# duplicates in windows Photo Galerry



## suzanne P (Mar 15, 2009)

Help

I have not long had a Dell laptop with Windows Vista Installed.
I keep getting duplicates appear in the photo gallery. I really have no idea why this is happening (sorry to sound really thick) This is great chunks of my gallery sometimes several months worth. I have tried to delete the duplicates but no have no idea which are the duplicates and which are the originals. I have opened it tonight to find another set of recent duplicates all landscape format.
How do I merge the files/delete the duplicates rather than going through one by one which is now such a huge task it is impossible.
I have lately installed Photoshop Elements but this was doing this before this was installed.


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## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

First of all, a very warm welcome to TSF and especially the photographer's Corner :wave:

The sudden duplicates sounds very mysterious. So much so, it is making me wonder if your have some malware causing it?...

With respect to merging and finding duplicates I suggest that you get a free programme 'SyncToy2' from Microsoft that was written specifically for photographers. One of the features alows you to copy one set of photos into a directory to 'Contribute' to it, ingoring any duplicates only new or modified photos are copied... Once the copying is done, the original directory can be deleted.

You can see more and download SyncToy2 from here.


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## suzanne P (Mar 15, 2009)

Hi thanks for your reply.

I have Norton installed with everything in the on position, although interestingly I have a friend in my address book who has the same problem. If it is malware should the norton not detect it?
I have checked out the synctoy. It talks about a 64 bit and a 32 bit system. I have never heard these terms before ( bit of a technophobe) where would I find that out?
Thanks
Suzanne


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## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

*Re: duplicates in windows Photo Gallery*

No antivirus software is 100% It is possible for some malware to get in...

With respect to 64bit or 32bit, they are referring to the type of Vista that you have. If you don't know which you have, then it is probably 32bit. However you can check easily enough...
Click the big Windows Icon in the bottom left corner of the desk top.
Place you cursor over 'Computer' and do a right click and select 'Properties'

In the pop up window, under the System Section, you will see 'System Type'...
It will say either:
32-bit Operating System, or
64-bit Operating System

Once you have ascertained which version Vista you have, download the appropriate version of SyncToy2.

Read this article that I wrote a little while ago - it will help.


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