TriDup - a GUI for TrID

To start with, I recommend to enter the Option's menu in order to tell FileMenu Tools to not "Show All The Commands in Submenu". Remove the hook from this option, as well as from any build-in command you have no use for.

To actually integrate TriDup into the context menu, enter the Edit menu, select "Add Command" and fill out the Properties table as shown on the right.

Finally enter the File menu and select "Apply Changes". That's it - you're done !

Open your file manager, select the files you wish to analyze, right click the selection and pick TriDup from the context menu. The results will be presented within a maximum of four convenient groups. The column 'New Extension' holds the main result of the analysis.

Views

Confirming extensions

TrID is fallible. That's why a files checkbox has to be ticked in order to schedule (confirm) an extension change. A manual tick of a checkbox enforces a critical look at the current case. You can (un)tick multiple files using the context menu

The program option "Auto-tick checkboxes at start" can spare the entire effort of ticking checkboxes, however, you run the risk of changing things for the worse by blindly accepting any suggested new extension. For example, TrID often mistakes Dynamic Link Libraries (.dll) for Executables (.exe) and vice versa...

In the end, it might be a good compromise to leave the slider at the default mid setting, which subjects automatic scheduling to files which have no extension at all, since it's very unlikely that applying the one suggested by TrID will make things worse.

As a final note, choosing the extension manually will tick a files checkbox as well.

Choosing an extension manually

Click the desired file. TriDup switches to the view displayed below:

The box holds a preview of the files content. You can click the [Raw / Binary] button in order to toggle between the two modes, however, this is usually not necessary as TriDup presets the appropriate view mode depending on the result of the analysis. Assumed ASCII files will be displayed raw = unaltered, while "Binary" replaces unprintable characters with dots.

The "Make your choice" ComboBox below lets you both manually enter an extension or make a pick from the results of TrID's analysis (apart from those with a probability of less than 0.1 %)

A manual extension change will automatically sort the file into the (topmost) group of files scheduled for renaming (in other words, you don't need to tick the files checkbox as TriDup does it for you).

The calculation of the CRC32 checksum is useful for e.g. comparing files to archive contents. However, in order to calculate the checksum the whole file must be loaded into memory, which is why you can limit the automatic checksum calculation to files of a certain size using the program options.

Please note: Files are considered to be duplicates by their CRC32 checksum and filesize only, NOT by binary comparsion! In case you are looking for a more sophisticated duplicate finder, it's surely out there. Concerning TriDup, it's just a side-functionality.

Duplicates are detected automatically. If encountered, a [Duplicates!] button appears flashing in the upper right corner. Hitting this button will cycle through the grouped duplicates. The button will disappear again in case all duplicates have been removed from the list.

Files without a calculated CRC32 checksum are excluded from the duplicate scan.

Put TriDup specifically on extensions you already mistrust
You can stop the initial analyzing process after the current file by clicking the [Cancel] button
Hovering the mouse cursor over the name of a file will reveal its path
Selecting files without accidentally activating an item can safely be done using the gap past the CRC32 column
Right-click files in order to delete files, (un)tick multiple entries, or subsequently calculate CRC32 checksums
You can delete files by either using the [Delete] button or right-clicking the file(s)
Always keep in mind that TrID is fallible

Folders are not supported. See tip #1.

Well, I don't want to nag you too much about this. Just keep in mind that behind this piece of free software there's a person who spent a lot of effort in developing it. Which is something that really eats up your spare time. This is why donating is not about giving alms - it's about acknowledgement. And it is of course an investment in the future of the product, and others that may be in the pipeline (yes, there are some). So if TriDup is of some use for you, and you can spare a few bucks or Euros, please consider a donation.

Euro
US- Dollar

PLEASE NOTE:

You don't need to have a PayPal account yourself in order to donate - PayPal accepts your favourite credit card as well.
The currency of each PayPal donation account is fixed, which is why I had to decide on the most common ones. If you don't own Euros/US-Dollars, don't worry, PayPal will convert your local currency for you (however, you might want to check out this site first: http://www.aquariussoft.com/link-currency-converter/)
In case you are not sure in which currency to donate, please decide on Euros as those would spare me some exchange charge.

Support free software. Anything you can give is much appreciated.

Thanks to Marco Pontello, you are welcome at his support forum, where you can leave a message within the local TriDup thread in order to contact me: http://mark0.net/forum/index.php?topic=273

On a side note, let me inform you about the shutdown of my own support forum @ http://shield.silverforum.net/. Having to deal with up to 20 spam bot accounts every day, I had to pull the plug in October 2011... *sniff*

TERMS, CONDITIONS AND OTHER LEGAL STUFF YOU SHOULD TAKE NOTE OF

TriDup, henceforth called "software", is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind. The author is not liable for any damage which may be caused by it. Use this software at your own risk.
You are free to install, use, copy, redistribute and transmit the software, provided it is given away for free and in form of the native, unmodified archive file. Any kind of commercial distribution requires a permission by the author.
Reverse engineering of the software is prohibited
You may not alter, transform, or build upon the software. This does not include manual modifications of the configuration files.
The origin of this software must not be misrepresented - you must not claim that you wrote the software
Where the software or any of its elements is affected by other licenses or rights, that status is in no way affected by this license.
PayPal is a trademark of PayPal, an eBay Company. Windows and Windows XP are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation All other trademarks, copyrights and elements which are created by third parties are the property of their respective owners.
If a provision of this license is or becomes illegal, invalid or unenforceable in any jurisdiction, that shall not affect the validity or enforceability in that jurisdiction of any other provision of this license; or the validity or enforceability in other jurisdictions of that or any other provision of this license.

Version 1.10 [ Release Date: August 29, 2010 ]

Added 'Properties' to the context menu of a single file
Improved the additional HTML recognition method
Options window now pays attention to the location of the main window
Fixed unwanted characters appearing in suggested extensions
Fixed tooltip misbehaviour (appearing off/remaining on screen)
Context menu no longer appears when right-clicking group headers
Improved error handling
TriDup has become donationware ! :-)

Version 1.00 [ Release Date: February 9, 2010 ]

Worked around the 2 kB input buffer of FileMenu Tools which limited the number of files passed to TriDup:
Files are now passed by a text file which requires a different kind of integration of TriDup into FileMenu Tools - please refer to the updated screenshot of the Properties table
New option:"Auto-tick checkboxes at start" lets you control which extension changes will be scheduled automatically
Added context menu option that (un)ticks multiple files
Added proper status bar info before subsequently calculating CRC32 checksums, and an automatic scan for duplicates afterwards
Progress bar should now update correctly when subsequently calculating CRC32 checksums
Fixed sorting bug that occured if [SmartSort] was clicked again in order to update multiple groups

Version 0.91 [ Release Date: February 1, 2010 ]

Fixed bug that prevented a pick from the results of TrID's analysis if the entry contained characters which are not valid in filenames
Because TrID too often mistakes HTML for SVG files, the additional HTML/XML recognition methods (if enabled) will now overrule an existing TrID analysis result
Redefined the last possible file group which is now simply called "Verified extensions"

Version 0.90 [ Release Date: January 28th, 2010 ]

INITIAL RELEASE