features a clear interface and speedy operation, while Duplicate Cleaner identifies more types of doubled-up files but is trickier to use, which means you're more likely to delete a file your system needs.įast and friendly way to spot file copies The two I tried - Duplicate File Finder from Auslogics and Digital Volcano's Duplicate Cleaner - take very different approaches to dupe removal.

Several free utilities promise to hasten the file-cleanup process. If you rely on the file-management tools in Windows to root out unnecessary, space-clogging files, you're in for a long day of folder hopping. When my year-old laptop started running low on disk space, I knew one of the fastest ways to recover some lost hard-disk storage was to give the machine's duplicate files the boot. It doesn't take long for a computer to collect duplicate copies of all sorts of files.

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