AllDup Manual

About AllDup
Product description
Requirements
Important note

AllDup Main Window

Main window
Source folders
Search methods

Find duplicate files on the basis of their properties

Find similar file names
Find similar pictures
Find similar music
Find video & audio files on the basis of the audio length
Find hard links

Search options
Archive files
Database
Filter

File filter
Folder filter
Windows Environment variables

File preview
Profiles
Stored search results
Options
Internet-Update

Search Result
 Search result
Menu bar / Tool bar
Context menu
File manager
Shortcuts

Miscellaneous
Command-line
Wildcards for text
Placeholder for date and time
Speed comparison test
AllDup

Find and remove duplicate f iles

AllDup is professional software for finding duplicate files on your hard drives. The search for file
duplicates can be carried out using various file properties such as file name, file extension, size
or content. You can also use AllDup to find similar pictures, similar file names or similar music
files. The found duplicate files can be deleted, copied, moved or renamed using the File
Manager. A variety of program options allow you to search for duplicate files exactly according to
your needs. AllDup is Freeware and can be used free of charge by private users and
companies.

AllDup Features
Find similar files
List non-duplicate files
Search for duplicates of music and video files
Search for hard links
Search is performed in multiple specified folders, drives, media storages, CD/DVDs, ...
Convenient search result list with all duplicate files
Create shortcuts or hard links to the last original file
The unnecessary duplicates can be deleted permanently
Search for duplicates of executable and any other files
For your safety all files that have to be deleted can be moved in backup folder
Save and restore the search result to continue working later
Search for duplicates of digital photo files
The built-in file viewer allows you to preview many different file formats and analyze the
content of the file before deciding what to do with it
 Delete duplicates files and create hard links
Search for similar pictures
Ignore the metadata of FLAC files
Find duplicate files with a combination of the following criteria: file content, file name, file
extension, file dates or file attributes!
Search for files with similar names
Fast search algorithm
Search through an unlimited number of files and folders
Search inside archives with the following files extensions: 7Z, ARJ, CAB, CB7, CBR, CBT,
CBZ, EPUB, GZ, ISO, LZH, LHA, NRG, RAR, TAR, ZIP
Ignore the ID3 tags of MP3 files
Ignore the EXIF data of JPEG and CR2 files
Find video & music files with the same or almost same audio length
Detailed log file about all actions
For your safety all files that have to be deleted can be moved to the Recycle Bin
Many flexible commands help you to select unnecessary duplicates automatically
Export the search result to a text file, CSV file or an Excel file
The file duplicates can be copied or moved to a folder of your choice
Find duplicate pictures
Entire folders or individual files can be excluded from the search by masks or size conditions

What AllDup can do for you?

Finding out whether a file has hard links!
Find duplicate MP3 files with different ID3 Tags!
Delete duplicate music files!
Find and remove duplicate files!
Remove duplicate files - Easily and Anywhere!
Free up used hard disk space on your PC!
Remove duplicate files - as you want!
AllDup is a powerful tool to search for file duplicates on your computer!
Find files with similar names
Find, remove, delete, copy or move duplicate files!
Find similar pictures
It can be especially useful if you have large Music, Pictures, Downloads or Documents
folders!
Clear your computer, music or photo collection from duplicate files!
Find and remove duplicate files from your computer, notebook, network drives, flash drives,
memory drives!
Find duplicate pictures
Remove duplicate files faster and safer than with any other duplicate file finder!
Find and delete hard links
No more file clones or file duplicates!
Find and delete duplicate files!
AllDup helps you to find, view and remove files that have duplicate content, regardless of
name!
Find duplicate photos
Find and remove duplicate files of ANY type!
Find similar music files
Remove duplicate photos and images!
Find and create hard links of your duplicate files!
AllDup Requirements
Operating System
AllDup is compatible with all versions of the following operating systems (32/64-bit):

Microsoft Windows Workstation

Microsoft Windows 11
Microsoft Windows 10
Microsoft Windows 8
Microsoft Windows 7
Microsoft Windows Vista*
Microsoft Windows XP*

Microsoft Windows Server

Microsoft Windows Server 2022
Microsoft Windows Server 2019
Microsoft Windows Server 2016
Microsoft Windows Server 2012
Microsoft Windows Server 2008*
Microsoft Windows Server 2003*

* AllDup can only be installed from Windows 7 / Server 2012. Use the Portable Edition if you
want to use AllDup with these older versions of Windows.
Important Note
Deleting, moving or renaming files can prevent Windows or programs from starting. You should
only delete, move or rename files if you are absolutely sure that they are not required for the
operation of Windows or other programs.

Please understand that we cannot give you any individual assistance with questions about which
files may be deleted.
AllDup Main Window

Toolbars
Top toolbar
Start search
This starts the search for duplicate files.
Search Results
All saved search results are listed here.
Profiles
All saved profiles are listed here.
Options
Here you can configure various program options.
Log
The log of the last search is displayed here.
Language
Here you can change the language of the user interface or start a new translation of the
user interface.
Help
With this you can open the help file, the Internet update or the AllDup about window.
 Exit
With this you can exit AllDup.
Donate
This opens the AllDup donation page on the internet.

Bottom Toolbar
Source Folders
Here is the list of source folders that will be searched for duplicate files.
Search Method
The search method is specified here.
Search Options
Various search options can be specified here.
Archive Files
Here you can specify whether archive files should be searched for duplicate files.
Database
Here you can specify whether checksums should be saved in a database.
File Filter
With the File filter you can exclude specific files from the search.
Folder Filter
With the folder filter you can exclude certain folders from the search.
File Preview
Here you can specify which plugin should be used to display a file in the search result in the
file preview.
Source Folders
Source Folder List
In the source folder list, you can specify which drives and folders to scan for duplicate files. You
enable a source folder for searching by checking the box in front of the folder path.

Exclude Subfolders
If you clear the checkbox in the 'Search all subfolders' column for a source folder, then all
subfolders in this source folder will be excluded from the search.

File Protection
If you activate the checkbox in the 'File protection' column for a source folder, then AllDup
cannot delete, move or rename any files within this source folder. File protection can be changed
later, if necessary, in the search result using the File protection menu item in the menu bar.

Add new source folder

You can add a new folder to the source folder list by clicking the 'Source Folder' button in the
toolbar, by right-clicking in the source folder list, by clicking the '+' button in the top right corner of
the source folder list or drag and drop a folder from Windows Explorer into the source folder list.

Edit source folder

If you right-click on a source folder, you will see a menu with various commands, such as 'Edit',
'Delete', 'Open', ...

Comparison Methods
Compare files from all source folders
With this comparison method, the files from all source folders are compared with each other.

Compare only files within the same source folder

This comparison method does not compare files that are in different source folders.

Example:
 1. Source Folder: C:\Data
2. Source Folder: D:\Server

Files:

1. C:\Data\Work\info.txt
2. C:\Data\Home\info.txt
3. D:\Server\Work\info.txt
4. D:\Server\Home\info.txt

A comparison between the files from the two source folders does not take place. Only files 1
& 2 and 3 & 4 are compared.

Compare only files between different source folders

This comparison method does not compare files that are in the same source folder.

Example:

1. Source Folder: C:\Data

2. Source Folder: D:\Server

Files:

1. C:\Data\Work\test.txt
2. C:\Data\Home\info.txt
3. D:\Server\Backup\data.txt

Files 1 and 2 are not compared. Only files 1 & 3 and 2 & 3 are compared with each other.

Compare only files within the same source and sub folder

This comparison method only compares files that are in the same source folder and the same
subfolder.

Example:

1. Source Folder: C:\Data

2. Source Folder: D:\Server

Files:

1. C:\Data\Work\info.txt
2. C:\Data\Home\info.txt
 3. C:\Data\Home\todo.txt
4. D:\Server\Work\info.txt
5. D:\Server\Work\prg.txt
6. D:\Server\Home\info.txt

Only files 2 & 3 and 4 & 5 are compared.

Options
Don't search folders (NTFS junction points) that point to the contents of
another folder
NTFS junction points are empty folders that point to the contents of another folder. This option
enables you to prevent these folders from being searched and processed. This option is
activated by default. When deactivating this option you should check first that no loops are
created by the junction points and no data items are processed twice.

Disable Windows 64-bit file system redirection

This option enables AllDup to determine the correct count of all system files on a 64-bit Windows
system.
Search Methods
The following search methods are available to find duplicate files:

Find duplicate files on the basis of their properties

Find similar file names
Find similar pictures
Find similar audio files
Find video & audio files on the basis of the audio length
Find hard links

Options
Don't compare hard linked files
With this option, no hard link files are compared in terms of content for the search criteria File
Content and Find similar pictures.
Find Duplicate Files on the Basis of
their Properties
With this search method, you can combine the following file properties to search for duplicate
files:

File NameFinds files with the same name (without extension)

File Extension
Finds files with the same extension
File Size
Finds files with the same size
File Content
Finds files with the same or similar content
Last Modified Date
Finds files with the same last modified date
Creation Date
Finds files with the same creation date
File Attributes
Finds files with the same attributes

Options
Ignore timestamp
This option enables you to ignore the timestamp when using the search method creation date or
last modified date.

Ignore seconds
This option enables you to ignore the seconds from the timestamp when using the search
method creation date or last modified date.
File Name
This file property can be used to find files with the same or a similar name.

Comparison Methods
The following comparison methods are available for comparing the file names:

Compare all characters of a file name

With this comparison method, the complete file name is compared.

Compare only characters at the beginning of a file name
With this comparison method, only a certain number of characters at the beginning of a file
name are compared.
Compare only characters at the end of a file name
With this comparison method, only a certain number of characters at the end of a file name
are compared.
Ignore characters at the end of a file name
With this comparison method, a certain number of characters at the end of a file name can be
ignored.

Ignore cer tain characters in f ilenames

This option allows certain characters to be ignored when comparing file names. For example, if
you specify the plus and minus signs (+-) in the text field, then the file names 'Test-01' and
'Test+01' are recognized as equal.

Ignore cer tain strings in f ilenames

With this option certain strings can be ignored when comparing file names. Multiple strings must
be separated with a slash character (/). For example, if you specify the string "001/002", then the
filenames 'Test001' and 'Test002' will be recognized as duplicates.
File Content
This file property can be used to find files with the same or similar content.

Comparison Method
The following methods are available for the content comparison:

Byte by byte
Checksum MD5 (128-Bit)
Checksum SHA-1 (160-Bit)
Checksum SHA-2 (256-Bit)
Checksum SHA-2 (384-Bit)
Checksum SHA-2 (512-Bit)

Byte by byte
With this comparison method, the content of the files to be compared is read in chunk by chunk
and compared with one another. With a specified percentage match of 100%, the file
comparison stops as soon as a difference is found. If the percentage match is less than 100%,
the complete file content is always compared so that the percentage match can be calculated.
Example: If a percentage match of 90% is specified, all files that have a match of 90% or higher
are classified as duplicates.

Checksum
The checksum method reads the complete file content and creates a checksum of the content
for further comparisons. Using a checksum could be much faster than a byte-by-byte
comparison when you compare a lot of files. Comparing only the stored checksum will avoid
reading the complete content of these files again and again. See Speed Comparison Test.

