Help or a Tutorial for Duplicate Finder and Wildcard Character

First, if there's a tutorial for using Duplicate Finder I'd gladly read through it, if someone could direct me. Especially regarding the use of the wildcard character (*) in the search criteria. I'd greatly appreciate the direction.

Next, here is what I'd like to do. By way of example, say I have 100 photos in a folder on Drive C - let's call this folder "Able" because sometimes this "source" folder may be on a different drive. I want to search for duplicates and similarly-named files among 500,000 photos on Drive K. Often one photo will have several similar filenames. Examples: IMG_1234-v01.jpg, IMG_1234-v02.jpg, IMG_1234.psd.

In these cases there is always a core number of four digits (e.g. 1234) that uniquely identifies a single photo even if there are multiple variations. I'd like to find the variations, which of course aren't duplicates, but it's the variations that help me decide which files to move and which to delete.

I have tried with no success in using wildcards in the Include tab within the Search dialog. Examples: IMG_1234*.jpg, IMG_1234.*, *1234.jpg, *1234*.jpg

Finally, let me add, I don't want to find duplicates that only exist on Drive K: there are many for various reasons. I only want to find those on K: that also exist in Able.

I'm running CC Pro v5.77 (latest) and Windows 10 Home (latest version). And, No, Windows' search is not a pleasant option for what I need to do.

That you have read this far is appreciated!

Frank

Here's hoping this makes sense.

If the files are copies with different names then can you not search for content rather than filename?

Or are the files slightly different, modified versions of each other?

Not only are the files slightly different (maybe as little as a Star rating), but checking the content of all (e.g. 500,000) the very large files on Drive K would take too much time, especially for a muti-file cleanup.

Thanks for your interest.

To be on the safe side it might be helpful if you find a tool elsewhere that can sort by hash/checksum, i.e.; if it can list and sort what if finds by MD5 hash, SHA-1 hash, or better and more secure the SHA-256 hash so that you'll have a 100% confidence of files being duplicates.

12 hours ago, Andavari said:
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		....  so that you'll have a 100% confidence of files being duplicates.
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The problem is that Frank M wants to find files that are not duplicates, they are different versions of the files with similar names.

I don't beieve that CCleaners Duplicate Finder can do that, it's meant to find duplicates and not 'similar' - and so it's limited as to the wildcard options for names. (and I don't think the underscrore and dash helps, they may means something to the Duplicate Finders internal code).

There are other apps out there that can find files with similar names, but as I have not used them I am loath to give any links.

(You should also be able to do it with a batch file/script in cmd or Powershell, if you know how to write one or can find one already written).

A web search for "find similar file names windows" will throw up some suggestions for other apps to try for finding files with similar names.