Guide

Find every duplicate file on your PC in one line

Published 21 October 2026

A dark PowerShell window showing a one-line duplicate finder and groups of identical photos with different names

Short answerOpen PowerShell in the folder and run dir -Recurse -File | Get-FileHash | group Hash | ? Count -gt 1 | % { $_.Group.Path; "" }. Each block it prints is one set of identical files, even if their names are different. It only lists them; you decide what to delete.

WhatsApp copies, phone backups, "photo (1).jpg" downloads: the same file ends up on your PC three or four times. Duplicate finder apps exist, but PowerShell, which is already on your PC, can do it in one line.

Step 1: Open PowerShell in the folder

Open the folder in File Explorer, click the address bar, type powershell and press Enter. A PowerShell window opens in that folder. Your Pictures folder is a good place to start.

Step 2: Find the duplicates

Paste this line and press Enter:

PowerShell

dir -Recurse -File | Get-FileHash | group Hash | ? Count -gt 1 | % { $_.Group.Path; "" }

Each block it prints is one set of identical files. Example output:

Example output

C:\Users\you\Pictures\2024\IMG_4821.jpg
C:\Users\you\Pictures\Backup\IMG_4821 (1).jpg
C:\Users\you\Pictures\WhatsApp\IMG-20240312-WA0007.jpg

C:\Users\you\Pictures\2024\IMG_4822.jpg
C:\Users\you\Pictures\Edited\IMG_4822 copy.jpg

How it works

dir -Recurse -File lists every file in the folder and all folders inside it.
Get-FileHash reads each file and makes a fingerprint (a hash) of what is inside it.
group Hash puts files with the same fingerprint together, and ? Count -gt 1 keeps only the groups with more than one file.

Same fingerprint means the exact same contents, even when the names are completely different. That is why it catches the WhatsApp copy above.

Faster for big folders

Reading every file takes a while. Two files can only match if they are the same size, so this version compares sizes first and only fingerprints the files that could match:

PowerShell

dir -Recurse -File | group Length | ? Count -gt 1 | % Group | Get-FileHash | group Hash | ? Count -gt 1 | % { $_.Group.Path; "" }

It gives the same answer with less reading, which helps a lot on big folders.

How much space the copies waste

This adds up the space you would get back by keeping one file from each group:

PowerShell

dir -Recurse -File | group Length | ? Count -gt 1 | % Group | Get-FileHash | group Hash | ? Count -gt 1 | % { (Get-Item -LiteralPath $_.Group[0].Path).Length * ($_.Count - 1) } | Measure-Object -Sum | % { "{0:N1} MB" -f ($_.Sum / 1MB) }

To save the list of duplicates to a file instead of the screen, add > duplicates.txt to the end of the first command.

Before you delete anything

It never deletes files. Check each group and keep one copy.
It only finds exact copies. An edited, cropped or resized photo counts as a different file.
If the folder is in OneDrive with files that are online only, reading them downloads them. Run it on a folder that is on your PC, or expect it to download.