Ignore ID3 Tags of MP3 files

This option enables you to ignore the following tags inside MP3 files:

ID3v1
ID3v2
Lyrics3 v2
 APE v2

Info: AllDup also ignores ID3v2 tags at the beginning of the MP3 file that exists twice and ID3v1
tags at the end of the file that exists twice.

Ignore metadata of JPEG/CR2 files

With this option, only the compressed image data inside files with the extension "JPEG", "JPG"
and "CR2" will be compared.

Ignore metadata of FLAC files

This option enables you to ignore all the metadata inside FLAC files.

First compare a data block at the end of the files

With this option a data block at the end of both files will be compared first. The file comparison
will be stopped if the data blocks are not identical. Otherwise, AllDup continues the file
comparison at the start of the file.

Block size of the read buffer

This option enables you to change the block size of the read buffer for the content compare.

1. The file comparison starts with a block size specified by the start value.
2. AllDup reads the block size from the two files into the memory and compares them.
3. The file comparison will be stopped if the data blocks are not identical.
4. Otherwise, the block size will be increased by the increment value until it reaches the
maximum value and continues comparing the files (2).
Find Similar File Names
Comparison Method
The following comparison methods are available:

SmartMatch
FuzzyMatch
Levenshtein
Ratcliff-Obershelp
MatchDiff
WordMatch
FuzzyPercent
Simil

All comparison methods except WordMatch performing different text comparisons and
calculations between the two file names to calculate the perceptual match between them. The
comparison method WordMatch splits the file names into separate words and calculates the
perceptual match by comparing the words. All comparison methods are case-insensitive,
meaning no distinction is made between uppercasing and lowercasing when performing the
comparison.

Match
This is the degree of match that must exist between the file names in order to be offered as
duplicates.

Delimiter
Here you can specify the delimiter characters for the comparison method WordMatch to split the
file names into words. For example the file name "aa_bb_cc" will be split into the word collection
"aa", "bb" and "cc" by using the delimiter character underscore ("_"). The standard delimiter
characters are space (" "), comma (","), underscore ("_"), dot ("."), semicolon (";") and minus ("-
"). You can specify any number of delimiter characters.

Examples
The following file name comparison examples give you an overview which comparison method
could be suitable for your search for similar file names. The duration at the right table column
shows the necessary time to perform 10.000 file name comparisons.

1. Example
File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart"

COMPARISON METHOD MATCH DURATION

FuzzyMatch 88,34% 0,63s

SmartMatch 91,30% 0,75s

Levenshtein 91,30% 1,16s

Ratcliff-Obershelp 82,61% 1,53s

MatchDiff 91,30% 0,09s

WordMatch 100,00% 0,33s

FuzzyPercent 56,58% 0,33s

Simil 83,33% 0,01s

2. Example
File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 001"
File name B: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - 002"

COMPARISON METHOD MATCH DURATION

FuzzyMatch 96,43% 1,41s

SmartMatch 96,55% 1,09s

Levenshtein 96,55% 1,83s

Ratcliff-Obershelp 96,55% 0,22s

MatchDiff 96,55% 0,07s

WordMatch 75,00% 0,50s

FuzzyPercent 98,06% 0,54s

Simil 93,33% 0,01s

3. Example
File name A: "001 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "002 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"

COMPARISON METHOD MATCH DURATION

FuzzyMatch 96,31% 1,38s

SmartMatch 96,55% 1,00s

Levenshtein 96,55% 1,81s

Ratcliff-Obershelp 96,55% 0,60s

MatchDiff 96,55% 0,07s

WordMatch 75,00% 0,42s

FuzzyPercent 71,84% 0,49s

Simil 93,33% 0,01s

4. Example
File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - BACKUP"

COMPARISON METHOD MATCH DURATION

FuzzyMatch 70,97% 1,93s

SmartMatch 83,64% 0,83s

Levenshtein 71,88% 1,59s

Ratcliff-Obershelp 83,64% 0,15s

MatchDiff 71,88% 0,05s

WordMatch 75,00% 0,39s

FuzzyPercent 77,95% 0,91s

Simil 78,57% 0,01s

5. Example
File name A: "Wolfgang - Amadeus , Mozart"
File name B: "Mozart_Amadeus;Wolfgang"

COMPARISON METHOD MATCH DURATION

FuzzyMatch 49,29% 0,42s

SmartMatch 32,00% 0,53s

Levenshtein 37,04% 1,43s

Ratcliff-Obershelp 32,00% 1,88s

MatchDiff 29,63% 0,30s

WordMatch 100,00% 0,36s

FuzzyPercent 26,32% 0,38s

Simil 23,08% 0,02s

6. Example
File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus"

COMPARISON METHOD MATCH DURATION

FuzzyMatch 70,55% 0,65s

SmartMatch 69,57% 0,56s

Levenshtein 39,13% 1,20s

Ratcliff-Obershelp 69,57% 0,40s

MatchDiff 69,57% 0,17s

WordMatch 100,00% 0,34s

FuzzyPercent 57,89% 0,37s

Simil 0,00% 0,01s

7. Example
File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "Wulfgang Amadues Mazort"
COMPARISON METHOD MATCH DURATION

FuzzyMatch 88,54% 0,86s

SmartMatch 82,61% 0,66s

Levenshtein 78,26% 1,23s

Ratcliff-Obershelp 73,91% 1,30s

MatchDiff 82,61% 0,26s

WordMatch 0,00% 0,33s

FuzzyPercent 36,84% 0,33s

Simil 58,33% 0,02s

8. Example
File name A: "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart"
File name B: "Ludwig van Beethoven"

COMPARISON METHOD MATCH DURATION

FuzzyMatch 37,15% 1,07s

SmartMatch 32,56% 0,75s

Levenshtein 21,74% 1,13s

Ratcliff-Obershelp 27,91% 3,68s

MatchDiff 21,74% 0,61s

WordMatch 0,00% 0,30s

FuzzyPercent 5,26% 0,29s

Simil 0,00% 0,01s

9. Example
File name A: "Beethoven"
File name B: "nevohteeb"

COMPARISON METHOD MATCH DURATION

FuzzyMatch 72,22% 0,21s

COMPARISON METHOD MATCH DURATION

SmartMatch 22,22% 0,14s

Levenshtein 33,33% 0,25s

Ratcliff 22,22% 0,34s

MatchDiff 22,22% 0,14s

WordMatch 0,00% 0,15s

FuzzyPercent 8,70% 0,12s

Simil 0,00% 0,01s

Find Similar Pictures
This search method enables you to find similar or almost identical pictures. For each image will
be a checksum calculated for further comparison with all other images.

Comparison Method
Hints
Image Formats
Percentage Match
Picture Area
Compare Size
Checksum
Compare only pictures with the same properties
Detect picture modifications (slower)
Recognition Rate Test
Examples

Comparison Method
The comparison methods aHash, bHash, dHash, mHash and pHash enables you to find similar
or almost identical pictures by using a percent match lower than 100%. If you want to find
exactly the same pictures you have to use a percent match of 100% or the comparison methods
MD5/SHA. An overview of the recognition rate of the comparison methods aHash, bHash,
dHash, mHash and pHash can be found here. You can find more information about the
comparison methods aHash, bHash, dHash, mHash and pHash in the articles Testing different
image hash functions and Detection of Duplicate Images Using Image Hash Functions on
the Internet.

aHash
The comparison method aHash (Average Hash ) resizes the image to 8x8 or 16x16 pixel.
The image is then converted to grayscale and the average color value of all image pixels is
calculated. Then all image pixels are compared with the average color value and the
checksum is calculated.
 bHash

The comparison method bHash (Blockhash ) resizes the image to 128x128, 256x256 or
512x512 pixel. The image will be divided into a block matrix and the median value of all
blocks will be calculated to create the checksum. The options "Fast" and "Precise" enables
you to influence the accuracy of the checksum calculation.

dHash
The comparison method dHash (Difference Hash ) resizes the image to 8x8 or 16x16 pixel.
After that, the image is converted to grayscale and the checksum is created by comparing the
difference in brightness values ??between all neighboring pixels.

mHash
The comparison method mHash (Median Hash ) resizes the image to 8x8 or 16x16 pixel.
The image is then converted to grayscale and the mean color value of all image pixels is
determined. Then all image pixels are compared with the mean color value and the checksum
is calculated.

pHash
The comparison method pHash (Perceptual Hash ) resizes the image to 32x32 pixel. The
image is then converted to grayscale and transformed by a discrete cosine transform (DCT).
Next, the mean color value of all pixels in the image area (8x8) in the top left of the image is
determined. Then the checksum is calculated by comparing the color value of all pixels from
the top left image area with the mean color value.

MD5, SHA
These comparison methods can only be used to find exactly the same images. The following
comparison methods are available:

MD5 (128-Bit)
SHA-1 (160-Bit)
SHA-2 (256-Bit)
SHA-2 (384-Bit)
SHA-2 (512-Bit)

Calculation time of the checksums

Using the comparison methods aHash, bHash, dHash, mHash and pHash, we have calculated
the time required to create a checksum and listed it in the following table:

COMPARISON METHOD PICTURE AREA CHECKSUM EXPENDITURE OF TIME

aHash 8x8 64-bit 0,0450 ms

aHash 16x16 256-bit 0,1425 ms

bHash (fast) 256x256 256-bit 9,6030 ms

bHash (precise) 256x256 256-bit 28,4792 ms

dHash 8x8 64-bit 0,0458 ms

dHash 16x16 256-bit 0,0988 ms

mHash 8x8 64-bit 0,1435 ms

mHash 16x16 256-bit 1,1012 ms

pHash 32x32 64-bit 8,6922 ms

Hints
The following files will be automatically excluded from the search:

Files with a size of 0 bytes

Pictures with a width or height smaller than the specified compare size
Corrupted, invalid or incomplete pictures (*)
Files with a blocked read access (*)

(*) An error message will be shown at the log pane.

Image Formats
Here you can specify which image formats should be checked during a search. Image files with
the following file extensions are supported: 3FR, ARW, BMP, CR2, CRW, CUT, DCR, DIB, DNG,
EMF, ERF, GIF, HDP, ICO, IFF, J2C, J2K, JP2, JPE, JPG, JPEG, JPX, JFIF, KDC, MDC, MEF,
MOS, MRW, NEF, ORF, PEF, PBM, PCX, PGM, PNG, PPM, PSD, RAF, RAS, RAW, RW2, SRW,
TGA, TIF, TIFF, RAS, RLE, WBMP, WEBP, WMF and X3F.
Percentage Match
Here you can specify the minimum percentage matching of two pictures. The calculated
percentage matching between two pictures will be shown at the column Match. The percentage
always refers to the reference picture of a group which will be shown in a different text color.

Picture Area
This option enables you to specify the picture area to be used to create the checksum. The
following options are available:

1. entire picture
2. area in the upper left corner
3. area in the upper right corner
4. area in the lower left corner
5. area in the lower right corner

When using the options 2, 3, 4 or 5, the size of the picture area can be specified in pixel. For
example, a value of 16 pixel will be using a picture area with a width and height of 16 pixel at the
selected corner.

Compare Size
Here you can specify the maximum width and height of the pictures to be compared. A lower
compare size finds more similar pictures and speeds up the comparison time. A higher compare
size finds more identical pictures and less similar pictures and of course needs more time to
compare them.

Checksum
The size of the checksum in bits is displayed here. The checksum can only be changed when
using the bHash comparison method.

