Compare Images
The Compare Images docking pane displays thumbnail previews of an entire duplicate group at once, making it easy to visually confirm that grouped photos really are duplicates - and to choose which copy to keep - without opening files one at a time. It is located at the bottom of the main application window by default.
To use it, select a duplicate file in the results report. The pane fills with one thumbnail tile for every member of that file's duplicate group, in report order. The status line reads "Showing N of M group members"; for very large groups, display is limited to the first 100 members.
Thumbnail Tiles
- Selection follows both ways - Clicking a tile selects that file in the results report, and moving the report selection within the group moves the tile highlight ring.
- Captions - Each tile is captioned with the file name and, at larger tile sizes, the image dimensions, file size, and Date Taken.
- Tooltips - Hover over a tile to see its full path, dimensions, file size, Date Taken, camera, and marked/protected status.
- Tile size slider - Drag the slider in the pane header to resize thumbnails (64-384 pixels). The setting is remembered between sessions.
Marking Files
Each tile carries a checkbox overlay in its top-left corner that displays and toggles the file's marked state, staying fully synchronized with the results report. Toggling a checkbox deliberately does not move the selection, so you can tick through several tiles in a row. Protected files show no checkbox and cannot be marked.
Right-clicking a tile opens a context menu:
- Mark This File / Unmark This File - Toggles the marked state of the tile's file.
- Mark All Others in Group - The "keeper" workflow: the clicked image survives, and every other member of its duplicate group is marked for processing (protected files are never marked).
- Open File - Opens the image with its associated application (double-clicking a tile does the same).
- Explore Folder - Opens the file's parent folder in Windows Explorer.
Keyboard Navigation
Click within the pane to give it focus, then use the Left and Right arrow keys to move between tiles (Up and Down also work when tiles are wrapped into multiple rows), Home / End to jump to the first or last tile, and Space to toggle the selected tile's mark.
Layout and Formats
When docked in a short strip, tiles flow in a single scrollable row. Give the pane more height - or float it as a window - and the tiles wrap into a scrollable grid, which is ideal for reviewing large groups side by side.
Thumbnails load in the background using Windows shell thumbnails, so any image format with an installed codec is supported. JPEG, TIFF and PNG support is built into Windows; HEIC and camera RAW formats require the matching (freely available) Windows codec extensions. Files without thumbnail support display their file type icon instead, so the pane remains useful for any duplicate group.
Disabling Image Comparison
The Enable image comparison window option on the General settings page controls whether this pane does any work at all. When it is disabled the pane stops composing groups and never requests a thumbnail, so no files are read from disk - useful on slow or metered storage. The pane itself remains where it is; use the docking panel controls to hide it.
See also: