Cisdem Duplicate Finder for Windows User Guide

Cisdem Duplicate Finder is a software that helps you release the space on your PC, it can find and delete both the duplicate files and similar photos fast and accurately. To facilitate your use of Cisdem Duplicate Finder, below is a guide to help you to get started.

 

Getting Started

Online Installation

Cisdem Duplicate Finder for Windows uses an online installer, which requires an active Internet connection during installation.

1. Download the Cisdem Duplicate Finder installer.

Free Download

2. Double-click the downloaded .exe file to launch the installer.

3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

4. Once the installation is finished, launch Cisdem Duplicate Finder and start finding duplicate files.

Note:
Please make sure your Internet connection is stable during the installation process. The installer will download the required program files automatically.

Offline Installation

If your computer does not have an Internet connection, you can download the offline installation package below

Offline Download

After downloading the offline package:

1. Transfer the installation package to the target computer.

2. Double-click the installer to start the installation.

3. Follow the setup instructions to complete the installation.

Note:
The offline package contains all required installation files, so an Internet connection is not needed during installation.

 

Activation

After installing the program, you need to activate the program if you want to use the full version features.

1. Find Cisdem Duplicate Finder on the desktop or in the folder where you installed it, double click to run it, and then click the key icon at the right upper corner.

2. Copy-n-paste the license code into the popped-up window, click Activate.

 

Find Duplicate Files

Step 1 Select local folders or drives to scan

Click “+ Add Folders or Drives” from the “Scan Path” drop-down menu, then select the folders or drives you want to scan.

Most Windows users install the operating system on the C: drive. To prevent accidental deletion of important system files, Cisdem Duplicate Finder does not recommend scanning the entire C: drive, please select user profile folder instead.

 

Step 2 Search for Duplicate Files

Click "Scan Now", Cisdem Duplicate Finder starts scanning duplicates from the selected folders and drives.

a. Displays the total number of files scanned by Cisdem Duplicate Finder.

b. Displays the total number of duplicate files and similar images detected by Cisdem Duplicate Finder. Please note that this count includes both duplicate files/images and their original files.

c. Displays the total size of the duplicate files and similar images detected by Cisdem Duplicate Finder. The size calculation also includes the original files.

d. Displays the scan progress and the time elapsed during the scanning process.

 

Step 3 Select duplicate files/similar images for deletion.

For exact duplicates

By default, Cisdem automatically marks all exact duplicate files for deletion. If you only want to remove exact duplicates, simply click the “Delete” button to delete all selected files. You can also review the scan results and manually select files for deletion before removing them.

 

For similar images

Cisdem does not automatically mark similar photos for deletion. We recommend reviewing them manually before removing any files. If you want to automatically select similar images, you can drag your mouse to highlight the file groups in the left panel or press Ctrl + A to select all groups, then choose a suitable selection rule on the right panel.

Tips:

1. For similar images, the similarity rate will be displayed at the right upper corner of the image for your reference.

2. Click , you can adjust the similarity rate to filter the similar images that you want to delete.

3. Click , it is used to choose a rule to auto mark files from the highlight groups on the left panel.

If you click , it is used to choose a rule to auto mark files from a specific group.

 

4. You can view duplicate files in Thumbnail, List, or Info view. Simply click the corresponding icon  to switch between different viewing modes.

5. You can click here to adjust the sort of the duplicates by Name, Size, Count, Type and Selected. By default, the selected files are displayed first, if you want to preview all the similar images, you can click to choose Selected again, and then the unselected files will be displayed first.

Step 4 Delete marked duplicate files and similar images.

You can directly click the Delete button to delete all the marked files according to the removal method that you've selected in the Preferences setting, you can also click the triangle icon and choose to move to Trash, move to Folder or Permanently Delete those marked files.

Find Duplicate Music in iTunes

iTunes, as a free and easy-to-use music application, it is loved not only by Mac users, but also by Windows users. Same as the Mac version, iTunes for Windows also saves the music files into a Media folder, so if you want to delete the duplicate music files, you need to import the Media folder into Cisdem for scanning.

Step 1 Import the Media folder into Cisdem, click the Scan button to start detecting the duplicate songs.

Tips: If you don't know where the iTunes Media folder locates, you can run iTunes, click Edit > Preferences, click into the Advanced option, then you will see the location of iTunes Media folder.

 

Step 2 When the scan completes, click the Delete button to clear the duplicate songs in a click.

Tips:

Cisdem will only help you remove duplicate songs from the Media folder, if you want to completely delete those duplicate songs, please reference the sentences below:

1. Why can I still play those deleted music files after deleting them with Cisdem?

The duplicate music files are removed to Recycle Bin by default, and iTunes can automatically trace those deleted music files in the Recycle Bin when you play them in iTunes, so you need to permanently remove them from Recycle Bin if you don't want to play them in iTunes any more.

2. How can I remove the deleted music files from Music Library?

Step 1 Create a new playlist (such as playlist 1) by selecting ‘New Playlist’ in the File menuin iTunes, and then add all your songs to playlist 1;

Step 2 Create a smart playlist by selecting New Smart Playlist

Apply the rules listed in the below screenshot. By default, iTunes will list only one row as a rule. Press the plus button at the right in that row to create the second rule. Click OK.