Compare only pictures with the same proper ties

This option will be performed before the option Detect picture modifications. The following
picture properties are available:

File Name
This option enables you to compare only pictures with the same file name.

File Extension
This option enables you to compare only pictures with the same file extension.

Width and Height

This option enables you to compare only pictures with the same width and height.

Orientation
This option enables you to compare only pictures with the same orientation (portrait or
landscape).

Aspect Ratio
This option enables you to compare only pictures with the same aspect ratio. The calculation of
the aspect ratio is done by the formula "width divided by height". The result of the calculation is
truncated to one decimal place. A picture with 1920x1080 pixel has an aspect ratio of "1.7".

Detect picture modif ications (slower)

This option enables you to detect different picture modifications when comparing two pictures.
For this purpose, each picture modification will be performed with the picture to be compared
and in each case an additional checksum will be created. The following picture modifications can
be detected:

Rotated 90° to the right

Rotated 180° to the right
Rotated 90° to the left
Flipped horizontally
Rotated 90° to the right and flipped horizontally
Flipped vertically
Rotated 90° to the left and flipped horizontally
Recognition Rate Test
We have carried out tests with various comparison methods to determine the recognition rate for
different image changes. For this purpose, 29 copies of a JPEG image (1600x1200px, 606KB)
were created and their color, size and format changed. The tests always compared the original
JPEG image and a modified copy of the image.

The following comparison methods were used in the test:

COMPARISON METHOD COMPARE SIZE CHECKSUM

aHash¹ 8x8 64-bit

aHash² 16x16 256-bit

bHash¹ (fast) 256x256 256-bit

bHash² (precise) 256x256 256-bit

dHash 16x16 256-bit

mHash 16x16 256-bit

pHash 32x32 64-bit

The percentage values in the table below show how well a comparison method recognizes the
change in the image copy:

Image Modification aHash¹ aHash² bHash¹ bHash² dHash mHash pHash

Image reduction to 75% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 97%

Image reduction to 50% 100% 100% 100% 100% 99% 100% 100%

Image reduction to 25% 100% 100% 100% 100% 99% 100% 97%

Image enlargement to 150% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Image enlargement to 200% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Conversion to grayscale 97% 98% 97% 93% 97% 96% 97%

Brightness increased by 30% 95% 99% 100% 99% 98% 97% 91%

Brightness decreased by 30% 95% 95% 89% 93% 92% 94% 91%
Image Modification aHash¹ aHash² bHash¹ bHash² dHash mHash pHash

Contrast increased by 30% 100% 99% 95% 96% 96% 96% 94%

Contrast decreased by 30% 100% 99% 100% 100% 98% 100% 94%

JPEG quality reduced by 25% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

JPEG quality reduced by 50% 100% 100% 100% 100% 99% 100% 100%

JPEG quality reduced by 75% 100% 100% 100% 100% 99% 100% 94%

Image rotated 90° to the left 47% 52% 68% 54% 46% 50% 47%

Image rotated 90° to the right 47% 52% 54% 55% 48% 50% 44%

Image flipped vertically 81% 81% 77% 73% 71% 80% 50%

Image flipped horizontally 69% 59% 62% 64% 54% 61% 47%

Added white frame (30px) 84% 82% 68% 61% 86% 82% 88%

Added black frame (30px) 94% 94% 92% 89% 92% 92% 88%

Image height reduced to 80% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Image width reduced to 80% 100% 100% 100% 100% 99% 100% 100%

Conversion to PNG 24bit 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Conversion to BMP 24bit 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Conversion to GIF 256 colors 100% 100% 100% 99% 99% 100% 97%

Cropped 100 pixel from the left edge 92% 91% 88% 71% 82% 92% 78%

Cropped 100 pixel from the right edge 97% 92% 86% 86% 85% 90% 91%

Cropped 100 pixel from the top edge 94% 88% 86% 83% 86% 89% 84%

Cropped 100 pixel from the bottom 98% 91% 87% 86% 86% 91% 84%
edge

Cropped 100 pixel from all edges 89% 80% 77% 75% 70% 80% 62%

The following table gives you an overview of how many duplicates were found with the various
comparison methods in the test. The evaluation was carried out with a Percentage Match of at
least 70%, 80% and 90%.
 COMPARISON METHOD 70% 80% 90%

aHash¹ (64-bit) 26 26 23

aHash² (256-bit) 26 26 22

bHash¹ (fast) 25 23 18

bHash² (precise) 25 22 18

dHash (256-bit) 26 24 19

mHash (256-bit) 26 26 22

pHash (64-bit) 26 24 19

Examples
The displayed search results were created with the following settings:

Comparison method: aHash

Compare size: 16x16
Checksum: 256-bit

All images used are from the Caltech101 image collection.

Different shots of the same person

Shots of different motorcycles
The same object in a different pose

Different partial shots of the same subject

False positive duplicates
Find Similar Audio Files
This search method enables you to find similar or almost identical audio files between the file
formats MP3, FLAC, WMA, WAV, OGG, APE, AAC, MKA, M4A, M4R and MP2. The audio
stream of each audio file will be analyzed and a checksum is calculated for further comparison
with other audio files.

The following files will be automatically excluded from the search:

Files without the extension MP3, FLAC, WMA, WAV, OGG, APE, AAC, AIF, AIFF, MKA, M4A,
M4R and MP2
Files with a size of 0 bytes
Corrupted, invalid or incomplete audio files (*)
Files with a blocked read access (*)

(*) An error message will be shown at the log pane.

Scan length
Here you can specify how many seconds at the beginning of the audio file should be used to
calculate the checksum. A value between 15 and 999 seconds can be set for the scan length.
The standard value for the scan length is 30 seconds.

Percentage Match
Here you can specify the minimum percentage matching of two audio files. The calculated
percentage matching between two audio files will be shown at the column Match. The
percentage always refers to the reference audio file of a group which will be shown in a different
text color.

Comparison Method
Here you can specify the comparison method to be used to generate the checksum. The
standard value for this option is 4.

1 - no information available
 2 - no information available
4 - Ignores leading silence
5 - no information available

Compare only f iles with the same f ile extension

This option enables you to compare only audio files with the same file extension.

Recognition Rate
We have done several tests to determine the recognition rate for similar or almost identical audio
files using different options. For the tests we have converted a WAV file (1411 Kbits/s 16bit
44100kHz Stereo) into different audio formats. All new audio files have been converted with
stereo sound unless explicitly described otherwise. The percent match values at the following
tables will give you an overview which options are the best to detect duplicates between the
different audio formats. The title of the column header with the highest percent matches in a
column is set into square brackets.

Test 'Comparison Methods'

At this test all audio files were compared 4 times with one base file using all available
comparison methods (1, 2, 4 and 5). A scan length of 30 seconds was used by this test.

