Where to look

We need to tell the program where to look for duplicate files!

The Where to look tab is where you tell Duplicate Cleaner the locations to search. On the left is the Available folders tree - this shows the drives, devices and locations on your computer or attached to it. From here you choose what to add to the Folders to search list on the right. The Folders to search list shows where the program should look during the scan, and how it should treat the folders it finds there.

Duplicate Cleaner can use normal local paths (for example D:\Folder on Windows, or /Users/me/Pictures on macOS) or network paths (for example \\Host\Share\path\).

Available folders

This is the tree of available drives and folders. Select a folder and click the add arrow, or press Space, to add it to the Folders to search list. The tree also contains:

• Favorites - folders you use often. Right-click a folder and choose Add to favorites.
• Network shares - network locations you have typed in. To add one, type or paste its path into the box above the tree and press Enter.
• Virtual folders - offline snapshots of drives and folders, made with the Virtual folders tool. These can be added to the scan in the same way as normal folders.

You can type or paste any path into the box at the top of the tree and press Enter to go to it. Show hidden shows hidden folders in the tree, and Refresh folders reloads it if a drive or device is missing.

Right-click a folder for more actions:

• Add folder (Space) - Add the folder to the Folders to search list.
• Exclude folder (Delete) - Add the folder to the list as Excluded, so it is skipped.
• Add to favorites / Remove from favorites
• Remove network share - Remove a network location from the tree.
• Show folder in File Explorer (Ctrl+Enter) - Open the folder in File Explorer (Finder on macOS, your file manager on Linux).
• Refresh folders (F5)
• Properties - Show the folder’s properties.

Folders to search

This list contains the paths that are to be scanned. The folders are grouped by drive or device, with a header showing the drive’s name and how much space is used on it. A drive that is not connected is marked Not connected, and a folder that is missing is marked with a warning icon.

You can also paste folder paths into the list with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on macOS).

Each folder has these settings. Click a setting to change it, or select one or more folders and right-click to change them all at once.

Status

• Included - The path will be included in the scan.
• Excluded - This path (and its subfolders) will not be scanned.

Excluding a folder is a handy way of skipping part of a larger folder you are scanning - add the parent as Included and the subfolder as Excluded. You can also press + and - to include or exclude the selected folders.

Protected

Files in a protected folder cannot be marked or removed. You can set this on any folder you want to keep safe. Protected files still appear in the results, with a lock in place of their checkbox.

Scan subfolders

All subfolders of this folder are included in the scan, with the same settings as the folder.

Find duplicates

This setting controls the duplicate matching behaviour for this folder (and subfolders if applicable).

• No - No files from this folder will be matched as duplicates, though they may be shown in the Remaining files tab if Show remaining/unique files is set.
• Yes - All files in this folder are scanned for duplicates, both inside and outside this folder.
• Master - The folder is a master folder: only find duplicates which match files in this folder (see below). All files in this folder are scanned for duplicates, both inside and outside this folder.
• External only - Files in this folder (and optionally its subfolders) must match with duplicates outside this folder. Duplicates which only exist inside this folder won’t be considered.
• External only+Master - The folder is a master folder and will only match with files outside this folder. This is the above two settings combined.
• Internal only - Files in this folder (and optionally its subfolders) will only match with other files in this folder.

All options except Yes require Duplicate Cleaner Pro.

Master folders

When a folder is set to Master, files in other non-master folders which do not match files in the master are ignored in the scan. This way you can check for files which specifically duplicate a certain folder or drive. You can set the Master flag on one or more folders.

For example, in a scan with two folders to search:

Folder 1: Master folder (D:\)
    File A
    File B
    File C
    File D

Folder 2: (G:\Backup\)
    File A   [Will match as a duplicate of File A in the master folder]
    File B
    File B   [Will match as a duplicate of File B in this folder and File B in the master folder]
    File E   [No duplicate - ignored]
    File F
    File F   [Duplicated in this folder, but ignored as not in the master folder]

Show remaining/unique files

If set to Yes, any files in this folder which do not have duplicates will be listed on the Remaining files tab.

If this folder is also set to Find duplicates - External only then all files which do not have duplicates in other folders will be listed as remaining - even if they have duplicates within their own folder.

More actions

Right-click the list for these actions as well:

• Add to favorites
• Enter folder name… - Type or paste a folder path to add.
• Select folder… - Browse for a folder to add.
• Remove folder (Delete) - Remove the selected folders from the list.
• Clear list (Ctrl+Delete) - Remove all folders from the list.
• Locate folder in tree (Ctrl+L) - Find the selected folder in the Available folders tree.
• Show folder in File Explorer (Ctrl+Enter)
• Properties

The buttons below the list remove the selected folder, clear the list, and refresh the list (for example after plugging in a drive).

Advanced folder search options

Below the lists are advanced folder search options, which control things such as skipping system and hidden folders, and finding duplicate folders.