How to Find Duplicate Files in a Hidden Folder?

Read time 8 minutes

Does your system face slow performance, or your disk drives are full displaying red highlights? Then, the issue is oversized drives, and mostly it occurs due to the accumulation of duplicate files. Those files which are visible can be easily deleted, but there are some hidden files and folders on your drives that can also contain duplicate files created through bugs, viruses, malicious links, human errors, and other reasons.

In this blog, we will be discussing a perfect solution to find and delete duplicate files in a hidden folder in Windows systems. But before that, let us know how to find or reveal hidden folders in Windows drives.

How to Reveal Hidden Folders in Windows Manually?

Depending on the Windows version, the search option for hidden files and folders varies. So, we have divided it into two sections – One for older Windows versions and the other for newer Windows versions. Let us know both the processes.

For Older Windows Versions

To unveil the hidden files and folders in old Windows versions like Windows 7, check out this procedure.

1. Open the File Explorer on your Windows 7 system.
2. Now, go to the Organize option at the top and click on it. Then select Folder and search options from the drop-down list.
3. The Folder Options dialogue box will get opened. Switch to the View tab and go to the Advanced Settings section. Here, under the Hidden files and folders section, select the option Show hidden files, folders, and drives and click OK.
4. Now, all the files, folders, and drives are visible on the Windows system.

There is a slight difference in reaching the Folder Options dialogue box in the new Windows version like Windows 8 and Windows 10. Let us understand this way too.

1. Open the File Explorer on your Windows 8/8.1 system.
2. Click on the View menu from the top bar. Click on Options in the last and then click on Change folder and search options.
3. It will open the Folder Options dialogue box, switch to the View tab, and then select Show hidden files, folders, and drives under the Hidden files and folders section within the Advanced Settings. Then, click OK.
4. The hidden files, folders, and drives are unrevealed now.

Finding duplicate files from a large volume of files is quite difficult. We can use the “Search” bar to find the same file types. Also, we can find by the name of the files that we know. Finding and segregating duplicate files is a very hectic task and can be confusing if you have a lot of duplicate files.

We are going to help our users in this situation. We introduce a smart and professional tool that can automatically find duplicate items even in hidden folders. It helps Windows users manage duplicates at their convenience.

Kernel Duplicate File Finder is developed to help users find duplicate files on their Windows system drives, folders (including hidden folders) and then perform operations like move duplicate files to another folder, move duplicate files to Recycle Bin, or delete duplicate files permanently. It also lets users keep the newest or oldest duplicate files and perform the desired operation on the remaining ones. The process of finding and managing duplicate files is simple and direct with an intuitive user interface. It offers users to find duplicate files of specific file types and particular size ranges while scanning the folders for duplicate items. Users can see the effect of the operation beforehand as the tool displays it before performing any operation on them. And it helps to find duplicate files in Windows 10 and any other version accurately.

To understand the tool better, let us go through the working process in detail.

To find duplicate files, including those in hidden folders, automatically, you can take the help of Kernel Duplicate File Finder. It also helps you manage duplicate files as per the needs.

For that, visit the website and install the tool on your Windows system. Then perform these steps.

1. Launch the Kernel Duplicate File Finder software. To add the folder in which you suspect of having hidden files, click on the plus icon.
2. Browse and add the folders from the system drives.
3. After the addition of the selected folders, click on the Start Scan option to perform a scanning operation on the folders to find out duplicate files within them.
4. Here, select the file types on which you want to run the scan to find duplicate items and add a file size range as a filter.

   Make sure you have not selected the checkbox saying, “Skip hidden file.” This way, you can perform the search and scan for the hidden files.

   Click OK to proceed.
   

5. Here, all the duplicate files are retrieved and highlighted with all the details. Next, click on Pre-Operation Analysis.
6. Choose an option to keep the newest or oldest files in each group and select one option as the operation on duplicate files – moving files to another folder, deleting files to Recycle Bin, or deleting files permanently. Then, click on the Display Duplicate Files option.
7. This screen displays red highlighted and crossed duplicate files. Click Proceed.
8. A warning message will be displayed. Click Confirm Operation option to confirm the selected operation.
9. The duplicate files are managed as per the selected operation successfully.

If you want to run this tool on your own, go to this website https://www.nucleustechnologies.com/duplicate-file-finder/ and download the free trial version to understand the features, scan the system, and list the duplicate files. To complete the operations, you need to purchase the full version from the same website.