Step 3 All the deleted songs will be moved to the newly created smart playlist, press Ctrl+A to highlight all of them and select "Delete from Library" to delete them from your Music library.

 

Find Duplicates in OneDrive and Dropbox

In addition to local drives, Cisdem Duplicate Finder also supports scaning duplicates from a Cloud drive, including One Drive and Dropbox.

Step 1 Import files from OneDrive or Dropbox

Click  on the left side and choose OneDrive or Dropbox, enter your OneDrive/Dropbox account in the following website, accept the authorization from Cisdem Duplicate to access files on OneDrive/Dropbox. Click "Back to Application" after the authorization is succefully. And then check the directories that you want to add into Cisdem Duplicate Finder for scanning.

Tips: If you've previously added the OneDrive/Dropbox account, the account will be automatically saved and you can directly choose an account to import the directories without re-authorizing.

 

Step 2 Scan for duplicates and similar images

Click the Scan button to start scanning, wait for the scan to complete. Please make sure your Internet is stable during the scan.

 

Step 3 Delete selected duplicates or similar images.

After the scan completes, you can review all the files Cisdem scans out and make a desiction to delete the files that you don't need.

Tips:

1. Please make sure the Internet connection is stable during the scan.

2. The selected files will be removed to the OneDrive/Dropbox's recyble bin.

3. Cisdem Duplicate Finder will auto select duplicates for deletion. For similar images, it will not auto select them for deletion, if you want to, you can press CTRL+A to highlight all the groups of similar images on the left panel and choose a proper rule on the right side to auto select them for deletion.

 

Customize Scan Settings

In order to meet the needs for different users, you are allowed to do some customized settings by clicking  

General: You can use this option to change scan settings.

1. Remove method: Cisdem Duplicate Finder removes duplicate files to the Recycle Bin by default, you can also select to remove permanently or move to a specific folder.

2. Select minimum and maximum file size: This option allows you to set a range of the file sizes to scan.

3. Ignore folders and files in the list: Click the Add button, you can import the folders and files that you don't want Cisdem to scan.

4. Scan only file formats: Cisdem will only scan the files in the formats added in the following box.

5. Ignore scanning file formats: Cisdem will not scan the files in the formats added in the following box.

6. Ignore system hidden folders and files: It is checked by default to avoid deleting the system files.

7. You can click "Default" to reset the settings to the original ones.

 

Duplicate files: You can set scan and removal rules of duplicate files.

1. Scan method

Randomyly read parts of the file for comparision to improve scanning efficiency: it will pick 3KB from the beginning, middle or end of the file and compare if they are the same, if yes, they will be considered as duplicates.

Read the entire files contents to improve accuracy: it will compare the files byte by byte, with this scan method, it is more accurate, but the scan will be slow. It can be used to compare the files that differ by only a few bytes.

Files with same name and size: it will detect the file's extension, name and size, if they are the same, then the files will be considered as duplicates.
 

2. Select duplicates for removal following preset rules below

Select newest duplicates for removal: The latest created duplicates will be priority selected to remove.

Select oldest duplicates for removal: The earliest created duplicates will be priority selected to remove.

Select duplicates for removal by filename: This is a defaulted option. For example, if there are two duplicate files, one of the files is named as Document, and the other one is named as Document 1, then Document 1 will be priority selected to remove.

Select duplicates for removal from prioritized location: You can set the path here, if the duplicates belong to one of the setting paths, it will be priority selected to remove. The larger the value, the higher priority to delete.

Note: The value of the path that are not added into the list is 0, the default value of the added path is 1, if you don't want to delete the duplicates from a path, you can set the value as -1. What's more, if you only want to delete the duplicates from a path, you can just add this one path into the list and set the value as 1.

 

Similar Images: You can set scan and removal rules of similar images.

1. Enable similar images function: This option is marked by default, if you don’t want to detect the similar images, you can cancel this option before scanning.

No matter the Histogram similarity or the Features similarity, the larger the value, the more accurate the result.

2. No comparision between different types of images: If you  checked this option, it means Cisdem will not compare the files in different formats. For example, it will not compare images between .jpg and .tiff.

3. Compare images with similar size and aspect ratio (within ratio) : If the value is set to 4, which means the similar images will be ignored if their size and aspect ratio differs by more than 4 times.

4. Select similar Images for removal following preset rules below: This option is unmarked by default, if you want to auto select the similar images for deletion when the scan completes, you can manually mark this option before start scanning.

Follow the duplicates removal rule: Follow the rule that you’ve selected under the Duplicate files tab.

Select high-resolution similar images for removal/ Select high-quality similar images for removal: If you want to save the space on your hard drive, you can select this option to remove images with higher resolution or higher quality.

Select low-resolution similar images for removal/Select low-quality similar images for removal: If you want to keep sharper photos, you can select this option.

 

Update Cisdem Duplicate Finder

We always suggest users to use the latest version of the program.

When you launch Cisdem Duplicate Finder, Cisdem will auto check for updates.

Also, you can click  > Check for Updates to manually update it.