Base file: WAV 16bit 44100 kHz

File size 1 2 [4] 5

AAC 128kbps 44100kHz 2,42 MB 79% 79% 77% 75%

AAC 192kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 82% 81% 78% 74%

AAC 256kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 82% 81% 78% 74%

AAC 48000kHz 32bit 2,46 MB 74% 77% 83% 58%

AAC 64kbps 22050kHz mono 0,72 MB 73% 72% 73% 68%

AAC 96kbps 22050kHz 1,43 MB 76% 74% 74% 70%

APE 48000kHz 16bit 15,84 MB 87% 86% 92% 71%

FLAC 22050kHz 16bit mono 5,14 MB 100% 100% 100% 100%

 File size 1 2 [4] 5

FLAC 44100kHz 16bit 16,93 MB 100% 100% 100% 100%

FLAC 48000kHz 16bit 17,38 MB 100% 100% 100% 100%

M4A 128kbps 44100kHz 2,42 MB 79% 79% 77% 75%

M4A 192kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 82% 81% 78% 74%

M4A 256kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 82% 81% 78% 74%

M4A 64kbps 22050kHz mono 0,72 MB 73% 72% 73% 68%

M4A 96kbps 22050kHz 1,43 MB 76% 74% 74% 70%

M4R 160kbps 44100kHz 0,76 MB 94% 95% 90% 95%

M4R 256kbps 44100kHz 1,21 MB 95% 96% 96% 97%

MKA 48000kHz 32bit 4,72 MB 82% 80% 83% 68%

MP2 128kbps 44100kHz 2,40 MB 84% 86% 94% 69%

MP2 160kbps 44100kHz 3,00 MB 84% 86% 96% 69%

MP2 256kbps 44100kHz 4,79 MB 84% 86% 99% 70%

MP2 64kbps 22050kHz mono 1,20 MB 76% 76% 99% 58%

MP3 128kbps 44100kHz 2,40 MB 91% 91% 92% 87%

MP3 192kbps 48000kHz 3,59 MB 96% 95% 96% 96%

MP3 256kbps 48000kHz 4,79 MB 98% 99% 98% 97%

MP3 320kbps 48000kHz 5,99 MB 99% 99% 100% 98%

MP3 96kbps 22050kHz mono 1,80 MB 97% 95% 97% 95%

MP3 VBR0 44100kHz 4,24 MB 66% 67% 96% 54%

MP3 VBR1 44100kHz 3,88 MB 67% 67% 97% 54%

MP3 VBR5 44100kHz 2,68 MB 65% 66% 90% 53%

MP3 VBR9 44100kHz 2,40 MB 66% 67% 96% 54%

OGG 128kbps 44100kHz 2,17 MB 93% 90% 90% 87%

OGG 160kbps 44100kHz 2,17 MB 93% 90% 90% 87%

 File size 1 2 [4] 5

OGG 240kbps 48000kHz 3,31 MB 96% 94% 95% 94%

OGG 320kbps 48000kHz 4,48 MB 97% 96% 98% 96%

OGG 64kbps 22050kHz mono 1,19 MB 94% 93% 93% 93%

WAV 8bit 22050kHz mono 3,30 MB 99% 100% 93% 98%

WMA 128kbps 44100kHz 2,43 MB 53% 54% 93% 49%

WMA 192kbps 48000kHz 3,64 MB 54% 55% 93% 50%

WMA 256kbps 48000kHz 4,85 MB 98% 97% 97% 97%

WMA 384kbps 48000kHz 4,85 MB 98% 97% 97% 97%

WMA 96kbps 22050kHz mono 0,39 MB 54% 54% 73% 49%

Base file: MP3 192kbps 48000 kHz

File size [1] 2 4 5

AAC 128kbps 44100kHz 2,42 MB 79% 77% 76% 75%

AAC 192kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 81% 80% 78% 75%

AAC 256kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 81% 80% 78% 75%

AAC 48000kHz 32bit 2,46 MB 74% 76% 82% 57%

AAC 64kbps 22050kHz mono 0,72 MB 74% 72% 73% 67%

AAC 96kbps 22050kHz 1,43 MB 75% 75% 74% 69%

APE 48000kHz 16bit 15,84 MB 86% 85% 91% 71%

FLAC 22050kHz 16bit mono 5,14 MB 96% 95% 96% 96%

FLAC 44100kHz 16bit 16,93 MB 96% 95% 96% 96%

FLAC 48000kHz 16bit 17,38 MB 96% 95% 96% 96%

M4A 128kbps 44100kHz 2,42 MB 79% 77% 76% 75%

M4A 192kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 81% 80% 78% 75%

M4A 256kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 81% 80% 78% 75%

 File size [1] 2 4 5

M4A 64kbps 22050kHz mono 0,72 MB 74% 72% 73% 67%

M4A 96kbps 22050kHz 1,43 MB 75% 75% 74% 69%

M4R 160kbps 44100kHz 0,76 MB 93% 94% 89% 94%

M4R 256kbps 44100kHz 1,21 MB 94% 93% 93% 94%

MKA 48000kHz 32bit 4,72 MB 80% 81% 82% 68%

MP2 128kbps 44100kHz 2,40 MB 83% 86% 93% 69%

MP2 160kbps 44100kHz 3,00 MB 84% 85% 94% 69%

MP2 256kbps 44100kHz 4,79 MB 84% 85% 96% 69%

MP2 64kbps 22050kHz mono 1,20 MB 76% 76% 96% 57%

MP3 128kbps 44100kHz 2,40 MB 91% 90% 89% 86%

MP3 256kbps 48000kHz 4,79 MB 97% 96% 96% 95%

MP3 320kbps 48000kHz 5,99 MB 96% 96% 96% 95%

MP3 96kbps 22050kHz mono 1,80 MB 95% 94% 95% 93%

MP3 VBR0 44100kHz 4,24 MB 66% 67% 93% 54%

MP3 VBR1 44100kHz 3,88 MB 67% 66% 94% 54%

MP3 VBR5 44100kHz 2,68 MB 65% 66% 90% 53%

MP3 VBR9 44100kHz 2,40 MB 66% 67% 94% 54%

OGG 128kbps 44100kHz 2,17 MB 91% 90% 89% 87%

OGG 160kbps 44100kHz 2,17 MB 91% 90% 89% 87%

OGG 240kbps 48000kHz 3,31 MB 94% 92% 93% 91%

OGG 320kbps 48000kHz 4,48 MB 95% 94% 94% 94%

OGG 64kbps 22050kHz mono 1,19 MB 93% 92% 91% 93%

WAV 16bit 44100kHz 26,41 MB 96% 95% 96% 96%

WAV 8bit 22050kHz mono 3,30 MB 96% 96% 90% 96%

WMA 128kbps 44100kHz 2,43 MB 54% 54% 92% 49%

 File size [1] 2 4 5

WMA 192kbps 48000kHz 3,64 MB 54% 55% 92% 50%

WMA 256kbps 48000kHz 4,85 MB 95% 96% 96% 94%

WMA 384kbps 48000kHz 4,85 MB 95% 96% 96% 94%

WMA 96kbps 22050kHz mono 0,39 MB 54% 54% 74% 49%

Base file: MP3 VBR0 44100 kHz

File size 1 2 [4] 5

AAC 128kbps 44100kHz 2,42 MB 66% 64% 77% 52%

AAC 192kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 65% 66% 77% 52%

AAC 256kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 65% 66% 77% 52%

AAC 48000kHz 32bit 2,46 MB 78% 77% 84% 63%

AAC 64kbps 22050kHz mono 0,72 MB 62% 62% 73% 51%

AAC 96kbps 22050kHz 1,43 MB 62% 62% 75% 52%

APE 48000kHz 16bit 15,84 MB 63% 62% 91% 52%

FLAC 22050kHz 16bit mono 5,14 MB 66% 67% 96% 54%

FLAC 44100kHz 16bit 16,93 MB 66% 67% 96% 54%

FLAC 48000kHz 16bit 17,38 MB 66% 67% 96% 54%

M4A 128kbps 44100kHz 2,42 MB 66% 64% 77% 52%

M4A 192kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 65% 66% 77% 52%

M4A 256kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 65% 66% 77% 52%

M4A 64kbps 22050kHz mono 0,72 MB 62% 62% 73% 51%

M4A 96kbps 22050kHz 1,43 MB 62% 62% 75% 52%

M4R 160kbps 44100kHz 0,76 MB 66% 68% 91% 54%

M4R 256kbps 44100kHz 1,21 MB 66% 68% 95% 54%

MKA 48000kHz 32bit 4,72 MB 62% 63% 82% 51%

 File size 1 2 [4] 5

MP2 128kbps 44100kHz 2,40 MB 72% 73% 92% 57%

MP2 160kbps 44100kHz 3,00 MB 72% 73% 94% 57%

MP2 256kbps 44100kHz 4,79 MB 73% 74% 96% 57%

MP2 64kbps 22050kHz mono 1,20 MB 79% 81% 96% 63%

MP3 128kbps 44100kHz 2,40 MB 66% 66% 90% 54%

MP3 192kbps 48000kHz 3,59 MB 66% 67% 93% 54%

MP3 256kbps 48000kHz 4,79 MB 66% 68% 95% 54%

MP3 320kbps 48000kHz 5,99 MB 66% 68% 96% 54%

MP3 96kbps 22050kHz mono 1,80 MB 66% 67% 94% 54%

MP3 VBR1 44100kHz 3,88 MB 95% 96% 96% 93%

MP3 VBR5 44100kHz 2,68 MB 91% 92% 92% 86%

MP3 VBR9 44100kHz 2,40 MB 94% 95% 95% 94%

OGG 128kbps 44100kHz 2,17 MB 65% 67% 90% 53%

OGG 160kbps 44100kHz 2,17 MB 65% 67% 90% 53%

OGG 240kbps 48000kHz 3,31 MB 66% 67% 93% 53%

OGG 320kbps 48000kHz 4,48 MB 67% 68% 96% 54%

OGG 64kbps 22050kHz mono 1,19 MB 66% 67% 92% 53%

WAV 16bit 44100kHz 26,41 MB 66% 67% 96% 54%

WAV 8bit 22050kHz mono 3,30 MB 66% 68% 93% 54%

WMA 128kbps 44100kHz 2,43 MB 59% 64% 91% 51%

WMA 192kbps 48000kHz 3,64 MB 62% 66% 90% 52%

WMA 256kbps 48000kHz 4,85 MB 66% 67% 95% 54%

WMA 384kbps 48000kHz 4,85 MB 66% 67% 95% 54%

WMA 96kbps 22050kHz mono 0,39 MB 58% 61% 75% 51%

Test 'Scan length'
At this test all audio files were compared 4 times with one base file using the different scan
lengths 10, 30, 60 and 90 seconds and the comparison method number 4.

Base file: MP3 192kbps 48000 kHz

File size [10s] 30s 60s 90s

AAC 128kbps 44100kHz 2,42 MB 78% 76% 76% 76%

AAC 192kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 77% 78% 76% 76%

AAC 256kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 77% 78% 76% 76%

AAC 48000kHz 32bit 2,46 MB 82% 82% 82% 82%

AAC 64kbps 22050kHz mono 0,72 MB 76% 73% 71% 71%

AAC 96kbps 22050kHz 1,43 MB 74% 74% 72% 72%

APE 48000kHz 16bit 15,84 MB 92% 91% 90% 90%

FLAC 22050kHz 16bit mono 5,14 MB 96% 96% 96% 96%

FLAC 44100kHz 16bit 16,93 MB 96% 96% 96% 96%

FLAC 48000kHz 16bit 17,38 MB 96% 96% 96% 96%

M4A 128kbps 44100kHz 2,42 MB 78% 76% 76% 76%

M4A 192kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 77% 78% 76% 76%

M4A 256kbps 48000kHz 3,12 MB 77% 78% 76% 76%

M4A 64kbps 22050kHz mono 0,72 MB 76% 73% 71% 71%

M4A 96kbps 22050kHz 1,43 MB 74% 74% 72% 72%

M4R 160kbps 44100kHz 0,76 MB 89% 89% 88% 88%

M4R 256kbps 44100kHz 1,21 MB 95% 93% 94% 94%

MKA 48000kHz 32bit 4,72 MB 86% 82% 81% 81%

MP2 128kbps 44100kHz 2,40 MB 94% 93% 93% 93%

MP2 160kbps 44100kHz 3,00 MB 94% 94% 94% 94%

 File size [10s] 30s 60s 90s

MP2 256kbps 44100kHz 4,79 MB 95% 96% 96% 96%

MP2 64kbps 22050kHz mono 1,20 MB 96% 96% 96% 96%

MP3 128kbps 44100kHz 2,40 MB 91% 89% 89% 89%

MP3 256kbps 48000kHz 4,79 MB 96% 96% 95% 95%

MP3 320kbps 48000kHz 5,99 MB 97% 96% 96% 96%

MP3 96kbps 22050kHz mono 1,80 MB 96% 95% 95% 95%

MP3 VBR0 44100kHz 4,24 MB 92% 93% 94% 94%

MP3 VBR1 44100kHz 3,88 MB 93% 94% 93% 93%

MP3 VBR5 44100kHz 2,68 MB 87% 90% 91% 91%

MP3 VBR9 44100kHz 2,40 MB 93% 94% 93% 93%

OGG 128kbps 44100kHz 2,17 MB 83% 89% 89% 89%

OGG 160kbps 44100kHz 2,17 MB 83% 89% 89% 89%

OGG 240kbps 48000kHz 3,31 MB 94% 93% 94% 94%

OGG 320kbps 48000kHz 4,48 MB 91% 94% 94% 94%

OGG 64kbps 22050kHz mono 1,19 MB 87% 91% 92% 92%

WAV 16bit 44100kHz 26,41 MB 96% 96% 96% 96%

WAV 8bit 22050kHz mono 3,30 MB 91% 90% 91% 91%

WMA 128kbps 44100kHz 2,43 MB 93% 92% 92% 92%

WMA 192kbps 48000kHz 3,64 MB 93% 92% 92% 92%

WMA 256kbps 48000kHz 4,85 MB 96% 96% 96% 96%

WMA 384kbps 48000kHz 4,85 MB 96% 96% 96% 96%

WMA 96kbps 22050kHz mono 0,39 MB 78% 74% 72% 72%

Find video & audio f iles on the basis
of the audio length
This search method enables you to find video and audio files with the same or almost same
audio length. The first audio track is always used to determine the audio length. Video and audio
files with the following file extensions are supported:

Audio: AAC, AC3, AIFF, APE, AU, DTS, FLAC, M4A, MP2, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA
Video: ASF, AVI, OGV, M2TS, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPG, WEBM, WMV

Ignore time difference

This option enables you to find video and audio files with almost the same audio length by
specifying a maximum time difference between the duration of the audio tracks.

Compare only files with the same properties

File Name
This option enables you to compare only files with the same file name.

File Extension
This option enables you to compare only files with the same file extension.
Find Hard Links
This search method enables you to search the source folders for hard links. Files with the same
hard link ID are grouped together in the search result.
Search Options
Before the search starts
During the search process
Before the search starts

Before the search star ts

Confirm use of file and folder filter
With this option, the use of the file and folder filters must be confirmed before the search
process.

Set the CPU priority for AllDup to 'low'

This option sets AllDup's CPU priority to 'Low' during the scan process.

During the search process

Determine the file owner (slower)
With this option, the owner of a file is determined and displayed in the 'Owner' column in the
search result. If you do not activate this option, you can subsequently determine and display the
file owner in the search result by clicking on a file or by moving the mouse over the 'Owner'
column.

Determine number of hard links per file (slower)

With this option, the number of hard links in a file is determined and displayed in the 'Hard links'
column in the search result. If you do not activate this option, you can subsequently determine
and display the number of hard links in the search result by clicking on a file or by moving the
mouse over the 'Hard links' column.

