Search for identical images on your computer. How to find and delete identical pictures, images and photos

Most programs for cleaning and optimizing Windows have built-in modules for searching and removing duplicates.

True, their effectiveness seems somewhat questionable, since the search for duplicate files is carried out not by their content, but by metadata.

Therefore, it is better to use specialized utilities for these purposes.

There are programs that search for duplicates only among text documents, there are programs designed to search for duplicates of photographs, audio and even video. Today we would like to bring to your attention five applications whose main task is to search for identical and similar images.

Dup Detector

A simple and effective utility for finding duplicate images. Supports JPG, BMP, PNG, TIF, PCX, TGA, WMF, EMF and PSP formats. Dup Detector's capabilities include pixel-by-pixel comparison of images within one or more galleries (folders). A distinctive feature of the program is the option to set the percentage matching range when searching.

Among the disadvantages, the relatively slow speed of operation should be noted. In addition, when displaying results, the utility only shows two images at a time. Interface language - .

DupliFinder

A simple and convenient program for finding and removing duplicate photos and other images. The search is carried out by comparing MD5 checksums. Otherwise the program is similar to Dup Detector. It supports working with subdirectories, displaying the percentage of similarity, and previewing comparison results. Selected duplicates can be deleted. Disadvantages include somewhat slow speed and the need to install a Java package. Interface language is English.

Similar Images Finder

A lightweight program for searching for identical and similar images in various formats. SimilarImages supports about 30 formats, including JPG, JPEG, BMP, PNG, ICO, CUR, as well as the lesser known RAS, PGX, WBMP, MNG, PCX, DCX and some others. It is possible to automatically and manually remove duplicates.

VisiPics

Another good tool for finding the same or similar pictures. Allows you to find images even with minor changes. Works both with individual directories and with entire sections. It is possible to filter by degree of similarity. The supported formats are JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PCX, TIFF, TGA and RAW. The main drawback is the somewhat inconvenient user interface and the lack of Russian language.

Image Comparer

Perhaps the best program for finding and removing duplicate images. Image Comparer has a convenient and simple interface in Russian and supports working with all popular graphic formats. The comparison is made based on the content of the image itself, the so-called digital fingerprint. In this case, the degree of similarity is indicated as a percentage. Found duplicates can be moved, copied or deleted.

Jan 28 2017

Even for those who are not involved in photography, image editing, creating videos and slide shows, creating viral postcards, animation, etc., they often have the same images on their computer located in different folders.

Of course, for those who are engaged in creative activities on the computer, the habit of storing images in separate thematic folders is very helpful.

And also, the habit of deleting media material that has become unnecessary after completing work on a project.

And yet, no matter how hard you try, similar images (duplicates) still periodically appear on the computer.

When selecting pictures for a group on social networks or a blog, editing and optimizing them, it is not always possible to remove the original pictures that have become unnecessary.

In a previous article I describe in detail

To avoid confusion, identical pictures with different extensions or sizes are given different names, placed in different folders, etc.

But the images in the pictures remain the same, and if you want to delete unnecessary copies, you are faced with the need to spend time on this.

Another accumulation of identical images on the computer is due to the fact that we upload photos from the camera (phone, camera) to the computer entirely (as a whole) into one folder. At the same time, without deleting the photos from the media.

After taking a few more pictures, we again upload all the photos from the camera as a whole to another folder.

And so on an infinite number of times.

When looking at photos, sometimes you really want to put things in order - to delete similar and unnecessary ones.

But this takes time! Time and patience!

Because it’s difficult to remember “have I already seen this photo or not?”, “did I delete it (the same one) or not?”, “and where did I put it?”, “what if this one is not already in other folders?”

In general, it is troublesome to delete duplicate pictures and photos from your computer.

And sometimes you don’t want to leave everything “as is,” because confusion arises, takes up time and spoils the mood.

To help us, there are several programs that can quickly view, compare images and remove duplicates.

Oh, if only they could create slideshows and collages themselves...

These are the programs:

AntiDupl.NET
DuplicateFinder
DuplicateFileDetector
DuplicateCleaner
ImageDupeless
ImageComparer
Duplicate File Remover

In this article I will talk about the AntiDupl.NET program

Firstly, because I use it myself. It is installed on my computer.

Secondly, because this program is free and recognizes images in JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG and others.

I would like to note that the program views and analyzes the very content of graphic files.

And therefore it finds not only completely identical files, but also similar ones.

