Avatar of Brian Pierce
Brian PierceFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

asked on 

Delete files in foder and sub folders ending in COPY ?

I have a computer that contains lots of photos in subfolders, many files are duplicated with the word 'copy' appended to the filename.

Is there a way to delete these copies which is less tedious than manually selecting them?
Microsoft Legacy OSWindows OSWindows 7

Avatar of undefined
Last Comment
BillDL
Avatar of activematx
activematx
Flag of United States of America image

Avatar of Robert Retzer
Robert Retzer
Flag of Canada image

I have had good luck with the duplicate cleaner, as mentioned by activematx. It is a good application and it is free. It takes little space on the hard drive and uses little system resources.
Avatar of Brian Pierce
Brian Pierce
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

ASKER

I was rather looking for a script which deleted files with the word COPY in the filename .
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of BillDL
BillDL
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

Blurred text
THIS SOLUTION IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS.
View this solution by signing up for a free trial.
Members can start a 7-Day free trial and enjoy unlimited access to the platform.
See Pricing Options
Start Free Trial
Avatar of Brian Pierce
Brian Pierce
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

ASKER

Thanks for the warnings - its just that the duplicate file finder method can be tedious - the files in question are all images and will not have the word 'copy' in them normally - they are usually just the names assigned to images by the camera eg IMG08252.CR2.

Its just that in many cases there are copies produced due to windows seemingly wanting to create copies of files for no apparent reason when the user tries to select multiple files with the CTRL key held down.
Avatar of BillDL
BillDL
Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland image

Thank you KCTS

I know the scenario only too well, and I'm sure it has happened to us all at one time.  You have a folder open in Windows Explorer and are in the process of selecting multiple files with the Ctrl + Click method, but as you click on the next one you accidentally drag the mouse just as you click (left part of screenshot) and it drags all selected files.  This then creates copies of as many files as you had selected, with the names of the new files all prepended by "Copy of " (right part of screenshot).
User generated imageThat being the case, unless the behaviour differs between Windows versions, surely your file search will have to be for the prepended "copy of" in the file names:
"Copy of *.*"    or    "Copy of *.cr2"
and not the word "copy" appended to the file names:
 "*copy.*"     or    "*copy.cr2"
Windows OS
Windows OS

This topic area includes legacy versions of Windows prior to Windows 2000: Windows 3/3.1, Windows 95 and Windows 98, plus any other Windows-related versions including Windows Mobile.

129K
Questions
--
Followers
--
Top Experts
Get a personalized solution from industry experts
Ask the experts
Read over 600 more reviews

TRUSTED BY

IBM logoIntel logoMicrosoft logoUbisoft logoSAP logo
Qualcomm logoCitrix Systems logoWorkday logoErnst & Young logo
High performer badgeUsers love us badge
LinkedIn logoFacebook logoX logoInstagram logoTikTok logoYouTube logo