Determine width and height of image files (slower)

With this option, the width & height of image files is determined during the search and displayed
in the search result in the columns 'Width' and 'Height'. If you do not activate this option, you can
subsequently determine and display the width and height in the search result by clicking on a file
or by moving the mouse over the 'Width' or 'Height' columns.
Determine duration, bit rate and sample rate of files with the following
extensions (slower)'
With this option, the duration, bit rate and sampling rate of audio files are determined using the
'MediaInfo' plugin and displayed in the search result in the columns 'Duration', 'Bitrate' and
'Sampling Rate'. If you do not activate this option, you can subsequently determine and display
the information in the search result by clicking on a file or by moving the mouse over the
'Duration', 'Bitrate' or 'Sampling Rate' columns.

Log search statistics of the displayed progress info

With this option, the search statistics displayed in the progress info are written to the log at
regular intervals. The logging interval can be set in minutes.

Cancel search when certain number of duplicates are found

This option stops the search after a specified number of duplicate files was found.

After the search is complete

Expand all groups in the search result
With this option, all groups in the search result are expanded after the search process.

Remove all groups where the files in a group do not exist in all source
folders
This option will remove all groups after the search where the files in a group are not present in
all source folders.

Log all files without duplicates (slower)

This option lists all files with no duplicates in the log.

Show only files without duplicates at the search result

With this option only files without duplicates will be shown at the search result.

Play sound file

Here you can specify a music file (MP3/WAV) to be played after the search process.
Archive Files
Scan archive f iles with the following f ile extensions
This option enables you to scan the content of archive files for duplicate files. Right-clicking on
this option selects or deselects all file extensions.

Single archive files with the following file extensions are supported:

7z, arj, cab, cb7, cbr, cbt, cbz, epub, gz, iso, lzh, lha, nrg, rar, tar, zip

Split archive files with the following file extensions are supported:

.zip (subsequent file: .z01)

.zip.001
.rar (subsequent file: .r00)
.part1.rar
.7z.001
.tar.001

Notes:

Password-protected files from inside an archive and password-protected archive files will be
automatically filtered when using the search method File Content, Similar Pictures or Similar
music.
AllDup's file manager can only delete files from inside archives with the extension .zip or .7z.

Delete temporar y f iles after their checksum is

created
This option enables you to delete temporary files directly after their checksum was created. This
has the advantage of a lower disk space usage while scanning many archive files.
This option will only be used in the following circumstances:

The search method Similar Pictures is used and the option 'Detect picture modifications' is
deactivated.
 The search method File Content is used and a checksum method is selected at the compare
method.

Log password-protected f iles

This option enables you to log password-protected files from inside an archive and password-
protected archive files.

Don't extract f iles with a size equal or more than ...

This option enables to ignore files inside an archive with a size equal or larger than specified.
Database
This saves the checksums created when using the search methods File content, Similar pictures
and Similar audio files in a database. For further searches, the checksums are then determined
from the database instead of recalculating them over and over again. This has the advantage
that the time-consuming calculation of the checksums of files that have not been changed is no
longer necessary and the search therefore takes considerably less time.

The storage of the checksums can be activated for the following search methods:

File content
A separate checksum is stored in the database for each comparison method. With 5
comparison methods, up to 5 different checksums can be stored in the database per file.
Similar pictures
A separate checksum is stored in the database for each comparison method and checked
picture modification. With 9 comparison methods and 7 additional checks for possible picture
modifications, up to 72 different checksums can be stored in the database for each picture.
Similar audio files
A separate checksum is stored in the database for each scan length and comparison method
used.

Notes:

The database is not available on Windows XP.

The database can only ever be used by one AllDup instance.

Options
Recalculate checksum if the file size was changed
The checksum of a file will be recalculated if the current file size not match with the stored file
size in the database.

Recalculate checksum if the file modified date was changed

The checksum of a file will be recalculated if the current modified date of the file not match with
the stored modified date in the database.
Database Tools
Cleanup
Checks the existence of all stored files in the database and removes the files not exist anymore
from the database. The process can be canceled with the F10 key.

Reset
Deletes all checksums in the database.

New
Deletes the existing database file and creates a new database file.
File and Folder Filters
You can set different filters for files and folders to exclude certain files from the duplicate file
search.

File filter
Folder filter
File Filters
File filters enable you to filter specific files during a search operation, i.e. exclude them from the
search operation.

Filter Method
The filtering methods inclusive and exclusive enable you to determine how filter texts are to be
applied during a search operation.

Inclusive

Only files matching an activated filter text are included in the search operation. Example: If
you specify the filter text "*.ini" only files with the ".ini" extension are processed during a
search operation. All other files are filtered (= excluded) from the search operation.
Exclusive

All the files matching a filter text are excluded from the search operation. Example: If you
specify the filter text "*.ini", all files with the ".ini" extension are filtered, i.e. excluded from the
search operation.

Filter List
The filter list contains all the filter texts set up for files. Each filter text can be enabled or disabled
via its checkbox. Click on the button File Filters at the toolbar to open a menu to add new filters.
Right-click an item at the filter list to edit or remove a filter.

Filter Texts
Comparisons using the filter text are always done using the file name. When a filter text contains
a backslash (\) comparison is made with the entire path of the current file. Filters are not case-
sensitive, meaning no distinction is made between uppercasing and lowercasing when
performing comparisons. The filter text may contain various wildcards and Windows environment
variables. You can specify multiple file filters using the special character '|' as a separator.

Examples:

*.txt
temp.*
 *temp.txt
temp??.*
temp.00?
%USERNAME%.txt
*\Temp\*.tmp
C:\Temp\*.ini
C:\Temp\%USERNAME%.*
*.bmp|*.jpg|*.jpeg|*.png

Options
Ignore wildcards in filter text (treat like normal text)
This causes the characters of wildcards in a filter text to be treated as normal text.

Make filtering case-sensitive

This makes filtering distinguish between uppercasing and lowercasing when comparing file
names.

File Proper ties

Ignore 0-Byte files
This option enables to ignore files with a size of 0 bytes.

Exclude files by size

This option enables you to exclude files on the basis of the size.

Exclude files by date

This option enables you to exclude files on the basis of the created/modified date.
Folder Filters
Folder filters enable you to filter specific folders during a search operation, i.e. exclude them
from the search operation.

Filter Method
The filtering methods inclusive and exclusive enable you to determine how filter texts are to be
applied during a search operation.

Inclusive

Only folders matching an activated filter text are included during a search operation.
Example: If you specify the filter text "Test" only folders named 'Test' are searched during a
search operation. All other folders are filtered (= excluded) from the copy operation.
Exclusive

All the folders matching a filter text are excluded from the search operation. Example: If you
specify the filter text "Test", all folders named 'Test' and their subfolders are filtered, i.e.
excluded from the search operation.

Filter List
The filter list contains all the filter texts set up for folders. Each filter text can be enabled or
disabled for a copy operation via its checkbox. Click on the button Folder Filters at the toolbar to
open a menu to add new filters. Right-click an item at the filter list to edit or remove a filter.

Filter Texts
Comparisons using a filter text are always done using the folder name. When a filter text
contains a backslash (\) comparison is made with the entire path of the current folder. Filters are
not case-sensitive, meaning no distinction is made between uppercasing and lowercasing when
during comparisons. The filter text may contain various wildcards and Windows environment
variables. You can specify multiple folder filters using the special character '|' as a separator.

Examples:

C:\Windows
C:\Prog*
 temp??
C:\users\%USERNAME%
C:\Windows|C:\Users|C:\Temp

Options
Ignore wildcards in filter text (treat like normal text)
This causes the characters of wildcards in a filter text to be treated as normal text.

Make filtering case-sensitive

This makes filtering distinguish between uppercasing and lowercasing when comparing folder
names.

Don't filter subfolders

This option doesn't have any effect unless you are using the inclusive filter method and filter the
entire path. Then all subfolders are taken into consideration during a search operation and aren't
excluded.
Windows Environment Variables
Windows environment variables can be used at the file and folder filters.

Syntax: %Environment Variable%

If 'C:\Backup\%USERNAME%' is specified, the environment variable '%USERNAME%' is

replaced with the name of the logged-in user: 'C:\Backup\John'

Examples

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE EXAMPLE

%ALLUSERSPROFILE% C:\ProgramData

%APPDATA% C:\Users\John\AppData\Roaming

%CommonProgramFiles% C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files

%CommonProgramFiles(x86)% C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files

%CommonProgramW6432% C:\Program Files\Common Files

%COMPUTERNAME% WORK-PC

%HOMEDRIVE% C:

%HOMEPATH% \Users\John

%LOCALAPPDATA% C:\Users\John\AppData\Local

%ProgramData% C:\ProgramData

%ProgramFiles% C:\Program Files (x86)

%ProgramFiles(x86)% C:\Program Files (x86)

%ProgramW6432% C:\Program Files

%PUBLIC% C:\Users\Public

%SystemDrive% C:

%SystemRoot% C:\Windows
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE EXAMPLE

%TEMP% C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Temp

%TMP% C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Temp

%USERNAME% John

%USERPROFILE% C:\Users\John

%windir% C:\Windows
File Preview
The file preview allows you to display different file types directly in the search result:

The file preview can be shown and hidden via the toolbar or menu bar.

Plugin lists
The file extensions at a Plugin list can be selected or unselected by clicking on the checkbox in
front of them. Using the right mouse button at a Plugin list will show up a context menu with the
following commands:

Add
Adds a new file extension to the Plugin list.
Remove
Removes a file extension from the Plugin list.
Select all
Selects all file extensions at the Plugin list.
Deselect all
Deselects all file extensions at the Plugin list.
Default values
Clears the list and adds the default file extensions for this Plugin to the list.
Plugin's
Windows WordPad
Windows Internet Explorer
Image Viewer
VLC Media Player
Windows Media Player
EXIF Viewer
Media Info Viewer

Plugin: Windows WordPad

With this Plugin you can view all files at the file preview pane that are supported by Microsoft
WordPad or any file with text content inside. For example, files with the following extensions can
be viewed with this Plugin:

TXT, BAT, INI, LOG, CFG, DIZ, NFO, CSS, ASP, PHP, RTF, WRI, XML, INF, URL, REG, LST,
EML, ERR, CSV, 1ST, VBS, ...

Plugin: Windows Internet Explorer

With this Plugin you can view all files at the file preview pane that are supported by the Windows
Internet Explorer. This Plugin requires an existing installation of the Windows Internet Explorer.
For example, files with the following extensions can be viewed with this Plugin at the file preview
pane:

BMP, CAB, DIB, EMF, GIF, ICO, PNG, BMP, JPEG, JPG, HTM, HTML, PDF¹, DOC², DOCX²,
XLS², XLSX², PPT², PPS², SVG, SWF, TXT, WMF and ZIP

¹ requires the installation of a PDF Reader

² requires the installation of Microsoft Office
Plugin: Image Viewer
With this Plugin you can view all image files with the following extensions at the file preview
pane:

3FR, ARW, BMP, CR2, CRW, CUT, DCR, DIB, DNG, EMF, ERF, GIF, HDP, HEIC¹, HEIF¹, ICO,
IFF, J2C, J2K, JP2, JPE, JPG, JPEG, JPX, JFIF, KDC, MDC, MEF, MOS, MRW, NEF, ORF, PEF,
PBM, PCX, PGM, PNG, PPM, PSD, RAF, RAS, RAW, RW2, SRW, TGA, TIF, TIFF, RAS, RLE,
WBMP, WEBP, WMF and X3F.

