TwinSeek
Version 1.9
25 Dec 22
Website
Program Info
With today's huge hard drives it becomes easy to accumulate very large collections of files. This becomes a problem when you realize that
your collection of 89,571 files is full of duplicates... Sorting this manually would take weeks. TwinSeek however will help you speed this
up significantly by comparing all the files in a directory and its subdirectories and will then show what ones are similar by a selected
amount. It can then show some details on the files to help you decide which ones to keep, or TwinSeek can even delete, recycle or move all
doubles with one button. TwinSeek can also used to provide a detailed comparison of the differences between two files and remove empty directories.
Contents
Installation
Use
Menu
Action Window
Programmers Notes
System Impact Statement
History
Licence and Registration
Liability
Contact
Installation
Run "Setup.exe" and follow the instructions. To remove TwinSeek, use the "Add/Remove Programs" option in the
Control Panel. TwinSeek stores all its data files in the designated application data area, often
"C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Sinner\TwinSeek". If you would prefer that it saves in the same directory
as TwinSeek either run the program from a removable drive, such as a floppy of a USB drive, or delete the "DefSet.txt" file from
the TwinSeek directory.
Use
File Mode
In this mode TwinSeek can show what parts of two files are different. Simply select the two files using the "Compare this"
and "With this" boxes and press start. (Files can also be selected via Drag-and-drop.) The place and length of any differences
will be displayed, as well as a summary of what the exact differences are. (It is shown in mostly ASCII text so the details column is not
always useful.) At the end an overall percentage of similarity between the files will be calculated. Please note that the progress meter
is only useful for files larger than 1MB.
Directory Mode
In this mode TwinSeek will automatically compare an entire directory and its sub directories (with up to 149900 files), and will
display the filename of those that have certain (settable) degree of commonality. This function can take a long time to finish,
especially if there are more that 500 files that are 1 MB or greater to compare. (Hours can be common, even days if there are a lot of
1 GB+ files.) "Quick Dir" is a sub-mode that only compares files of the same size. In most cases this is the best mode to use,
but it will not detect files that, for example, are mostly the same but have a few bytes added at the end. TwinSeek can compare up to
149,900 files at once, but please note that even in quick mode this can take around a day. (If there are more than 149,990 files it will
stop at that.) When finished you can make TwinSeek show detailed results for an entry by double clicking on an entry in the list. This
will show the Action Window.
It is important to note that in Directory Mode the progress meter refers to the amount of files checked, not the time to go. In many
cases this will be the same, but there is no way to be sure how long the process will take. Also important to note is if the Hash mode is
on there will be a large time at the start where the data is calculated. The file being currently hashed is shown to give an indication
of the progress made.
Menu
This menu is shown when you right click on the window.
Action Window
In this Window is displayed the full name of the two file names, their percentage of commonality, as well as their size and last
modified date. Each file has a button to run the file in its default viewer, a button to send the file to the recycle bin, and a button to
recycle every file in the relevant column. The latter function is recommended to be used only if you are sure it is safe to do so as it is
unlikely that it will keep your preferred file. At the bottom of the window is a button that will compare the two selected files in more
detail if the files are not 100% identical. Please note that this will clear the list as well, so if the search took several hours to
perform be sure you have finished with the results.
Programmers Notes
v1.9 2022 notes: Is the assembly version of TwinSeek dead? Not sure. We have internally moved to the C++ version but some aspects of the
performace have disapointed us. But... that version also supports a lot more tracked files; we've been testing millons at once with it when this one is
limited to 149,000. So we probably need to do more apples-to-apples testing, which is a large part of why we're actully rebuilding our old assembly
programs! So the real answer will be much later. This version does have some changes, such as enhanced unicode support, as it was being actively developed
before the C++ version was created. Back to the old blurb...
While using TwinSeek to help clean up my system I realised something was needed; the ability to remove empty directories. Thus it's been added!
