At some point in your PCs life it is going to get so jam packed with STUFF that you have no choice but to clean house. This is a good thing, because it means your PC is used enough to get a healthy dose of clutter and that some user loves it enough to clean it up. There are a number of tricks you can use to free up storage on your PC and reap the benefits of a faster system. A particularly good place to start is by eradicating duplicate files and folders on your hard drive. Most are surprised to find out how much superfluous data is sitting on their machines. For the average user, these are the top three tools we recommend to help you tackle the junk.
DoubleKiller – This all-purpose duplicate finder can not only scan folders but your entire hard drive, and even other PCs on your local network. By comparing file names, size, modification date, and even content, the program lets you know what things to get rid of, with your permission of course. You can also exclude files, if you are worried about accidentally being too clean. reports have been made that the infrastructure of the software can be a little tricky. If you get lost, start by adding some folders to scan under the Options tab, then go back to the DoubleKiller tab and click Run. When it has scanned your PC you can decided if you want to delete the files or move them to a new location.
dupeGuru Picture Edition – This tool is all about finding those pesky duplicates in your image folders. Pictures (especially if you are like me and have near 11,000 photos), are one of the top sources for duplicates. As people migrate to new PCs, restore data from back-ups, and extend pictures to the cloud, opportunity for random doubles arise. And I myself do not want to try to find each and every one of them. DupeGuru PE is very easy to use. A simple window appears with options to add folders for scanning. When you’ve decided the folders you would like scanned, just hit Scan and let the master take it away! Literally!
Winmerge – If you have lots of documents or text files this is the tool for you. Winmerge lets you compare two versions of a document, or an entire directory, and then view the actual differences between them on screen. You can choose to merge the text into one preferred document. Winmerge works differently then the other two tools on this list, as it does not search your entire hard drive for you. You have to know that you have two files or directories you’re comparing are similar or earlier versions of each other. This is effective in that you can see the differences and bring the files together into one version. The icons are designed to give the user visual cues to prompt you into understanding how everything works together.
Cheers to more storage!
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