Pictures become similar after editing - cropping, writing, or rotating the corner of the image. The blogger performs all these manipulations with images to create a unique image for the site.

Sometimes pictures already posted on a blog need to be left for further creation of a banner, for example, or posting an announcement of an article on social networking pages.

The program's ability to find similar pictures (changed) is very helpful in quickly finding and removing truly unnecessary ones.

The program supports the Russian interface and has the ability to flexibly manage search parameters.

Download program

On the program download page, select the top line - as it contains the latest version of the program.

When downloading a program, immediately determine the folder and location on the computer where it will be stored permanently. Because there is no need to install the program. After unpacking the archive into the same folder, you will find a file with the extension exe.

Run the program by double-clicking the left mouse button on this file.

Now let's set the program language.

Next, “Specify path” (yellow folder) and in the window click “Add directory”.

After this, a small window will open where you can select the folder in which you want to check the images

To analyze and search for duplicates, you can add more than one folder.

And even folders containing folders inside them.

And even just specify the entire C drive, for example. Or a “flash drive”, which at this moment will be connected to the computer.

After the directories have been added, click on “OK” and then on the gear icon - that is, we proceed to selecting settings options.

Now let’s take our time and thoughtfully check or uncheck the required search settings.

The Options window has several tabs.

The meaning of the settings and their description are very clear, so I won’t dwell on them.

Go through all the tabs before clicking OK

And now one more step - click on the green triangle icon “Start Search”. After this, the program will very quickly give you the result

The program will give you the result of the check in the next window, where at first glance nothing will be clear.

It's actually simple. There are 2 pictures displayed on the left side. And under each of its data - weight, size, name, etc.

You can manually remove the top or bottom. Or give the program a command to do it for you.

Notice the top command line and the vertical line with similar icons.

Move the cursor to a button and a tooltip will appear with the meaning of these buttons.

If you want to quickly delete, for example, all the first pictures, press the Ctrl+A key combination on your keyboard and then the “Delete all first” button in the top panel of the program.

To leave pictures edited and prepared for further publication or creating a slide show, look at the parameters you need - weight, size, extension. All this data appears in the data of each copy.

Deleted pictures will go to the trash. All that remains is to empty the basket itself.

When I first cleaned my computer of duplicate images using this program, my computer freed up...more than 9 GB!

I was impressed myself :)

I think that it will take you much more time to study and master this program for the first time than to remove duplicate images on your computer using the AntiDupl.NET program

Finding identical photos on your computer will clear up disk space and reduce the amount of unnecessary junk in your system. Thanks to this, the device will start working faster. Duplicates are often created by the user himself (for example, pictures are copied to different folders), but sometimes they remain after using different software. You can find unnecessary copies using specialized programs, most of which are distributed free of charge. Today we will get acquainted with the most popular of them.

It’s worth starting with this multifunctional utilities. Its main task is to clean the PC hard drive (other devices). Main advantages:

• easy setup;
• setting several search parameters;
• ability to skip some objects.

If analogues with zero size are found, they do not need to be deleted. This may be data that was created in another OS (for example, Linux).

Finding identical photos on your computer using Total Commander

Activate product. After launch, a window will open notifying you about the software status. Click on the button indicated in the window to activate another window. At the top of the menu, click “Commands”, look for “File Search” (combination Alt + F7). Next, you should select a location to scan (local drive by default). Total Commander will help you scan directories separately or the entire disk at once. Then go to the “Advanced” section and configure the necessary settings. At the bottom of the window, check the “Search for duplicates” checkbox, set the scanning settings and click “Start search” (Enter button). Once the procedure is completed, the results will be shown below.

This program created specifically to detect identical photographs and other copies on a computer. She “can’t do anything” anymore. The algorithm of actions is simple:

• open DupGuru;

• At the bottom there will be a button for adding directories to the list;
• tap on it, in the window that appears, select the desired directory, where the same objects are present, add;
• Click “Scan” and wait for the process to complete.

The utility will show the found copies in a new window or open a notification about the absence of such copies. Everything that is found will be eliminated in the “Actions” menu, you can also rename something, move it, etc.

We use AllDup

Program decorated beautifully and comfortably. After launch, a window opens with a small guide on how to detect similar photos. You can search throughout the entire space, or you can mark only the places you need. It is possible to add individual folders; to do this, simply click the arrow next to the “Add folders” item.

