Specialized apps that can help you find and delete duplicates, or another sort of unnecessary files are pretty much a must-have for any user dealing with a large daily influx of files and folders.
Czkawka is one such application. It’s a free, open-source, and cross-platform utility that provides a quick and easy way to remove duplicates, empty folders, temporary files, extra bulky files, and pretty much any sort of unnecessary file (and even invalid symlinks) from your computer.
Oh, and if the name sounds weird to you, know that it’s Polish, and it means “hiccup.”
How to use Czkawka
At first glance, the app might seem a bit overly complex, but trust us that that’s not the case.
We’ll start with the Image Preview in the right side of the GUI (useful when dealing with similar images) that cannot be resized but it can be disabled if you want more space.
On the left, you can see the Notebook area, and the main results window is located right in the middle of the GUI. At the bottom, there’s the Text Panel (that displays messages/warnings/errors). Last but not least, in the upper part of the main window you can find the panel that allows you to select specific directories (to either include or exclude them).
Of course, the app also has a CLI frontend which should come in handy when automating various tasks. More information can be found on the app’s official Instructions section on GitHub.
Nifty features worth noting
Czkawka is a modern GTK 3 app. It’s quite fast mainly thanks to various algorithms and multithreading support. Because the app features cache support, the second, third, and further scans will be a lot faster than the first one.
Last but not least, the app allows you to find duplicates based on their name, size, or hash.
Verdict
Despite its “busy” GUI, once figured out, Czkawka is a joy to use. It provides all the necessary tools, and a nice environment for finding, analyzing, and removing unnecessary files from your system.
