How To Locate & Secure Delete Duplicate Files

The more activity you perform on your computer, such as copy & paste operations from one directory to another, the more cluttered your hard disk will become. It's somewhat Inevitable that duplicate files are part of this equation and over time, this can lead to a significant amount of storage space being unnecessarily consumed. Trying to find such files can be a difficult task, hence In this tutorial, I will show you how to locate and securely delete duplicate files.


It's not only hard disk space that's of concern, but having more than one file with the exact same name, doesn't necessarily mean that It contains the same content. For Instance, let's assume you're working with a Microsoft Word file named My finances, and this Is stored In multiple directories. The last thing you need, Is to update these files thinking that you're only working with just the one file!

As such, It's crucial to get rid of every duplicate file on your computer and I will demonstrate how to do this, by using a very powerful tool named Auslogics Duplicate File Finder. You can download It from the official website, or via this reputable source.

Not only does this tool Identify duplicate files, but you also have the option to permanently delete them. After all, they're not needed, so It makes perfect sense to do so. Anyway, enough talk, let's get this tutorial started.

Step One:

Once you've downloaded Auslogics Duplicate File Finder, It must be Installed on your computer. The tool Is licensed as Ad-Supported, meaning It Installs other software during the Installation process. To avoid this, execute It and click on Custom Install as shown below.

Step Two:

Next, pay careful attention to the additional software It plans to Install. In this case, It's asking to Install Auslogics Driver Updater, so uncheck It's checkbox. Click Next to continue, and do the same with every other software.

Step Three:

On completion, select the Launch Duplicate File Finder checkbox, and then hit Finish.

Step Four:

The tool will now launch, so to the left of the window, choose your computer's Disk Drives. As marked In red, there's a couple of search options available. The first being Look for all file types, and the second Is a specific search, namely Look for these file types only. For the purpose of this tutorial, I've chosen the latter. Now hit the Search button.

Step Five:

It's searched for duplicate files on my system and as you can see, It's located 19 In total- all consuming close to 26 MB of hard disk space.

Step Six:

It's time to not only remove the duplicate files, but to also permanently delete them, by clicking on the arrow and hitting Permanently.

Step Seven:

A message will be displayed with a warning that the files will be permanently deleted, and cannot be recovered. Click OK to finalize the process.

Last Step:

As expected, my duplicate files have been permanently deleted. You can now exit the tool.

Final Thoughts:

There are countless duplicate file removal tools, but most either come at a cost, or do not have the option to permanently delete them. The entire process Is rather quick and It's duration depends on the capacity of your hard disk, and the number of files stored.