For example, let’s take Games in the “C:\” drive:

• go to the search method section and configure the parameters;
• The indicator for finding duplicates by similar names is automatically active; you can mark the necessary settings. It is better to enable the search immediately by extensions; otherwise, the program can only find objects with similar names, even if they are not copies;
• tap on the start key;
• A new window will open with the results, where you mark unnecessary files, right-click on the one for which you want to delete analogues;
• Click “Delete all other files from this group permanently.”

The original remains, and the rest is erased from the computer.

This is very thoughtful utility, which finds and deletes identical photos and other objects on the computer. At the same time, you can search for photos, audio, etc. in standard mode, and look for analogues of pictures or audio, etc. The program is easy to work with. Just activate the program, configure the search criteria like this:

Additional options/Same name/Scan path

Mark the folder, click the button to add the selected folder to the included paths and click the “Scan” button. Wait for the scan to complete, where the statistics of found duplicates are displayed in a separate window. Close the window. In the “Duplicate Files” section similar objects will be shown, select the unnecessary ones, click the “View” menu, select “Delete files”.

Using the above services, it is easy to search for identical photos on your computer. You can choose any one, they all easily cope with the task.

In this material we will talk about tools for identifying duplicate photos. In particular, today we will review six programs for finding duplicate photos on a Windows computer.

We will compare and choose the best and fastest among them.

There may be several reasons for the demand for such programs: on the one hand, your collection could have grown so large that duplicates are already taking up a lot of space. On the other hand, even more often you just need a tool that will find the same or similar photos, saving you from having to look through these images yourself.

In our selection there was room for six interesting programs, four of which are distributed free of charge. Next, we will talk about each of them and help you quickly navigate the interface if you decide to try these applications.

And in the final part, you will find a small comparison of all the programs, in which we will see how they cope with searching for identical pictures when they are slightly modified, and we will also check how well the programs can cope with a large set of photographs weighing several gigabytes.

Image Comparer

The first program in our review that searches for duplicate photos is called Image Comparer. Its strengths: good functionality and an interface translated into Russian, including detailed reference information.

Now about the disadvantages. First, the program is not free. However, the cost of a license is a humane 350 rubles (although for some reason the number on the website is 500). In addition, you can use Image Comparer for free for the first 30 days.
The second negative point is that it is slightly confusing, which can confuse an inexperienced user. For example, in order to search within one folder (which may contain others), you need to click on the “create gallery” button and select the desired directory in which to scan.

Next, you will immediately be prompted to give a name and save the file of the gallery being created to any convenient location (the program itself will need this file). As soon as this is done, a list of all the images in the specified folder and its subfolders will open in front of you in the form of a list or thumbnails:
Buttons marked with arrows start a search for duplicates. The first button is a search within one gallery (the folder you selected), the second button a little to the right is within several galleries. We went with the first option.

Next, the program suggested creating another service file in which the results will be saved for further convenient access to them. Actually, creating a file for the gallery and this file with search results can be a little confusing for an inexperienced user. However, then everything is already simple. The found duplicates will appear in front of you:
They can be viewed in the form of thumbnails, or by clicking on the “image pairs” tab, go to the view where the photos will be compared with each other:
The center slider allows you to adjust the threshold of image similarity. 100% - and you will only be left with a list of perfectly similar, identical pictures. Lower values ​​will only show similar photos.

In the settings you can see a huge list of formats from basic JPG and PNG to more exotic ones that the program works with. Formats can be added and excluded from the search. You can also configure the accounting of reflected and inverted images.

• Image Comparer program. Official site ;
• Russian language;

VisiPics

The next program is VisiPics. Unlike Image Comparer discussed above, VisiPics is a free application that also specializes in duplicate photos. Alas, there is no localization into Russian here, but you definitely shouldn’t be upset about this: everything is very simple and extremely clear.
Using the side navigation bar (we've outlined it in a frame), select the desired directory. Next, click the arrow with the “+” sign to add this folder to the list that will be searched. If you wish, you can select several more folders in the same way. Finally, as a third step, click the Play button to start the process of finding duplicates.

To the right of it is a special slider where you can adjust the level of “attention” of the program. With the default baseline, VisiPics found only two groups of duplicates for us, one of which consisted of three images and the other of two:
These are the images that the program considers to be almost identical duplicates. However, if you lower the slider to the Loose level, then there will be images that are simply similar to each other. In our case, when installing Loose instead of Basic, the application found four more (5 in the final test below) groups of duplicates, and added one more picture to one of the two already found:
The program has relatively few additional options. Here you can configure search in subfolders (it is enabled by default), display of hidden folders, and take into account photos rotated by 90 degrees. On the loader tab, you can ask VisiPics to ignore small files or, conversely, pictures with too high a resolution. The latter is important for speed.

