Windows 10: File Duplicated when put on desktop, got stuck syncing to one drive and now permanently...

Hello Microsoft support. a while ago i was dealing with a very big zip file, and when trying to transfer it, I moved the file from my downloads folder to my desktop, where I was then unpleasantly surprised with Microsofts idiotic choice to sync your desktop folder to your one drive AND store it on your computer, I couldn't halt or stop this duplication because It was 'syncing' I don't pay for onedrive, and while on a support call over something else, we had to reinstall windows 11 on my laptop. now, while it shows on the drive that the storage is still being used for it, the file does not sh

:)

 

External drives are duplicated in File Explorer on Windows 11.

Pls try the steps (or the registry fix remove-duplicate-drives.reg to automate the task) to resolve the issue.

External Drives Listed Twice (Duplicate) in File Explorer Navigation Pane

 

Recommendations for cleaning hard drive with thousands of duplicate files and many empty folders

Hi Bob,

I am Dave, I will help you with this.

One drive will mimic the changes you make to files/folders in the Documents, Desktop and Pictures folders, those are the folders synced by default, unless you have previously added other folders to the OneDrive sync list.

There are so many apps and utilities available to find and delete duplicates, they basically al do the same job, open the Microsoft Store and search for the word duplicates, you will find a few free apps there for finding duplicate files on your drive.

 

Finding duplicate files

Hey hey,

During the years the backups have just accumulated in random places, essentially, and I would like to clean up. Is there a program that can search for duplicate files? And by that I mean identical files. I tried dupeGuru, but that somehow found ... all files to be identical I guess? Like how a bunch of jpg's with different names, sizes and locations being marked 100% identical, or how a bunch of xls-files with completely different everything also were 100% matches with each other. I don't need any fancy functions, just a list of the files that share the name and filesize and created/last write dates.