A new feature of Duplicate File Detective v3.0 that's receiving a lot of praise is its ability to replace duplicate files with shell shortcuts.

This is a very powerful concept, allowing for removal of duplicate files while still allowing end users to access to the original copy through the previous file location. This feature is implemented in Duplicate File Detective as part of the Duplicate Result Manager dialog window:

As you can see in the screen shot above, there is an option to replace moved or deleted duplicates with shell shortcuts to their unmarked siblings. The option becomes available anytime you execute an operation that results in the movement or deletion of duplicate files.

So how exactly does duplicate file shortcut linking work? The key is to remember that Duplicate File Detective organizes duplicate files into groups. In the screen shot below, you can see that each duplicate file group has an alternating background color, as well as unique group number (as shown below the Group column header). Also note that, in the example below, we've marked all but the first duplicate file in each group.

When replacing duplicate files with shell shortcuts, the first unmarked duplicate in each group becomes the link target for all other files in the same group. In other words, in the example screen above, the first (unmarked) "tulips.jpg" file would become the shell shortcut target for all the remaining (marked) "tulip.jpg" files. If there are multiple unmarked duplicates in a group, then the first of these will be used as the shell shortcut target.

Once the Duplicate Result Manager completes file processing with the shell shortcut option engaged, the marked duplicate files of each group will be replaced by shell shortcuts to the first unmarked duplicate in the same group.

Nearly every day, we receive emails from users who are just beginning to understand the full capabilities of the FolderSizes integrated search tool.

Because of the deep flexibility of the available criteria, FolderSizes Search can be used for all sorts of purposes - finding files owned by a certain user, creating printable file and folder listings, finding files not modified within the last 365 days... the examples go on and on.

But in this blog post we're going to focus on one specific example - finding empty folders with FolderSizes.

The first thing you should do is make sure you're using FolderSizes v4.8.2.92 or later, which exposes a couple of specific search attributes that will be useful to us (more on this in a minute). Go ahead and download the latest version, if you haven't already. We'll wait.  :-)

Now, once FolderSizes is installed and running, click the Search button in the main window toolbar. This will cause the FolderSizes Search window to appear.

Notice that FolderSizes Search exposes a broad range of search criteria, including search paths, name, date, size, (path) length, attributes and owner. For finding empty folders, we're specifically concerned about the size and attributes search criteria. First, since we want to find folders that have a size of zero, set the size search criteria to "equal to" "0". Here's a screen shot:

Next, we want FolderSizes Search to show only folders. Again, we're looking for empty folders here, not empty files (though, of course, FolderSizes can show those too if you want). Do this by clearing all the check boxes in the attributes criteria except the directory attribute. Again, a screen shot:

Finally, specify what paths you want FolderSizes to search. You can add as many local or network (mapped drive or UNC) paths as you like, and FolderSizes will search them all. By default, your root system drive (usually your C:\ drive) will appear in the search paths listing, but of course you can add, remove, and arrange them as needed.

Now - click the Start button in the Search window toolbar, you're off and running. Soon, you'll have a listing of all empty folders in the search paths you specified.

Notice that in the screen shot above, I've adjusted the visible search result columns. Specifically, I've removed the size columns (we know they're zero size, after all, because we specified as much in the search criteria). I've also enabled the "files" and "folders" columns, which show precisely how many files and folders are in each of our empty folders.

Huh? Did I just say that our empty folders might have files and subfolders in them? Yes! After all, we've told FolderSizes to locate folders with an aggregate size of zero - as long as any files or subfolders are also zero-length, then they don't contribute positively to their parent folder's overall size. So is a folder that contains empty files or folders truly empty, then? Well, that's entirely up to you to decide - FolderSizes gives you all the information you need to make such decisions (you can even sort by the files / folders columns as needed).