• VisiPics program. Official site ;
• English language;
• Distribution: free.

Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder

If you are looking for an extremely simple program for high-quality search of duplicate photos and images, which would be very easy to understand, then pay attention to Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder. The interface is in English, but it is so simple that anyone can understand it.
Using the “+” button, specify the directory or several directories you need to search, then click Start Search and the search begins in them. The Scan Subdirectories option is enabled by default and is responsible for searching subfolders. The program copes with its tasks, finding both very similar:
And here are pictures that are slightly more different from each other:
In the program settings, you can set the match to 100% if you only need absolutely identical photos.

As you can see, there are few settings. Perhaps the saddest thing is that the program works with only five main formats: BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF and TIFF. Moreover, the latter is not taken into account by default.
There are also options to ensure that duplicates are deleted directly to the Trash and to disable the pop-up confirmation. The program can also update itself automatically.

Official site ;
• English language;
• Distribution: free.

Similar Images Finder

The Similar Images Finder application greets us with an unkind message in English that we need to pay $34 for it. However, the program is ready to work for free for 30 days. Next, a window appears asking you to select directories to search for duplicates:
From it we learn that Similar Images Finder supports 29 image formats, and the user can select specific formats to search or exclude unnecessary ones. In the list, among other things, you can see ico and wbmp.

Clicking Next will start the search for duplicates, and when it's finished, click Next again to see additional settings. By adjusting them, you can more carefully customize what appears in the results list. Finally, by clicking Next for the third time, you will finally see the result itself:
You can move to the next found picture by clicking the miniature arrow in the upper right corner. The entire list of found duplicates opens by clicking on the large button at the top with the addresses of the current files.

In turn, clicking the Next button at the bottom will lead to the final stage of work. There the program will display a list of what, in its opinion, are definitely duplicates and offer to delete them. In the screenshot above, Similar Images Finder coped with an image where a watermark was added and the histogram contrast was changed.

Distinguishing between the pictures, the program calculated at 5.5%. Moreover, in another example, where we added a strong blur effect to the second picture, the differences according to the application version for some reason amounted to only 1.2%:
Alas, the program, while finding real duplicates, by default also shows many images that are completely different from each other, as if they have something in common:

• Similar Images Finder. Official site ;
• English language;
• Distribution: paid, 30 days free use.

Duplicate Remover Free

Duplicate Remover Free is the only program in our review that is not focused specifically on duplicate photos, but on finding duplicates in general. As practice shows, such universal solutions do not perform very well in problems related to some narrower area.

However, today we are giving one such program a chance. As the word Free suggests, it is distributed free of charge. The second advantage of the application is the Russian language, and the third is its relative modernity compared to other programs in this collection, many of which, unfortunately, have not been updated for many years.
You should click on the “add directory” button and select the desired folders. By default, the program did not find anything for us in the given directory, however, when at the top instead of “exact duplicates” we selected the “similar images” item, four groups of duplicates were immediately found, one of which consisted of three files at once:
The application has very few additional features. In particular, you can exclude files from the search before and after a certain size.

• Duplicate Remover Free. Official site ;
• Russian language;
• Distribution: free.

AntiDupl

The final participant in our review, the AntiDupl program, may appeal to you for several reasons. First of all, it's free. Secondly, it has a Russian interface. The latter, however, is not obvious. In order to enable Russian, open the View menu and in the Language section select the appropriate item:
Unlike others, this program is not installed, but is located in a self-extracting archive, which extracts it along with the necessary files into a separate folder.

To prepare the search for duplicates, click on the button labeled Open and add the required directories in the window that appears:
Next, you can click OK, and then activate the green “start search” button on the toolbar. Using a basic algorithm, the program found several groups of duplicates for us:
Having switched the algorithm at the top to the more free SSIM, we already received two more groups of duplicates, and after increasing the “freedom” of the search from 20 to 35%, the program gave us an even more detailed list:
Moreover, in all cases, there were indeed images that were at least noticeably similar to each other. So don't hesitate to experiment with the settings.

The program has many additional options:
On the “search” tab you can find out that AntiDupl supports 13 formats, including, in addition to traditional JPG/PNG, ICON, PSD and EXIF. Of course, you can choose formats. The options also include checking for defects, blockiness and blurriness, and in the last two cases you can set a threshold. It is possible to search in hidden and system directories.