¹ An HEIC/HEIF image extension (e.g. CopyTrans HEIC ) must be installed for these file types
if the files cannot be displayed as a preview or thumbnail using Windows Explorer.

Plugin: VLC Media Player

With this Plugin you can view all audio and video files that are supported by the VLC Media
Player at the file preview pane. For example, files with the following extensions can be viewed
with this Plugin at the file preview pane:

3G2, 3GA, 3GP, 3GP2, 3GPP, 669, A52, AAC, AC3, ADT, ADTS, AU, AIF, AIFC, AIFF, AMR,
AMV, AOB, APE, ASF, ASX, AU, AVI, BIK, CAF, DIVX, DRC, DTS, DV, DVR-MS, EVO, F4V,
FLAC, FLV, GVI, GXF, IT, M1V, M2T, M2TS, M2V, M4A, M4P, M4V, MID, MKA, MKV, MLP, MOD,
MOV, MP1, MP2, MP2V, MP3, MP4, MP4V, MPA, MPC, MPE, MPEG, MPEG1, MPEG2,
MPEG4, MPG, MPGA, MPV2, MTS, MTV, MXF, NSV, NUV, OGA, OGG, OGM, OGV, OGX,
OMA, OPUS, QCP, RA, REC, RM, RMI, RMVB, RPL, S3M, SDP, SND, SPX, THP, TOD, TP, TS,
TTA, TTS, VOB, VOC, VQF, VRO, W64, WAV, WEBM, WMA, WMV, WTV, WV, XA, XESC and
XM.

This Plugin requires the 32-bit version of the freeware VLC Media Player version 3 or higher.
The 32-bit version of the VLC Media Player must be either installed at your Windows system,
available as a portable edition on your Windows system or manually integrated into AllDup's
installation folder.

Using the portable edition of the VLC Media Player:

Register the file axvlc.dll from inside the folder of the VLC Media Player at your Windows system
using the following command : regsvr32.exe axvlc.dll

Manual integration of the VLC Media Player:

 1. Open the FTP archive at the official website of the VLC Media Player.
2. Scroll down to the end of the FTP archive, click on the folder with the latest version number
(e.g. "3.0.16") and then click on the folder "32bit".
3. Download the file with the "zip" extension (e.g. "vlc-3.0.16-win32.zip").
4. Extract the following files and folders from the ZIP file into the folder of AllDup:

files: axvlc.dll, libvlc.dll, libvlccore.dll

folder: plugins

5. Run AllDup with admin rights once to register the file 'axvlc.dll' at your Windows system
automatically or register the file 'axvlc.dll' at your Windows system manually using the
command : regsvr32.exe axvlc.dll

Plugin: Windows Media Player

With this Plugin you can view all audio and video files at the file preview pane that are supported
by the Windows Media Player. This Plugin requires the installation of the Windows Media Player.
For example, files with the following extensions can be viewed with this Plugin at the file preview
pane:

AU, AIF, AIFC, AIFF, ASF, AVI, M1V, MID, MIDI, MOV, MP4, MP3, MPEG, MPG, MP2, MPA,
MPE, RMI, SND, WAV, WM, WMA, WMV, ...

Plugin: EXIF Viewer

With this Plugin you can view the EXIF data of files with the following extensions at the file
preview pane: JPEG, JPG, TIF, TIFF, PNG, GIF und WAV. You can activate the Plugin at the
toolbar 'File Preview' using the button 'EXIF Viewer'.

Plugin: Media Info Viewer

With the Plugin MediaInfo you can view technical information about media files, as well as tag
information for many audio and video files. You can activate the Plugin at the toolbar 'File
Preview' using the button 'Media Info Viewer'.
Prof iles
Profiles enables you to save your search settings (e.g. source folders, search method, etc.) into
a file and load these settings when needed. The profile list shows you all available profile files.
The standard profile is automatically loaded when starting AllDup. All settings at the main
window will be saved to the standard profile when quitting AllDup.

Create a new prof ile

When creating a new profile all settings such as source folders and search method will be saved
to the new profile.

Context menu
A right-click on a profile enables you to load, save, rename or delete profiles.

Load a profile
Double-click a profile at the list to load it or use the right-click context menu action Load profile.
The name of the loaded profile will be shown at the window title.

Save a profile
Use the right-click context menu action Save profile to save the current search settings into the
selected profile. You have to load a profile and using the file manager to save the settings of the
file manager into the profile.

Rename profile
Use the right-click context menu action Rename profile to rename a profile.

Delete profile
Use the right-click context menu action Delete profile to delete a profile.

Options
Don't import any source folders when loading a profile
This option enables you to prevent the loading of the stored source folders from a profile.
Stored Search Results
Here you will get a list of all stored search results. You can load a search result by double-
clicking. Right-clicking on a search result gives you a menu to load or delete it.
Options
General
Add AllDup to the context menu of the Windows Explorer
This option displays AllDup in the Windows Explorer context menu for folders. This allows you to
right-click on one or more folders to start a search. The following additional options can be
selected:

Context menu with Unicode support

With this option, folders containing Unicode characters in their names can be passed to
AllDup and searched through. This is the default option used by AllDup.
Context menu without Unicode support
With this option, no folders containing Unicode characters in their names can be passed to
AllDup and searched. Use this option if your window system should not display a context
menu in Windows Explorer with the first option. This option is not available on Windows 11.

If required, you can use the 'Register' button to register the context menu on your Windows
system if it is not displayed in the Windows Explorer context menu.

Unicode-Text Support
This option correctly displays Unicode characters from languages such as Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, or Russian in the search result.

File Date Display Format

Here you can specify the format in which a file date should be displayed in the search result.

Application data folder

The folder in which the AllDup application data is saved is displayed here.

Folder for temporary files

At this folder AllDup will extract files from archives or create files necessary for the file preview.
All temporary files that have been created after the search for duplicate files was started will be
automatically deleted after closing the search result.

User Interface
Here you can set the font and background color of the AllDup user interface.

Log
Delete entries from log file when they are more than ...
This option causes entries to be automatically removed from the log file after a specified number
of days.

Search Result
External program for comparing the contents of two files:
This option enables you to specify an external file comparison utility to be used with two
highlighted files at the search result. Right-click two highlighted files at the search result and use
the command 'Compare highlighted files'. The two highlighted files from the search result have
to be specified via the wildcards %1 and %2. Example: C:\Tools\Windiff.exe %1 %2

%1 = "C:\Data\db.txt"
%2 = "X:\Backup\abc.txt"
%3 = C:\Data
%4 = X:\Backup
%5 = db.txt
%6 = abc.txt

Compare these file types using Microsoft Word:

This option enables you to specify various file extensions that will be opened with the compare
function of Microsoft Word. Each of the file extensions has to be separated by a comma.
Example: doc, docx, rtf

External Program to open a folder

This option enables you to specify an external program to be used to open a folder.
Example: explorer.exe "%1"
The placeholder %1 will be replaced with file path & file name and the placeholder %2 with the
file path only:
%1 = "C:\Data\db.txt"
%2 = "C:\Data\
External Program to open with file(s)
This option enables you to specify an external program to be used to open with all highlighted
files.
Example: C:\texteditor.exe %1
The placeholder %1 with be replaced with all highlighted files: "file1" "file2" ...
AllDup Internet-Update
AllDup's Update Wizard enables you to check whether a new version of AllDup is available for
download and to install it, if necessary.

Version
Clicking on the 'Check' button causes a check to see whether a new version is available.
Clicking on 'Download' causes the new version to be downloaded and installed. Information
about a new version is displayed at the log window.

Options
Automatically check for new version
This option causes a check to automatically be conducted for a new version of AllDup on the
AllDup website every time you open the Internet-Update dialog.

Show Setup dialog when installing an update

Not activating this option cause updating to take place in the background, without any dialog
being popped up.

Download Folder
Here you can specify the folder in which the update file for the new version should be saved

Proxy
If necessary, you can specify the access data for your proxy server here.

Data Privacy
When checking for a new version, only a text file containing information is downloaded from our
website and evaluated. No private data on your computer is transmitted via the Internet.
Search Result

Groups
All duplicate files will be sorted into groups and displayed at the search result upon completion
of the search. Each group contain files that all match together by the search method you have
chosen. Each group has one reference file displayed with different text color. All other files inside
the group are duplicates of the reference file.

Sor ting groups and f iles

The content of the search result can be sorted by clicking with the left or right mouse button on a
column header. Clicking with the left mouse button on a column header will sort only the group
names but not the content of the groups. Clicking with the right mouse button on a column
header will sort the files inside every group.

Select f iles
All files at the search result can be selected or unselected by clicking the checkbox next to the
file name. You also can use the automatic selection commands at the Menu bar or Toolbar.

Highlight f iles or groups

You can highlight multiple files or groups by holding down the CTRL key and clicking on the files
you would like to highlight. Clicking with the right mouse button on the highlighted files or groups
will open a context menu with several commands.

Delete, copy, move or rename f iles

Open the File Manager via the toolbar or menu bar to process all selected files from the search
result. You also can delete, copy or move files without using the file manager by holding the
CTRL key and clicking with the right mouse button on a file.

Mouse commands
Clicking with the right mouse button on a group or file will open context menu with several
commands.
Holding the CTRL key and clicking with the right mouse button on a file will open a context
menu with several file commands.
Clicking with the middle mouse button on a file will show the Windows explorer context menu
for this file.
A double-click on a file name opens the file with the associated application.
A double-click on a file path opens the file path with the Windows explorer.

Keyboard Shor tcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts are available:

With the space bar you can select or unselect a highlighted file or group.
The F2 key enables you to rename a highlighted file.
The DEL key enables you to remove all highlighted groups and files from the search result.
Holding the CTRL key and pressing the DEL key will delete a highlighted file.

You can create your own keyboard shortcuts for all the commands at the menu bar, toolbar or
context menus by using the option Hot Keys at the menu bar.
Menu Bar / Toolbar
File
Columns
Filter
Groups
Mode
Select
Deselect
Remove
File Protection
Toolbars
Options

Hint: The toolbar context menu (right-click) enables you to hide or show buttons.

File
File Manager - Delete, copy, move or rename selected files.
Save search result
Save as ...
Export search result
Print search result
Log
Save and close search result
Save search result and exit AllDup
Close search result
Exit AllDup

Columns
Here you can show, hide or resize the columns at the search result.

