I'd be very grateful for some advice here.

Thinking that I might have a lot of duplicated files on my computer, I
went to Google to see if there was such a thing as a program that
would hunt down duplicate files. I discovered that there were several.

Ideally, I wanted one that was free, so I downloaded Easy Duplicate
Finder, from a company called Webminds.

Nowhere on the website did it say it cost anything, and at least one
review site said it was free, so I downloaded it and ran it.

It took about an hour to identify the duplicate files (there were
hundreds), but then when it came to 'resolving' them (deleting or
moving them), a message came up to say it would do 20 of them, and I'd
have to register to have the rest dealt with.

This seemed just like the old 'bait and switch' con I've seen with
virus removal sites, which say "Our program has identified X number of
viruses - buy the full version and we'll remove them". I felt it had
wasted an hour of my time.

So I uninstalled Easy Duplicate Finder, and this called up a web page
saying "wait! we want you back!" and offering to cut the price from
$49.99 to $19.99. This was the FIRST TIME I saw any price at all - the
original website where you download the program doesn't even have a
button you can click to buy it, or even a way to find out the price,
or whether it's free or not.

Because I don't trust sites that stoop to such cheap tricks, I went
onto the Internet to find out about this Webminds company - and found
my home page had changed from Google to Ask Jeeves! And there is now a
'Webminds toolbar' on my browser.

Worst of all, the toolbar won't uninstall. When I click Options on the
toolbar and choose Uninstall, the process gets halfway then a message
comes up saying "you need to close all browser windows to complete the
uninstalling process. are you ready to do this?" But when I click on
'yes' this panel just comes up again. I've clicked 'yes' dozens of
times and nothing happens.

Also, for some reason, the Outlook Express configuration began.

So now I have the feeling that, just by running this program, I've
inadvertantly hooked up with a bunch of shysters who've tried to trick
me into buying something then messed with my computer. For all I know,
they might have installed viruses or spyware on it.

So the advice I need is:

1) How can I remove this Webminds toolbar, and check to see if they've
done anything to my computer's settings, or compromised my computer in
any way?

2) Does anyone know a reliable program for finding duplicate files,
from a trusted source, and preferably free?

I'll be very grateful for any help I can get with this - as you all
can probably guess, I'm a bit of a newbie.

Thanks in advance.

On 06/16/2011 05:37 AM, alan wrote:
> I'd be very grateful for some advice here.
>
> Thinking that I might have a lot of duplicated files on my computer, I
> went to Google to see if there was such a thing as a program that
> would hunt down duplicate files. I discovered that there were several.
>
> Ideally, I wanted one that was free, so I downloaded Easy Duplicate
> Finder, from a company called Webminds.
>
> Now


<snip>


Don't waste your time looking for duplicate files.
They won't hurt anything and it's possible you may delete something you
need.

"alan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:8da58168-7e45-4984-8571-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'd be very grateful for some advice here.
>
> Thinking that I might have a lot of duplicated files on my computer, I
> went to Google to see if there was such a thing as a program that
> would hunt down duplicate files. I discovered that there were several.
>
> Ideally, I wanted one that was free, so I downloaded Easy Duplicate
> Finder, from a company called Webminds.
>
> Nowhere on the website did it say it cost anything, and at least one
> review site said it was free, so I downloaded it and ran it.
>
> It took about an hour to identify the duplicate files (there were
> hundreds), but then when it came to 'resolving' them (deleting or
> moving them), a message came up to say it would do 20 of them, and I'd
> have to register to have the rest dealt with.
>
> This seemed just like the old 'bait and switch' con I've seen with
> virus removal sites, which say "Our program has identified X number of
> viruses - buy the full version and we'll remove them". I felt it had
> wasted an hour of my time.
>
> So I uninstalled Easy Duplicate Finder, and this called up a web page
> saying "wait! we want you back!" and offering to cut the price from
> $49.99 to $19.99. This was the FIRST TIME I saw any price at all - the
> original website where you download the program doesn't even have a
> button you can click to buy it, or even a way to find out the price,
> or whether it's free or not.
>
> Because I don't trust sites that stoop to such cheap tricks, I went
> onto the Internet to find out about this Webminds company - and found
> my home page had changed from Google to Ask Jeeves! And there is now a
> 'Webminds toolbar' on my browser.
>
> Worst of all, the toolbar won't uninstall. When I click Options on the
> toolbar and choose Uninstall, the process gets halfway then a message
> comes up saying "you need to close all browser windows to complete the
> uninstalling process. are you ready to do this?" But when I click on
> 'yes' this panel just comes up again. I've clicked 'yes' dozens of
> times and nothing happens.
>
> Also, for some reason, the Outlook Express configuration began.
>
> So now I have the feeling that, just by running this program, I've
> inadvertantly hooked up with a bunch of shysters who've tried to trick
> me into buying something then messed with my computer. For all I know,
> they might have installed viruses or spyware on it.
>
> So the advice I need is:
>
> 1) How can I remove this Webminds toolbar, and check to see if they've
> done anything to my computer's settings, or compromised my computer in
> any way?
>
> 2) Does anyone know a reliable program for finding duplicate files,
> from a trusted source, and preferably free?
>
> I'll be very grateful for any help I can get with this - as you all
> can probably guess, I'm a bit of a newbie.
>
> Thanks in advance.

If the Webminds Toolbar isn't listed in Add/Remove programs, you can use
something like Revo Uninstaller to take care of it. I would use a good
malware scanner such MalwareBytes and SuperAntiSpyware to scan your system-
these "toolbars" like to sometimes leave goodies behind.

To add to philo's post, there will probably be a lot of duplicate files,
especially in the Windows and \i386 folders (if there is one). Most are for
restore and previous versions, so don't delete any. If you think you're
running out of HDD space because of them, if would be a better idea to just
buy a larger HDD. They're certainly cheap enough now, and a much better
option than trying to figure which duplicate files are safe to delete and
which aren't.
--
SC Tom

On 16/06/2011 6:37 AM, alan wrote:
> I'd be very grateful for some advice here.
>
> Thinking that I might have a lot of duplicated files on my computer, I
> went to Google to see if there was such a thing as a program that
> would hunt down duplicate files. I discovered that there were several.

I use a pay program called Duplicate File Finder, again it's something
that has some functionality disabled in the free version.

I also used to use a program called NoClone, but that now seems to be a
pay program too. Unfortunately, this is such a popular feature that
anytime anybody makes a free program to do this, it gets so popular that
the next version becomes payware.

I'm surprised that Microsoft doesn't just build this into Windows' own
search feature. Microsoft went ahead and built in other features such as
web browsing into Windows such a long time ago, and this would seem to
be a much simpler feature to implement than web browsing.

Yousuf Khan

On 16/06/2011 7:32 AM, SC Tom wrote:
> To add to philo's post, there will probably be a lot of duplicate files,
> especially in the Windows and \i386 folders (if there is one). Most are
> for restore and previous versions, so don't delete any. If you think
> you're running out of HDD space because of them, if would be a better
> idea to just buy a larger HDD. They're certainly cheap enough now, and a
> much better option than trying to figure which duplicate files are safe
> to delete and which aren't.

Unfortunately, it isn't always Windows own programs that are duplicated.
Sometimes you might have data files duplicated with different file
names, such as audio or video or picture files.

Yousuf Khan

[huy123456]

deleting duplicate files
I am also facing the same issue of duplicate files. i got the solution when i used a utility http://duplicatefilesdeleter.com/ and it worked for me.