AOMEI Partition Assistant
How to Find Duplicates in a File and Easily Remove Them
It is easy to find duplicates in a file. No matter you want to find and delete duplicate files in a folder or do it on the whole Windows PC, the shared 2 methods can all be helpful.
By Irene / Updated on July 8, 2025
You're here because you really want to clean up your computer for troubleshooting slow performance by removing accumulated duplicate files. Dealing with duplicate files can be a hassle, especially when they're scattered among other files.
If you have a large collection of duplicate files on your Windows computer and want to know how to check for and remove them, this article will provide targeted solutions. Now, let’s learn to find duplicates in a file and maintain a tidy computer.
Try the 2 ways to find duplicates in a file
According to different situations, we have prepared two methods for you. For small-scale duplicate finding needs, for example, you want to find and delete duplicate files in a folder, trying File Explorer can be helpful. However, if you want to find all duplicates on your Windows computer, the second method is the most effective approach.
Way 1. Find duplicates in a file with File Explorer
Step 1. Go to the lower-left corner next to the Windows icon. Type "Indexing Options" into the search bar and then click on "Indexing Options".
Step 2. Click on "Modify" and select "Show all locations". A pop-up will appear, asking for your login details. Make sure you're using an administrator account when making changes here.
Step 3. Check if all the boxes are ticked under the "Changed selected locations" section. If they are, click "OK," then hit the "Close" button. If not, make sure to check all the boxes.
Step 4. Press the Windows key and E key on your keyboard at the same time to open File Explorer. It's easier to locate your files under your user account. To access your user account, go to Windows (C:), and then select the Users folder.
Step 5. Click on "Search" in the upper-right corner, and enter the following extensions based on their format.
Step 6. Organize the search results by Name:
• Under the "Panes" section, choose "Preview pane".
• Under the "Layout" section, select "Details".
• In the "Current view" section, click "Group by," and then pick "Name".
• To arrange the files in ascending order, click "Group by," and select "Ascending".
Step 7. Examine the files to find duplicates saved in different locations. Check the "Date modified" column to identify the latest version of each file.
Step 8. After reviewing the files, select the one you want to delete, and then press the DELETE key on your keyboard.
Way 2. Find all duplicates in a file with a professional tool
When you want to find all duplicates on your whole Windows computer, the above method may have limitations. It can be time-consuming to check all the drives and may overlook hidden duplicate files, potentially leading to accidental deletion of critical files, especially those related to system operations.
Therefore, it is recommended to use a professional duplicate files finder such as AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup. This tool can perform an automatic scan of your entire computer, identifying duplicates across various file types with more than dozens of file formats, such as pictures, audio, archives, and documents, thereby enhancing accuracy. Moreover, you can also manually adjust settings for specific file searches, for example, you can find and delete duplicate files in a folder based on your needs.
AOMEI Partition Assistant for CleanupThe Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer
Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup. Click the "Find Duplicate Files" tab. You can either click "Scan Now" to start the scan of your system C: drive. Or, click "Custom Scan" to manually select paths to be scanned. (Here, we take the "Custom Scan" as an example.)
Step 2. After clicking "Custom Scan", all local and external drives on your PC will be displayed. You can also click the "Add Path" button, and then a browse folder window will pop up. So you can add more paths on this PC, like Desktop, Downloads, and other folder paths.
Step 3. Once necessary paths are added, you can click the "Scan Now" button to start the scan process.
Step 4. The scan process might take time. After the scan is complete, all duplicate files will be listed. You can click the button behind to locate them.
Step 5. You can either manually select duplicate files, or click the "Smart Select" button to automatically select unnecessary duplicate files to delete.
Tips: If the "Smart Select" is ticked, only the oldest duplicate file will be unticked. It means that all duplicate files except the oldest one will be ticked to delete. (The oldest file means the file that was created first. This file will not be deleted. All other duplicate files are conside red copies of the oldest file. )
If you manually select all copies of duplicate files, you will get a pop-up warning window to keep at least one copy of the duplicate files. If you indeed want to delete all copies of duplicate files, you can click "OK" so all copies of duplicate files will be selected to delete.
After unnecessary duplicate files are selected, please click the "Clean Now" button to start the deletion.
Step 6. The deletion might take time. After the process is finished, the selected files will be deleted, and you will get a cleaning completed window displaying how much data you deleted in total.
To sum up
If you want to find duplicates in a file, you can follow the shared methods in light of your needs. If you have downloaded AOMEI Partition Assistant, there are many other practical functions worth trying.
Extending drive space can be achieved by choosing PC Cleaner, App Mover, Allocate Free Space, Merge Partitions, and so on. For computer health monitoring, PC Health Check and Disk Speed test can share a hand for you. What’s more, this powerful tool can help you easily enjoy the newly released Windows OS, even if your device hardware do not support.