Show column 'Path'

Show column 'Archive Path'
 Show column 'Size'
Show column 'Last Modified Date'
Show column 'Creation Date'
Show column 'Attributes'
Show column 'Owner'
Show column 'Hard Links'
Show column 'Hard Link ID'
Show column 'Match'
Show column 'Width'
Show column 'Height'
Show column 'Duration'
Show column 'Bit rate'
Show column 'Sample rate'
Optimize column width
Optimizes the width of all columns considering all visible rows in the search result.
Automatically optimize column width
With this option, the column width is automatically optimized when opening and closing
groups.
Optimize column width of all rows (slower)
With this option, the contents of all rows in the search result are taken into account when
optimizing the column width.
Ignore column header when optimizing column width

Filter
With the 'Display filter' you can specify which groups should be displayed in the search result.
The following filters are available:

Show groups with no files selected

Show groups with all files selected
Show groups with some files selected

Groups
You can expand or collapse specific groups with the following actions:
 Collapse all groups
Expand all groups
Expand only groups with selected files
Expand only groups without selected files
Only expand groups where all files are selected
Expand only groups with at least 2 unselected files
Expand only groups with more than a certain number of files...
Expand only groups that contain files with different names
Expand only groups that contain files with different names (without file extension)

Mode
The 'Process mode' defines which groups are affected by the actions of the menu items 'Select',
'Deselect' and 'Remove'. One of the following options can be selected:

All groups
Expanded groups
Collapsed groups
Groups without selected files
Groups with all files selected
Groups with some selected files
Highlighted groups
Non-highlighted groups

Select
You can use the following actions to select specific files in the search result:

Select all files

Highlight all files
Select all files located within the following folder...
Select all files which are duplicates of files from the folder...
Select all files except the first file in each group
Select all files except the last file in each group
Select all files except the newest file in each group
Select all files except the oldest file in each group
 Select only the first file in all groups
Select only the last file in all groups
Select all files except the smallest file in each group
Select all files except the largest file in each group
Select all files except the file with the shortest name in each group
Select all files except the file with the longest name in each group
Select all files except the file with the shortest path in each group
Select all files except the file with the longest path in each group
Select files by name
Select files by path
Select files by size
Select all files with a match greater than or equal to a specified percentage in each group
Select all files with a match less than or equal to a specified percentage in each group
Select all files except the image file with the most megapixels in each group
Select all files without hard links
Invert file selection
Undo
Here you can undo the last selection or deselection action. Please note that when removing
files from the search result, the list with all performed actions will be deleted!

Deselect
You can deselect specific files in the search result with the following actions:

Deselect all files

Deselect all files located within the following folder...
Deselect all files which are duplicates of files from the folder...
Deselect files by name
Deselect files by path

Remove
You can remove specific groups or files from the search result with the following actions:

Remove all groups with a certain number of files from the search result...
Remove all groups where the files in a group do not exist in all source folders
 Remove all groups with all files selected
Remove all groups with some files selected
Remove all groups that contain only files stored in archives
Remove all hard links from the search result
Remove all groups that only contain hard links
Remove all groups that only contain hard links with the same ID
Remove all files within the folder structure of the following folder from the search result...
Remove all files that no longer exist from the search result
Remove all selected files from the search result

File protection
Here you can switch file protection on and off for each source folder. File protection prevents
files from being deleted, moved or renamed within the source folder.

Toolbars
Here you can show and hide the various toolbars.

Toolbar 'Files'
Toolbar 'Filter'
Toolbar 'Groups'
Toolbar 'Search'
Toolbar 'Select'
Hide all toolbars
Use large icons

Options
Hot Keys
Confirm file deletion
With this option you have to confirm the deletion of files in the search result
When exiting, ask whether the search result should be saved
Show minimized search result in the notification area of the taskbar
Show file info icons
This option displays different icons for hard links and files from archives in the leftmost part of
the search result. This gives you a quick overview of whether a file is a hard link or whether
the file is stored in an archive file.
Change the font of the search result
Decrease font size
Increase font size
Maximum size of the thumbnails in pixels
Here you can set the maximum width of the images in the group preview.
Show all file properties in a single column
This option displays all file properties in the group preview, one below the other in a single
column
Context Menu
Various actions can be accessed during context menus at the search result:

File
This context menu will be shown when you right-click a file at a group.
Hint: Doing a right-click on a file while pressing the CTRL key will show only the submenu with
the file actions.

Select/Deselect file
File actions:

Open
Open the file with the associated application.
Open file with ...
Open file location
Opens the folder of the file with the Windows explorer or a user-specified external program
Open file with the external program
Copy file to ...
Move file to ...
Rename file
Delete file permanently
Deletes the file permanently from the data storage.
Move file to the Windows Recycle Bin
Show file properties

Remove file from the search result

Move to the top of the group
This command enables you to specify the source file to create hard links if needed.
Select all other files at this group
Select all files with the same path
Select all files inside the folder structure of this file
Deselect all files with the same path
Deselect all files inside the folder structure of this file
Delete all other files from this group permanently
 Move all other files of this group to the Windows Recycle Bin
Filter lists:

Add file name to the file filter

Add file path to the folder filter

Add file extension to the Plugin list

Enables you to add the file extension to the Plugin list "Microsoft WordPad", "Windows
Internet Explorer", "Windows Media Player" or "VLC Media Player"
Remove file extension from the Plugin lists
Copy to the clipboard
Windows Explorer System Menu
Opens the Windows explorer context menu for this file.

Highlighted Files
You can highlight multiple files by pressing the CTRL key and clicking on each file. Click the
highlighted files with the right mouse button to show up this context menu:

Select highlighted files

Deselect highlighted files
Compare highlighted files
Open highlighted files with external program
Switch file names
Copy highlighted files
Move highlighted files
Delete highlighted files permanently
Remove highlighted files from the search result
Copy to the clipboard

Groups
Select/Deselect Group
Reverse file selection
Remove selected group(s)
Removes the selected group(s) from the search result.
Open all files from inside the group with external program
File Manager
The file manager enables you to delete, copy, move or rename the selected files from the search
result.

Which groups should be processed?

What action is to be performed?
Backup folder
Options
Examples

Which groups should be processed?

All groups (ignore filter)
Only groups displayed by the filter

Don't process any groups with all files selected

This option ensures that not all files in a group are deleted.

What action is to be performed?

Actions 2, 3, 4 and 5 do not affect selected files located in an archive file (Zip, Rar, etc.).

1. Delete files

This action deletes the selected files on the storage medium and frees up storage space. If
you delete files from archives and the file to be deleted is the only file in the archive, then
the archive file is always deleted. Deleting files from an archive with multiple files inside is
only possible with Zip- or 7z-archives. Deleting files from archives that contain multiple files
is only possible for archives with the extension '.zip' and '.7z'.
With the 'Secure delete' option, the file content is completely overwritten with zeros before
deletion and the file size is set to 0.

2. Move local files to the Windows Recycle Bin

 With this action, the selected files are moved to the Windows recycle bin. An error message
is displayed if there is no Windows Recycle Bin on the data carrier of the file to be deleted.
With the option 'Delete file if there is no recycle bin' no error message is displayed and the
file is deleted.
Important notes:

Make sure that the Windows Recycle Bin is activated on the partition of the selected
files.
The available disk space for the Windows Recycle Bin should be set to 100%.
Files that are located on the data medium of another computer are not moved to the
Windows Recycle Bin; they are deleted!
Files stored in archives cannot be moved to the Windows Recycle Bin.

3. Copy files to a folder

This action allows you to copy the selected files to a folder.

4. Move files to a folder

This action allows you to move the selected files to a folder.

5. Rename files

This action allows you to rename the selected files. Please note that the following
characters cannot be used in a file name under Windows: \ / : * ? < > | "
The following placeholders can be used for the new name:

PLACEHOLDER DESCRIPTION

%NAME% File name without file extension

%EXT% File extension with leading dot (.txt)

%GNAME% Name¹ of the group in which the file is located

%FNAME% Name of the first file in the group

%LNAME% Name of the last file in the group

%CDATE% File creation date¹. The displayed creation date from the search result is
used.

%MDATE% File modified date¹. The displayed modified date from the search result is
used.
 PLACEHOLDER DESCRIPTION

%PDATE% Picture creation date¹ (JPG, TIF, PNG). For this purpose, the Exif
property 'DateTimeOriginal' is read out, which is in the following format:
"YYYY:MM:DD HH:MM:SS". The creation date of the file is used if no
creation date could be found in the Exif data.

%YYYY% Year (4-digit)

%YY% Year (2-digit)

%MM% Month (2-digit)

%DD% Day (2-digit)

%HH% Hour (2-digit)

%NN Minute (2-digit)

%SS% Second (2-digit)

¹ Characters that are not allowed in a file name are automatically replaced with an
underscore (_).

Show file protection note

This option shows a warning message before the selected files will be deleted, moved or
renamed.

Backup Folder
Here you specify the folder to which the files should be copied or moved.

Create subfolders in the backup folder

This option allows you to create additional subfolders within the folder. Various Date and Time
placeholders and Windows environment variables can be used to create a new folder name.
Please note that normal text must be enclosed in quotation marks when using date and time
placeholders. See examples:

Text: "Backup of" %USERNAME% "on" yyyy-mm-dd "at" hh_nn_ss

Folder: Backup of John on 2011-02-26 at 10_15_00
Text: "%USERNAME%\"YYYY-MM-DD HH-NN-SS
Folders: John\2011-02-26 10-15-00

Save files with their folder structure in the backup folder

This option saves all files with their folder structure in the specified folder. If you deactivate the
option, all files will be saved directly in the specified folder without their folder structure. Existing
files are renamed before being overwritten by appending a consecutive number after the file
name. For example, the 'Data.txt' file is renamed to 'Data-001.txt' before being overwritten.

Options
Create Shortcuts
This option enables you to create a shortcut (.lnk) at the place of all files that will be deleted or
removed. The shortcut will be point to the first file that is not selected at the same group; see
Example for Shortcuts.

Create Hard Links

This option allows all selected files in a group to be linked together by replacing the files with a
hard link . This has the advantage that the content of all linked files is only saved once on the
hard disk and storage space can be saved. For example, if you link 1000 files with the same
content and a size of 10 MB per file, then more than 9 GB of disk space is freed up! See
Example for hard links.

Notes

Only files stored on the same volume can be linked together.

The files must be stored on a local NTFS partition.
Hard links cannot be created on a network drive.
Hard links cannot be created in a virtual folder that points to the data from an external source,
such as local delivery of files from a cloud.
At least 2 files have to be selected in a group to create hard links.
The Windows file system has a limit of 1024 hard links on a file.
AllDup automatically determine a source file with a hard link count lower than 1024 of all
selected files in a group. All other selected files in this group will be linked with this source
file.
 A new source file will be determined as soon as the current source file reaches 1024 hard
links. This allows you to create an unlimited number of hard links for each group.
The file context menu command 'Move to the top of the group' enables you to specify the
source file to create hard links if needed.
Only files with a hard link count of zero can be linked to the source file. The hard link count
will be checked by the value displayed at the column 'Hard links'. You need to activate the
search option Determine the hard link count for each file so that the hard link count for each
file will be determined during the search.
Files stored inside an archive will be skipped.

Remove all processed files from the search result

This option removes any processed file from the search result.

Remove all groups with only one file from the search result
With this option all groups with only one file will be removed from the search result.

Don't show cancel dialog if an error occurred

This option causes to continue the selected file action after an error occurred while processing a
file.

Delete all folders that are empty after moving or deleting files
This option deletes all empty folders that previously contained files.

Don't log any file actions (faster)

This option disables the logging of the file actions.

After action is completed

Close file manager
Exit AllDup

Examples
Create Hard Links
The search result contains a group with the following files:

1. C:\Work\notes.txt
2. C:\User\readme.txt
3. C:\Backup\notes.txt
4. C:\Mail\new-user-readme.txt

All files in this group are selected (?). The first file in the group is automatically used as the
source file for creating the hard links. All other files (2-4) are deleted and a hard link is created to
the first file, with the hard link having the same name as the deleted file.

