Duplicate files are inevitable. They continue to occur as long as you use your PC. Although it is not possible to entirely get rid of new duplicates, you can certainly identify and delete the existing ones.

Manually searching for duplicate files may not be feasible approach in a practical scenario. Typically files are divided into different types and scattered across different drives and directories,which makes it difficult to find and compare each file. For example: It is not uncommon to have the same text written over in a Text Document and a Rich Text File. So two files matching same name may not always be duplicates in nature.

This is where an automated duplicate finding software could help. One of the most popular freeware software offering this functionality that comes to my mind is CCleaner.

CCleaner is popularly known as a system cleaner that wipes out any temporary data stored on it. CCleaner has many features, and Duplicate Finder is among them. With a fraction of minutes you can get a list of all duplicate files found on your hard disk, and any other external storage connected to your PC..

Duplicate Files Compare Parameters

CCleaner gives you the choice to compare files by one or more different parameters such as name, size, last modification date and actual content. We will go through all of them one by one.

• Match Files By Name: As the name suggests, this parameter compares your files by their names. Files sharing the same name are considered duplicates. This is faster and easier than comparing files by their content. However, files sharing the same name may actually contain different data. Just because two text files share the same name doesn’t necessarily make them duplicates. Blindly deleting such files could cause severe data loss as there is a higher possibility of false positives, if not used with any other parameters.
• Match Files By Size: This parameter takes the file size into consideration. It will group files based on similar size such as 2 MB, 15 MB, 50 MB, etc. This is relatively secure when used along with file name criteria.
• Match Files By Modified Date: You can compare multiple files based on the last written date. This parameter alone cannot find identical documents. It could be used with other parameters.
• Match Files By Content: The content parameter takes the actual file text into consideration, which is the most accurate and safest way to find duplicates. There may be two files of different types containing the same text such as a Word Document (.docx) file and an OpenOffice Document (.odt). The content parameter should be able to find such duplicates.

What Does CCleaner Recommends?

Using a single parameter may not yield accurate results. The official CCleaner documentation recommends that you keep all parameters (Name, Size, Modified Date and Content) checked up in order to avoid false positives and potential data loss.

Include And Ignore Filters

Another important factor to consider while finding duplicates is to set up Include and Ignore filters. You can specify a size in MB to include ignore files exceeding a certain size. Similarly, you can ignore files that are smaller than a certain MB in size. 

Similarly you can include and exclude certain directories and/ drives on your system. You can select an entire drive, or some of It’s folders. There are also options to include and exclude files by their types such as .PDF, .DOCX, .JPEG, .MP4, and so on. You may use *.* to specify all files irrespective of their types.

CCleaner Is Much More Than A System Cleaner And Duplicate Finder

CCleaner is perhaps one of the most popular freeware software that provide a set of valuable utilities that perform specific functions. It cleans-up user’s machine by deleting temporary files. It is often recommended by experts to optimize system performance and run the computer at its optimum speed.

The Cleaner tab allows users to delete temporary system junk, Internet browsing history and other temporary Web content.You can delete temporary data pertaining to any browser- whether it is Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Firefox or Opera.

The Registry Cleaner feature deletes unwanted, obsolete and incorrect data from your Registry. This reduces the size of your Registry and makes your system run smoother like afresh. One thing that differentiates CCleaner from other Registry Cleaners is that it guides you through an elaborative wizard-based interface detailing information about each of the problems found in your Registry. Of course, you have an option to skip and fix all the problems with a single click.

The Uninstall function in CCleaner is particularly useful because it lists down all applications including some of the entries that are missed out in the Control Panel’s Uninstall page. Remember those unwanted games & apps automatically installed with a fresh Windows 10 installation? CCleaner provides an easy and safer way to remove such unwanted, unused applications and save your storage space.

CCleaner let’s you manage your startup items to boost the Windows startup performance. Minimal startup items would improve your computer’s performance.

CCleaner is equipped with a Data Wipe feature that can securely wipe out all the data from your hard disk before selling your computer to someone else. This ensures that no leftover traces are available of your personal files and data by overwriting your data again and again.