FolderMatch makes it easy to find duplicate files on your computer.  You can then delete them with a button click. But be careful, you should not remove many of these files.  

 

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The Golden Rule of Duplicate File Removal: If you are not sure whether it is safe to remove a file, DO NOT REMOVE IT.

 

Ultimately, only you can determine which files are safe to remove and which are not.  The following guidelines can help however:

 

1.Do not remove System, Hidden, or Windows files.

 

Removing any of these types of files can cause your system to become unstable or unusable. By default, the program will ignore these three types of files.  We highly recommend that you not change these Ignore options. See the Find Duplicate Files - Options help topic for more information about these three Ignore options.

 

2.Do not delete duplicate files.  Instead, move them to another folder.

 

Moving a duplicate file is safer than deleting it, since this allows you to restore the file if you find that it was needed in its original location. If, after some time passes, you don’t see any problems with Windows or your programs. then you may delete the moved files. See the Removal Methods help topic for more information.

 

3.Remove only files which are created by you.

 

The safest files to remove are the ones you create.  With other files, you can't be sure if the program that created/installed it requires the file to function properly.

 

4.Make sure that the files are REALLY duplicates by using the Contents Match search criteria.  

 

The only way to know for certain that two files are duplicates is by comparing their contents.  The Contents Match search criteria is slower than the others but is the most foolproof method to determine that files are identical.  See the Find Duplicate Files - Options help topic for more information about the various Duplicate Search Criteria.

 

5.Do not remove files with the extensions DLL or OCX.

 

These files are required by programs installed on your machine.  Removing these files can cause the applications to stop running properly.   The safest way to remove these files is to uninstall the application that added them to your machine.