Duplicate files don’t pose an obvious threat to your PC, aside from cluttering your folders with extra versions of documents, photos, videos and other items. But as they accumulate, they’ll have a detrimental effect on the speed and stability of your system, without you realising they’re to blame.
Not only do duplicates consume valuable hard-drive space, but they also mean your computer has to work harder to perform everyday tasks. Whenever it runs a malware scan, updates its search index or creates a backup, it’s forced to include these unnecessary copies, which significantly slows everything down.
Duplicates creep on to your PC in a variety of ways. You may have downloaded the same files twice, copied items instead of moving them, selected ‘Save as’ instead of Save, backed up folders to the same drive, or installed a program that cloned files without your knowledge – Windows even does this itself.
Most PC clean-up software such as BleachBit doesn’t detect duplicate files, because they’re not classified as junk, which means you’re probably not even aware of the extent of the problem. Thankfully, there are reliable ways to find and remove these pointless copies, but there are also plenty of rip-off tools to avoid.
In this feature, we recommend the best genuinely free duplicate cleaners, to rid your PC, phone and tablet of redundant copies, and make them tidier and faster.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
• Scan your hard drive for all unwanted copies of files
• Safely remove duplicates without losing the original versions
• Compare the content of files as well as their names and sizes
• Automatically preview images before you delete them
• Search for similar files as well as exact doubles
• Merge duplicate photos on your phone or tablet
• Free up space in your online storage accounts
WHICH DUPLICATE REMOVER SHOULD YOU USE?
GOLD AWARD
AllDup
What we like
AllDup provides everything you need from a duplicate cleaner: it’s versatile, powerful and speedy, and doesn’t restrict any options to a paid-for version – because there isn’t one. This makes it ideal for removing unnecessary copies of any type of file from your PC – from photos and videos to documents and music – so you can free up drive space and speed up your system.
To get started with AllDup simply select the drives and folders to scan for duplicates on the Source Folders tab ( in our screenshot
