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💾 About The Project

Folder & Duplicate Scanner

The Folder & Duplicate Scanner is a feature-rich PowerShell application with a graphical user interface (GUI) designed to help you analyze your file system. It offers two primary functions: scanning folders to generate detailed reports (TXT, CSV, HTML) and identifying duplicate files based on their content (MD5 hash), not just their names.

Built by: Zachary Whiteman & Google Gemini Ai.

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🔰 Getting Started

This tool provides a powerful way to audit your file storage and recover space.

🕰️ Prerequisites

To run this script, you will need:

  • Windows Operating System.
  • PowerShell 5.1 or newer.
  • .NET Framework: Required for the Windows Forms GUI.

💽 Installation & Execution

  1. Download: Download the FileScanner_and_DuplicateFinder.PS1 script file.
  2. Unblock: Right-click the file, go to Properties, and click Unblock if the file was downloaded from the internet.
  3. Run: Execute the script from a PowerShell console. 
    .\FileScanner_and_DuplicateFinder.PS1

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🚀 Usage

Folder Scanner Tab

This tab allows you to generate a comprehensive list of files in a directory.

  1. Folder to Scan: Select the directory you want to analyze.
  2. Save Location: Choose where the report file will be saved.
  3. Output Format:
    • Text File (.txt): A simple, tree-like structure of your folders.
    • CSV File (.csv): A structured data file suitable for opening in Excel.
    • Interactive HTML File (.html): A modern, sortable, and searchable web page report.
  4. Advanced Options:
    • Calculate MD5 Hash: Enables precise content identification (slower but more accurate).
    • Filter: Only scan for specific file extensions (e.g., .jpg,.png).

Duplicate Finder Tab

This tab helps you find redundant files.

  1. Scan Mode:
    • Scan a folder: Perform a fresh scan of a directory to find duplicates immediately.
    • Analyze a report: Re-use a previously generated CSV or TXT report to find duplicates without re-scanning the drive.
  2. Find Duplicates: Click the button to start the process. The results list will show groups of files that have identical content (matching MD5 hashes).

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✨ Key Features

  • Recursive Scanning: deeply scans all subfolders of the target directory.
  • Multiple Report Formats: Flexible output options to suit different needs (Text, Excel-ready CSV, or Web Report).
  • Content-Based Matching: Uses MD5 hashing to find true duplicates, even if they have different filenames.
  • Interactive HTML Reports: The HTML output includes built-in search and sorting capabilities, making it easy to navigate large file lists.
  • Settings Persistence: Remembers your custom application icon setting between sessions.

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🛠️ Technology Stack

  • Scripting Language: PowerShell
  • GUI Framework: .NET Windows Forms (WinForms).
  • Algorithms: MD5 Hashing for file comparison.

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📐 Architecture & Security Notes

  • Read-Only: The script primarily reads file metadata and content (for hashing). It does not delete or modify your files automatically.
  • Performance: Calculating MD5 hashes for large files (like videos) can take time. The interface includes a progress bar to indicate activity.

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🪪 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt for more information.

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☎️ Contact

Zach Whiteman - elitesoftwarecolimited@gmail.com

HuggingFace - https://huggingface.co/EliteSoftware

HuggingFace (Personal) - https://huggingface.co/TheShadyRainbow

LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/zachrainbow

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/c/EliteSoftwareCo

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