William Mailloux

William is a long time software developer and computer enthusiest. Offering consulting services since 2014 I have been recently begun releasing software for typical needs.

Dupe De Dupe

First release was Dupe De Dupe, a file de-duplicator that would compare files not by name but by content.

It does this by reading each file as if it was binary and creating from it's content a SHA1 hash. This hash code acts as a fingerprint of the data, though much smaller than the size of the file.

This  is then added to a list using that key as an index. This allows large numbers of files to be automatically compared without actually comparing contents.. it just compares the hash of the contents.  This works because files with the same content have the same hash code, differing files have different hashes.  CRC, SHA1, and MD5 are all good candidates. SHA1 was used in Dupe De Dupe.

Dupe De Dupe is different from other tools because
  1. It's auto-select feature picks the most likely candidate to remove, which can be helpful if there are a lot of files.
  2. Unlike other tools it does NOT actually delete files it moves them, giving you the chance undo changes.
  3. If moving files to a local folder (the default) you can restore through the app in the Restore tab.
  4. The app also creates undo batch files that go with the moved file giving you yet another avenue to undo a file move.
  5. By default it does NOT use the Windows Recycle Bin  so your removed files are not listed there.
  6. You can use local folders to move duplicates or the Recycle Bin, which can be set in the Settings tab. While using the Recycle Bin as a destination restore is also through the Recycle Bin.