Create Shortcuts
The search result contains a group with the following files:

1. C:\Work\notes.txt
2. C:\User\readme.txt
3. C:\Backup\notes.txt
4. C:\Mail\new-user-readme.txt

The first file is unselected and will be used as the source file for the shortcuts to be created. All
other files (2-4) in the group are selected (?). The selected files are now deleted one after the
other and a shortcut is created to the first file, with the shortcut being given the name of the
deleted file.
Hot Keys
Here you can create keyboard shortcuts for all items of the menu bar and tool bar.

Click on a row at the list and press a key to set the shortcut for this item.
Press the DEL key to remove the shortcut of a selected item.
Press CTRL + DEL to delete the shortcuts of all items.

Keys
You can use the following keys to create a shortcut:

CTRL
ALT
SHIFT
A-Z
0-9
F2-F12
Num0-Num9
Backspace
Enter
Insert

Shor tcut Examples

CTRL + A
ALT + 1
SHIFT + L
CTRL + ALT + M
F2
Enter
Command Line
Syntax
AllDup.exe -s[1-9,a,b,c] -c[0-5] -h[0-9] -f[0-7] -m[1-100] -l[10-999] -a[1,2,4,5] -n -p:"[profile
name]" "[Folder1]" "[Folder2]" ....

Parameters
-s[1-9,a]
This parameter enables you to specify the search method:

1 = File Name
2 = File Extension
3 = File Size
4 = File Content
5 = File Last Modified date
6 = File Creation date
7 = File Attributes
8 = Hard Links
9 = Find similar pictures
a = Find similar music
b = Find video & audio files on the basis of the audio length
c = Find similar file names

The file properties 1 to 7 can be combined such as "-s124". The search method 8, 9, a, b and c
can only be used alone such as "-s8" or "-sa".

-c[0-5]
This parameter is optionally and can be used in combination with the parameter -s4 to specify
the comparison method for the comparison criteria File Content.

0. Byte by byte
1. MD5 (128-Bit)
2. SHA-1 (160-Bit)
3. SHA-2 (256-Bit)
 4. SHA-2 (384-Bit)
5. SHA-2 (512-Bit)

-h[0-9]
This parameter is optionally and can be used in combination with the parameter -s9 to specify
the comparison method of the search method Similar Pictures.

0. aHash
1. bHash
2. dHash
3. mHash
4. pHash
5. MD5 (128-Bit)
6. SHA-1 (160-Bit)
7. SHA-2 (256-Bit)
8. SHA-2 (384-Bit)
9. SHA-2 (512-Bit)

-f[0-7]
This parameter is optionally and can be used in combination with the parameter -sc to specify
the comparison method of the search method Similar File Names.

0. SmartMatch
1. FuzzyMatch
2. Levenshtein
3. Ratcliff
4. MatchDiff
5. WordMatch
6. FuzzyPercent
7. Simil

-m[1-100]
This parameter is optionally and can be used in combination with the parameter -s9 and -sa to
specify the percentage match of the search method Similar Pictures and Similar Music.
-d[0-4]
This parameter is optionally and can be used in combination with the parameter -s9 to specify
the compare size of the search method Similar Pictures.

0. 8x8 (aHash, dHash, mHash)

1. 16x16 (aHash, dHash, mHash)
2. 128x128 (bHash)
3. 256x256 (bHash)
4. 512x512 (bHash)

-l[10-999]
This parameter is optionally and can be used in combination with the parameter -sa to specify
the scan length in seconds of the search method Similar Music.

-a[1,2,4,5]
This parameter is optionally and can be used in combination with the parameter -sa to specify
the comparison method of the search method Similar Music.

-p:"[profile name]"
This parameter is optionally and enables you to load a profile.

-n
With this parameter the specified folders will not be added to the source folder list.
This parameter is optionally.

"[Folder]"
This parameter is necessary and enables you to specify the folder(s) to be searched for
duplicates. Folder paths that include space(s) have to be enclosed in double-quotes.

Examples
AllDup.exe -s13 "C:\Work"
Search for duplicates with the same file name and file size inside the folder "C:\Work".

AllDup.exe -s9 -h3 -m90 "C:\Pics"

Search for similar pictures inside the folder "C:\Pics" using the compare method pHash and a
percentage match of 90%.

AllDup.exe -sa -l25 -a4 -m80 "C:\Audio"

Search for similar music files inside the folder "C:\Audio" using a scan length of 25 seconds with
the compare method no.4 and a percentage match of 80%.

AllDup.exe -s4 -c0 "C:\Work" "C:\Data"

Search for duplicates with the same content inside the folders "C:\Work" and "C:\Data".

AllDup.exe -s14 -c0 "C:\Work"

Search for files with the same name and content inside the folder "C:\Work".

AllDup.exe "C:\Work"
Search for duplicates inside the folder "C:\Work" with the current program settings.

AllDup.exe -p:"test" "C:\Work"

Search for duplicates inside the folder "C:\Work" with the settings of the profile "test".

AllDup.exe C:\Work "D:\Data Backup"

Search for duplicates inside the folders "C:\Work" and "D:\Data Backup" with the current
program settings.
Wildcards for Text
WILDCARD DESCRIPTION

* No or several characters.

? Any single character.

# Any single numeral (0 - 9).

[charlist] Any single character in charlist.

[!charlist] Any single character that isn't contained in charlist.

The wildcards can be combined in any sequence.

The following characters have to be inserted in square brackets in order to be used for a
compare operation: left square bracket ([), question mark (?), pound sign (#) and asterisk (*).
The right square bracket (]) can't be used in a string of characters being compared. However, it
can be indicated outside of a string as an individual character.

You can also specify a range of characters in charlist by indicating the largest and smallest value
of the range, separated by a hyphen (-). For example, [A-Z] results in a match if the respective
character position in charlist is a letter between A and Z. You can specify a sequence of several
ranges in square brackets without using separators.

Other key rules for using wildcards:

An exclamation point (!) at the beginning of charlist means that a match results when any
character except for the characters in charlist is found. If the exclamation point is used
outside of the square brackets it serves as a wildcard for itself.
A hyphen (-) can appear at the beginning (after an exclamation point, if present) or at the end
of charlist in order to serve as a wildcard for itself. In any other position a hyphen serves to
designate a character range.
When a range of characters is specified, the characters have to be listed in ascending order
(from the lowest to the highest). This means that [A-Z] is a permissible pattern whereas [Z-A]
isn't.

Examples:
TYPE OF CORRESPONDENCE TEXT CORRESPONDENCE NO CORRESPONDENCE

Several characters a*a aa, aBa, aBBBa aBC

*ab* abc, AABB, Xab aZb, bac

[?#* a[*]a a*a aaa

Several characters ab* abcdefg, abc cab, aab

Individual characters a?a aaa, a3a, aBa aBBBa

Individual numerals a#a a0a, a1a, a2a aaa, a10a

Character range [a-z] f, p, j 2, &

Outside of range [!a-z] 9, &, % b, a

No numerals [!0-9] A, a, &, ~ 0, 1, 9

Combination a[!b-m]# An9, az0, a99 abc, aj0

Placeholders for the Date and Time
PLACEHOLDER DESCRIPTION

: Time delimiter

/ Date delimiter

d, dd Day (1 31, 01 31)

Ddd Abbreviated day of the week (Sun - Sat)

dddd Day of the week (Sunday - Saturday)

ddddd Short date format

dddddd Long date format

w Calendar week day (1 for Sunday to 7 for Saturday)

ww Calendar week (1 54)

m, mm Month (1 - 12, 01 12)

mmm Abbreviated names of the months (Jan - Dec)

mmmm Names of the months (January - December)

q Quarter (1 4)

y Calendar day (1 366)

yy, yyyy Year (00 99, 100 - 9999)

h, hh Time/hour (0 - 23, 00 - 23)

m, mm, n, nn Time/minute (0 - 59, 00 - 59)

s, ss Time/second (0 - 59, 00 - 59)

AM/PM, A/P, AMPM 12-hour format

Speed Comparison Test
Here you will get information about a speed comparison between the comparison method Byte
by Byte and SHA-1. The additional options "Ignore Exif metadata of JPEG files" and "Log every
x minute the search statistic of the scan progress info" where activated for each scan.

The files of the scanned folder were stored on an external hard disk connected via USB2 and
encrypted with TrueCrypt. AllDup was installed at a computer running Windows 7 x64 with 8 GB
RAM and an i3 CPU.

Test with the comparison method Byte by Byte:

13:29:36 - Search: File content Byte by Byte

13:29:37 - File Count: 45442
13:29:37 - Scan: R:\!P2
13:33:37 - Duration : 0:04:01, Progress : 7 %, Current File : 3361 \ 45442, Duplicates Found : 13
13:37:39 - Duration : 0:08:03, Progress : 16 %, Current File : 7652 \ 45442, Duplicates Found : 2
13:41:39 - Duration : 0:12:03, Progress : 45 %, Current File : 20806 \ 45442, Duplicates Found
13:45:39 - Duration : 0:16:03, Progress : 57 %, Current File : 26252 \ 45442, Duplicates Found
13:49:39 - Duration : 0:20:03, Progress : 65 %, Current File : 29665 \ 45442, Duplicates Found
13:53:39 - Duration : 0:24:03, Progress : 70 %, Current File : 32144 \ 45442, Duplicates Found
13:57:39 - Duration : 0:28:03, Progress : 76 %, Current File : 34663 \ 45442, Duplicates Found
14:01:39 - Duration : 0:32:03, Progress : 82 %, Current File : 37573 \ 45442, Duplicates Found
14:04:51 - Found 32215 duplicates with 22.970.559.143 Bytes in source folder 'R:\!P2'
14:04:51 - Groups: 5.442
14:04:51 - File Comparison Count: 28.370
14:04:51 - Duplicates: 32215 (70%) (21,39 GB)
14:04:51 - Elapsed time: 00:35:15

Test with the comparison method SHA-1:

 14:10:31 - Search: File content SHA-1 (160-Bit)
14:10:32 - File Count: 45442
14:10:32 - Scan: R:\!P2
14:14:32 - Duration : 0:04:01, Progress : 7 %, Current File : 3422 \ 45442, Duplicates Found : 14
14:18:32 - Duration : 0:08:01, Progress : 26 %, Current File : 12073 \ 45442, Duplicates Found
14:22:32 - Duration : 0:12:01, Progress : 55 %, Current File : 25020 \ 45442, Duplicates Found
14:26:32 - Duration : 0:16:01, Progress : 66 %, Current File : 30193 \ 45442, Duplicates Found
14:30:32 - Duration : 0:20:01, Progress : 78 %, Current File : 35462 \ 45442, Duplicates Found
14:34:12 - Found 32215 duplicates with 22.970.559.143 Bytes in source folder 'R:\!P2'
14:34:12 - Groups: 5.442
14:34:12 - File Comparison Count: 28.370
14:34:12 - Duplicates: 32215 (70%) (21,39 GB)
14:34:12 - Elapsed time: 00:23:41

As expected, the comparison method SHA-1 wins the rally. Comparing only the checksums
stored inside the RAM reduced the file read access and can save a lot of time.
AllSync
Data Backup & Folder Synchronization
AllSync is the professional solution for your data synchronization,
imaging, backup, update, replication and archiving needs under Microsoft
Windows.

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