In future versions I would like to add the ability for TwinSeek to attempt to determine file changes that are simply additions or
deletions in the middle of a file. For example, TwinSeek will classify a 100KB file with one extra byte at the start as 0% in common, when
it really should be 99%. This will significantly increase the time take to calculate Twins, so it would be an option. Options will
probably be added next version to control details like memory usage.
System Impact Statement
We go to great lengths to reduce system impact, but we feel that it is still important to explain here what our programs do to your
system. If you feel we are missing something, or you need further clarification, please contact us.
| Registry | TwinSeek does not write to the registry. The installer that comes with TwinSeek uses the
registry only for the required un-installation data, and not at all if you use the "Extract Only" mode. |
| System Settings | TwinSeek does not change any system settings. However, if you run TwinSeek of a system directory it could
be used to delete system files. |
| Files | All of its program files are stored in the installation directory, and all of its data files are stored in the
designated application data area, often "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Sinner\TwinSeek ". If you would
prefer that it saves in the same directory as TwinSeek either run the program from a removable drive, such as a floppy of a USB drive, or
delete the "DefSet.txt" file from the TwinSeek directory. These directories can be opened via the About box. |
| Network | TwinSeek does not use the internet, but will access network files if they are in the search area. The installer does
not access the internet in any way, but the ReadMe does have three graphic files that are stored on the internet. (They are not used as
web-beacons, merely spacers and images for the payment processors.) |
| CPU | TwinSeek can be highly demanding on CPUs while performing a search. |
| Memory | TwinSeek will use around 600 bytes per file while changing the performing a directory search, with the maximum
requirement being 120MB. It also needs up to 20MB for the actual file comparisons. In most cases it will not need all of this memory at
once, but if your system has under 256MB memory might become a limiting speed factor. |
History
| 1.00 | Initial Version |
| 1.01 | Same Size Only, On Top Toggle |
| 1.1 | Interface Change |
| 1.2 | Recursive directory searches, pause/resume, action window |
| 1.31 | Empty directory deletion, zero-size file indexing |
| 1.9 | Enhanced unicode support, Sinner Computing re-align and rebuild |
Licence and Registration
Permission is given to evaluate TwinSeek for a period of 30 days. After this time you are required to either register or remove TwinSeek.
Permission is given for all forms of distribution, including CD compilations and Websites, providing the ZIP file is unaltered and it is
made clear that TwinSeek is a Shareware program and that registration is required for continued usage. TwinSeek can be registered using
PayPal, Reg.Net or Mail. For details on the terms of our licences and of our Buy-Three-Get-All policy please refer to the
payment page.
TwinSeek is a copyrighted work and thus permission is not given for you to decompile, disassemble, modify, translate, enhance or create
derivative works from this program. If you feel that you need to do any of those actions, and that those rules do not apply to you,
contact us first.
| Single User | |
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| PayPal $8.00 USD |
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| Mail | No longer accepted |
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| Site | |
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| PayPal $120 USD |
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| Mail | No longer accepted |
Liability
Sinner Computing accepts no liability for this software to the maximum extent allowable by law. Installing this software is the decision
of the installer, and signifies that you agree with this liability statement. Thus, any damage/loss caused by the use of this software is
not in any way the responsibility of Sinner Computing. This includes, but is not limited to, physical damage and loss of income/time. In no
event shall the maximum liability of Sinner Computing exceed the registration fee paid by the user, if any. Because some jurisdictions do
not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, in such jurisdictions the liability of
Sinner Computing shall be limited to the extent permitted by law. If at any time you do not find these conditions agreeable you are required to
remove this software.
Contact
Advice/insults (on the subject of the program, not the programmer) are always welcome. To help users keep up to date we send out
newsletters whenever there is a major new version of TwinSeek. To join this list simply send an
EMail with "TwinADD" in the subject. To be removed from this list, write an
EMail with "TwinREMOVE" in the subject. (Sinner Computing does not sell or give your EMail address or any other personal information to
anyone.) In addition, we have a RSS feed that is updated whenever there is a new version of any program.
Our Sin is to reject bloated software!
