Forum Discussion
Look for a fast duplicate file finder for Windows 11/10
My Windows 11 PC and Windows 10 laptop have accumulated a large number of files over the years, mostly are photos, documents, music, and videos. I suspect there are many duplicates taking up unnecess...
Doing the same in PowerShell with czkawka CLI (a command line duplicate file finder for windows 10/11).
# Dry-run: list dupes in two folders, compare by hash
czkawka_cli dup `
--directories "C:\Users\James\Pictures" "D:\Archive\Pictures" `
--check-method hash --dry-run
# Real cleanup: delete all but the newest file in every group
czkawka_cli dup `
--directories "E:\Media" `
--check-method hash `
--delete-method AEO # AEO = All Except Oldest| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
| --threads 8 | Manually set CPU threads (added in 7.x) |
| --min-size 1M | Ignore tiny files |
| --exclude-dir "C:\Windows" | Skip sensitive paths |
| --export json | Save a report you can audit first |
Extra pointers
1. Cache & speed – the second scan of the same folders is dramatically faster because Czkawka duplicate file finder stores file hashes in a local cache.
2. Safety nets – deletions land in the Recycle Bin by default; switch to “hard-link” mode if you’d rather merge duplicates without losing a byte.
3. Automation – because the CLI outputs plain text or JSON, you can schedule nightly duplicate sweeps with Task Scheduler or integrate it into PowerShell scripts.
With these steps you can tame duplicate sprawl on Windows 11 in minutes whether you prefer a single-click GUI or script-level control.