• AntiDupl program. Official site;
• Russian language;
• Distribution: free.

When searching for duplicates, some users are interested in 100% matching in order to get rid of duplicates in their collection. However, the task often arises of finding exactly similar pictures.

And here there is a huge space for possible differences. This can be different formats, resolutions, cropped versions of the same image, adding frames and watermarks, changed colors and captions on the pictures.

We tried to take into account most of these factors and, after all the testing, we ended up creating a small set with more than six dozen pictures. In them we created nine groups of duplicates. Let’s be honest, our experience certainly doesn’t claim to be the ultimate truth, but it was interesting to try. The results are as follows:

• Duplicate Remover Free: found only 3 groups of duplicates;
• Similar Images Finder: found 4 groups, but the inconvenient interface, many false results, and the paid nature of the application greatly spoiled the overall impression;
• AntiDupl found 3 types of duplicates by default, installing the SSIM algorithm increased the search result to 5 groups;
• VisiPics found only 2 groups of duplicates at the basic search level, but setting the slider to the Loose level allowed it to find 7 groups;
• Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder found 7 groups of duplicates;
• Image Comparer was also able to detect 7 groups.

At the same time, Image Comparer was able to find images that Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder and VisiPics missed, and they, in turn, filled in the gaps of Image Comparer.

Determining the fastest program for finding duplicate photos

At the same time, the quality of the program also depends on its speed. 60+ pictures is, of course, not something that users can work with. So we did another test. This time for speed. To do this, we took a selection of 4450 very different images, the total weight of which exceeded 2.1 GB.
Unfortunately, two programs from this review did not take any place in the test. As it turned out, Similar Images Finder, which costs $34, in its free version is ready to process no more than 200 images at a time.

In turn, the universal duplicate search engine Duplicate Remover Free, faced with a catalog of serious size, worked intensively for more than five minutes, and then completely froze. The remaining programs showed the following times:

• AntiDupl: 0:39;
• Image Comparer: 1:02 (35 seconds to create gallery and 27 to search);
• VisiPics: 2:37;
• Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder: 3:17.

As a result, Image Comparer and AntiDupl clearly took the lead in the speed test. It took them about or, in the case of AntiDupl, less than a minute to process our archive.

Conclusion

Let's summarize. If you need to find not identical, but rather similar photographs that differ, for example, in a signature or watermark, then Image Comparer, Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder and VisiPics in Loose operating mode will cope with this task better than others.

In terms of processing speed for a large collection of images, AntiDupl and Image Comparer are the undisputed leaders.

Finally, in terms of interface convenience, we liked Image Comparer and VisiPics, which immediately allow you to visually evaluate all groups of duplicates. In turn, for the clarity of comparing the characteristics of individual duplicates, we will also note AntiDupl.

Programs for finding and deleting identical files were considered. The procedure is, of course, necessary, but what to do if you need to detect and erase identical or similar pictures or photographs from your computer? Of course, use a special program.

The utility is called Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder and you can download it from .

It is free, small in size and has a version that does not require installation. The only thing that spoils it is the lack of a Russian-language interface, but it is so intuitive that it’s quite easy to understand. Especially after reading this article.

So, the main program window looks like this:

The found images are shown on the left and right, and the percentage of similarity is shown in the middle between them.
Below the images, their properties are displayed, such as extension, resolution and size (you can focus on them when searching).
By clicking on the picture you can open it in .
1 - allows you to move an image to another folder
2 - opens a folder with an image
3 - deletes to trash

Now about Settings (Settings in the top menu)

On the left you indicate which formats to look for.

Move Files to Recycle Bin- delete file to trash

Delete Files without Confirmation- delete without warning

Search Only 100% Indian Pictures- search only for 100% matching images

Automatically Check for Updates- automatically check for program updates

Set it as you prefer, click OK and read on.

Let's look at this menu

it is needed to add folders for scanning and searching.

In order, the assignment of the buttons from left to right: Add, Delete, Move Up, Move Down, Clear.

Button Start Search- To start searching.

Check mark on Scan Subdirectories- search by subfolders (which are inside).

After the search is completed, if there are results, the program window will look like this:

I deliberately covered up the paths, but the essence did not change.

The bottom part shows the path of the original image (Original Image), a similar image (Dublicate Image) and the percentage of similarity (Similarity).

There is nothing more to explain here, except that switching between found duplicates is carried out in the lower list.
This is how you can quite easily find not only identical pictures and images, but also photos on your computer.