#Microsoft duplicate file cleaner how to#

If you'd rather not add any additional third party software to your system or learn your way around a new file explorer, it's worth mentioning that CCleaner has a duplicate file finder built in (Tools > Duplicate Finder), if you happen to use that already.

Those of you using the powerful File Explorer alternative Total Commander may know already that it includes the ability to search for duplicate files (it's on the second search page) among the dozens of other features it provides over the Windows File Explorer aimed at power users. This isn't helpful, of course, if you don't know which files have duplicates.

Without installing third party software, your only option is running a search for a specific file via Windows Explorer and manually deleting the duplicates that appear. While there are many options for accomplishing this sort of task with batch files or PowerShell scripts, we assume most people would prefer something that doesn't involve a command prompt. Windows doesn't make it easy to deal with duplicate files all by itself. Deleting duplicate files on your system could easily result in clean out that is similarly sizable if only a few large files are found.

#Microsoft duplicate file cleaner how to#

We've covered many ways that you can save space on your storage drives over the years, most recently discussing how to manually go through large files and testing cleanup utilities, resetting Windows to its default state without losing your files, and methods for deleting the Windows.old backup, in all scenarios potentially reclaiming several gigabytes of storage in the process.