Application Icon DupeKill

Download: DupeKill_v1.2.zip (82.60 KB) – 2020-02-19
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DupeKill_v1.2 ReadMe

Incredibly, I found room on the internet for yet another duplicate file remover. Like others, this tool compares files based on content and lists any files which have exact binary duplicates. What sets this one apart is that you can give it hints about which files you'd like to keep before starting a scan. For example; if you tell it to prefer files with the 'most descriptive name', the app look at all duplicate filenames and default to the shortest, most descriptive name as the one to keep. A file with a name containing "copy of", or ".1.txt" would be considered less descriptive than one without; and a file named "lkePic.jpg" is considered less descriptive than "Lake Pictures.jpg". This way the default keep or remove action is pre-set; and time you spend going though the list and making changes to keep the 'right' file is minimized. The tool has many other options to choose from to pick the default 'kept' file: use the newest or oldest by date, the longest or shortest filename, or specify one or more directories where files should always be kept or removed.

The app also makes use of a speed improvement I haven't seen anywhere else: It makes an extra pass of the file list to create a 'fasthash'. The fasthash uses small samples of the file (16 kilobytes), taken from the beginning, end, and three places in the middle; then does a duplicate check based on the hash of the samples. This is very quick for large files, and it helps eliminate the vast majority of potential duplicates very quickly, as most files will have different samples. Most other duplicate finders omit this step, but it really speeds things up.

As of beta 6 the app is fairly robust; avoiding most of the traps in this excellent reference.

Note: There's no fuzzy searching, this app only finds exact duplicates.

Usage Notes

Version 4.6.2 or better of the .net framework is required. Get it from Microsoft.

No installation; just unpack and run. A settings file and ancillary files may be created in the program folder.

Instructions:

  1. Pick a directory where you have duplicate files and hit scan.
  2. After the program identifies the duplicate files, you'll be given a list to choose what to keep and what to delete. The app makes suggestions, but you can make changes by right clicking and selecting delete or keep; Or by clicking the 'Action' column to toggle it. At this point scan results can be copied via the right click menu or exported in bulk via the 'Export Scan...' button.
  3. Hit the 'Execute Actions' button to run the selected actions. The app will warn you about deletions, and there's an extra warning if you're deleting all copies of a file. You can make a log to see what was done. The app will reset after this.

Each duplicate will have an action automatically assigned, and you can manually set the action by right clicking or using the keyboard. Available actions are: Keep [spacebar], Delete [delete key], Link [F4 key], Recycle, or Move. The context menu option 'Mark as auto' will reset the action to whatever was automatically assigned. The 'Invert Action' option will toggle the action between 'Keep' and whatever the default removal action is (set this in settings, by default it's 'Delete').

For complex searches, the 'Look In' drop-down has an 'Advanced criteria' option. Advanced criterias let you include or exclude multiple folders and have filtering options, as well as options to specify a default 'keep' or 'remove from' folder. These criteria can be named and permanently saved. To create a criteria, select 'Advanced Criteria..." from the 'Look In' drop-down; the Edit Criteria form will the show with further options.

When using Advanced Criteria the '...' button is used to edit an existing criteria. To remove a saved criteria: select it in the drop-down, edit it with the '...' button, and hit the 'Delete this Criteria' button in the lower left.

Notes about symbolic links

In recent versions the application can create symbolic links instead of deleting files. Symbolic links are like shortcuts, they point to the original file; this lets you keep the file's alternate name and location, without wasting the space of having the file's data duplicated.
A few caveats: +The app usually needs to be run as an administrator to create symbolic links. +At least one file must be kept to create links (obviously). +The links created by the app will always target the first file you are keeping.

Links are created in steps, to prevent inadvertent deletions if link creation fails; for each file we want to link we:
1: Rename the file we are removeing/replacing to a dummy name.
2: Try to create our link, using the original name from the file in step 1.
3: If creating the link suceeded, we delete the orginal (renamed) file.

Keyboard commands

After scanning, the following keys can be used on the file list:

Note: The directory textBox, in additon to specifying plain directories, can have wildcard '*' or any-character '?' filters. eg:

c:\*.txt
c:\documents\just_files_like_201?.txt

Command Line Usage:

ChangeLog

License Information

This software includes code or resources from the following sources:

This software is distributed as-is, without any representations or warranties of any kind.
The author of this software imposes no additional license terms or limits upon its use or redistribution.

Feedback/Bugs

Send to utils@cresstoehne.com
App Website

DocumentId: 3e1269d8fd8b796ff79724ae4d146f089db276aa
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DupeKill Screenshot
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