File Manager

The file manager enables you to delete, copy, move or rename the selected files from the search result.

Which groups should be processed?
What action is to be performed?
Folder
Options

Which groups should be processed?

All groups (ignore filter)
Only groups displayed by the filter

Don't process any groups with all files selected

This option will ensure that you not accidentally delete all similar files from inside a group.

What action is to be performed?

Delete files
This action enables you to delete your selected files. If you want to delete a file from inside an archive and the file is the only file inside the archive, the archive file will be deleted instead. Deleting files from an archive with multiple files inside is only possible with Zip- or 7z-archives.
The 'Secure delete' option replaces the file content with zeros before deleting it and sets the file size to 0.
Move files to the Windows Recycle Bin
This action enables you to move your selected files into the Windows Recycle Bin.
Important notes:
- Make sure that the Windows Recycle Bin is activated on the partition with the selected files.
- Set the size of the Windows Recycle Bin to 100%.
- Selected files located on another computer will be deleted and not moved to the Windows Recycle Bin!
- Files inside an archive cannot be moved into the Windows Recycle Bin
Copy files to a folder
This action enables you to copy your selected files to a folder of your choice.
Move files to a folder
This action enables you to move your selected files to a folder of your choice.

Rename files

This action enables you to rename all selected files. You can use the following place holder to rename your files:

Placeholder	Description
%1	file name without file extension
%2	file extension with leading dot
%YYYY	Year (4-digit)
%YY	Year (2-digit)
%MM	Month
%DD	Day
%HH	Hour
%NN	Minute
%SS	Second

NOTE: The actions 2, 3, 4 and 5 have no effect on selected files inside an archive file (ZIP, RAR, ...).

Show file protection note

This option shows a warning message before the selected files will be deleted, moved or renamed.

Folder

Here you can specify the folder to copy or move the selected files.

Create Subfolder(s)

This option causes a new subfolder to be created into which the files are copied. Various Date and Time placeholders and Windows variables can be used to create the folder name. Please note that normal text must be enclosed in quotation marks when using date and time placeholders. See examples:

Text: "Backup of" %USERNAME% "on" yyyy-mm-dd "at" hh_nn_ss
Folder: Backup of USERNAME on 2011-02-26 at 10_15_00

Text: "%USERNAME%\"YYYY-MM-DD HH-NN-SS
Folders: USERNAME\2011-02-26 10-15-00

Keep folder structure of the files

This option causes the files to be copied/moved with the complete folder structure into the specified folder. Without this option the file will be directly copied/moved to the folder. Existing files will always be renamed: e.g. Data.txt -> Data-001.txt

Options

Create Shortcuts

This option enables you to create a shortcut (.lnk) at the place of all files that will be deleted or removed. The shortcut will be point to the first file that is not selected at the same group; see Example for Shortcuts.

Create Hard Links

This option enables you to link all selected files of the same group; see Example for Hard Links. This has the advantage to save hard disk space because all linked files share the same data on the hard disk: for example, if you link 1000 files with a size of 10 MB each file you will save more than 9 GB hard disk space!

Please note the following hints:

Only files stored on the same volume can be linked together.
The files must be stored on a local NTFS partition.
Hard links cannot be created on a network drive.
Hard links cannot be created in a virtual folder that points to the data from an external source, such as local delivery of files from a cloud.
At least 2 files have to be selected in a group to create hard links.
The Windows file system has a limit of 1024 hard links on a file.
AllDup automatically determine a source file with a hard link count lower than 1024 of all selected files in a group. All other selected files in this group will be linked with this source file.
A new source file will be determined as soon as the current source file reaches 1024 hard links. This allows you to create an unlimited number of hard links for each group.
The file context menu command 'Move to the top of the group' enables you to specify the source file to create hard links if needed.
Only files with a hard link count of zero can be linked to the source file. The hard link count will be checked by the value displayed at the column 'Hard links'. You need to activate the search option Determine the hard link count for each file so that the hard link count for each file will be determined during the search.
Files stored inside an archive will be skipped.

Remove files from the search result

This option removes any processed file from the search result.

Remove groups with only one file

This option removes all groups with only one file from the search result.

Check for groups with all files selected

This option shows a warning if you try to delete all files at a group.

Don't show cancel dialog if an error occurred

This option causes to continue the selected file action after an error occurred while processing a file.

Delete folders which are empty after Move/Delete

This option causes to delete all empty folders after all files have been deleted inside the folder.

Don't log any file actions

This option disables the logging of the file actions.

After action is completed

Close file manager
Exit AllDup

Example for Hard Links

A group contain the following files:

C:\Work\notes.txt
C:\User\readme.txt
C:\Backup\notes.txt
C:\Mail\new-user-readme.txt

All files inside the group are selected (☑). The first file will be automatically used for the source to create the hard links. All other files (2-4) will be deleted and a hard link to the first file will be created with the name of the deleted file.

Example for Shortcuts