Your computer is beginning to chug along. You can’t get it to load a webpage, let alone open the apps you use for work. You really don’t want to have to replace the computer.
What can you do?
There’s a chance that you have a lot of duplicate files bogging down your device. If you get rid of them, that should speed things up. The question is, how do you find them?
Is there some kind of duplicate file finder on Windows 10? There is one that’s built into most PCs, and if you don’t want to use that one, there are others available for download. Keep reading to learn more.
CCleaner
CCleaner probably sounds familiar. That’s because you’ve most likely seen it while browsing around your computer. It comes with most PCs.
Once you open it, look through the programs and features to find the one that you’re looking for. In this case, it’s going to be the duplicate file finder.
You can then customize the program to scan through your disk drives for duplicate files. It can search based on name, content, and dates.
The only problem with this program is that it almost has too many features. You’ll never use a lot of them, which means that they serve no other purpose but to use up space.
Auslogics Duplicate File Finder
If you’re not too good with computers, you’re not going to be able to navigate your way through a complicated user interface to choose features.
That’s what the Auslogics duplicate finder is for. It’s a simple-to-use app that doesn’t take a lot of effort to work with. When you go to install the app, you’ll see a lot of extra features check marked.
Go ahead and uncheck the ones that you don’t need. If you download every bit of software the program offers, it will slow down your machine.
Easy Duplicate Finder
The main benefit of this program is in the name. It’s an easy duplicate file finder for Windows. It has a drag and drop interface that you can figure out on your own, no matter how bad you are with technology.
If you can’t figure out how the interface works or you don’t want to bother with it, it has a wizard that will handle the entire process for you.
Not only will this program clear out duplicate files from your computer, but it can also take care of your Dropbox and Google Drive accounts. Have a Mac computer instead of Windows? That’s not a problem!
The software works great for both Windows and Mac. You can go here to get some fresh information on other duplicate finders that are compatible with Macbooks. For now, let’s move on to Copernic.
Copernic Desktop Search
Copernic is for those who need to clean up their computer in a hurry. It performs searches on both internal and external hard drives in seconds.
When it finds a duplicate file, you can preview it before choosing to delete it or not. If you’re looking for a file, in particular, Copernic has a search feature that will allow you to find it.
Duplicate Cleaner
Duplicate cleaner is another program with an interface that’s easy for beginners to use. You can make customizations to find documents based on dates, file types, and sizes.
You can tell the program exactly what folders you want to search in. When you’re done tweaking all the settings, you can save it so you can repeat the scan later when you want to perform another search.
dupeGuru
Unlike the other programs in this list, dupeGuru comes with three different versions. You can pick the standard one, the music one, or the edition for pictures.
The standard edition allows you to look for duplicates amongst almost all your files. The music edition is made with searching for mp3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, and ACC files in mind. The picture edition will make it easier for you to find duplicate image files.
No matter which edition you need, they’ll cost you nothing to download. So, you’re free to choose the one that you think that you’ll get the most use out of.
Duplicate Files Finder
The main benefit of Duplicate Files Finder is that it’s an older program. This means that it will work with older versions of Windows. We’ll warn you that the program hasn’t been updated in quite a while, but that’s okay.
It should still suit your purposes just fine. It’s pretty simple to use, and despite its age, it works pretty fast.
Getting Rid of the Files
Now that you know what programs are available to you, it’s time to learn how to get rid of those nasty files. First, open the program that you want to use. For the purpose of this article, we’ll use CCleaner.
In the tools section to the left of the program, click on the duplicate finder option. Since you’re new to this, we would recommend going with the default options.
When you’re ready, choose the folder or drive that you want to scan, and click the search button to begin. After a few minutes, you’ll see a list of duplicate files.
Click the ones that you want to delete. Keep in mind that once you finalize everything, that’s it. The selected files will be gone for good, so you want to double-check to make sure you’re not getting rid of anything important before you click on “delete selected.”
Using a Duplicate File Finder on Windows 10
The more files you have on your computer, the slower it’s going to run. When it comes time to clear up some memory, we suggest using a duplicate file finder.
One of these programs can find the documents that you have more than one of and allow you to get rid of them right there on the spot. If deleting the files doesn’t speed things up, check out the Computer section of our blog for more tips that should do the trick.