📦 KiloFilter

Organize, analyze and rescue your files — by type, without the mess.

A modern, dark-themed Windows utility that scans messy folders, classifies files by category and extension, detects duplicates with cryptographic hashing, and copies a clean, organized result — all from a single window.

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📖 What is KiloFilter?

Sorting a folder full of mixed files by hand — images here, documents there, videos somewhere else — is slow, repetitive and error-prone. Duplicates hide in plain sight, quietly eating up disk space.

KiloFilter does all of that for you.

Point it at a source folder and it scans recursively, groups every file by type and by your own custom categories, and copies an organized, easy-to-browse structure to the destination. It can also hunt down duplicates with BLAKE3 cryptographic hashing and remove them using an intelligent strategy — while keeping the original files safe at all times.

Non-destructive by design. KiloFilter copies files into an organized structure; your originals stay exactly where they are. Nothing is deleted unless you explicitly ask for it.

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📸 Screenshot

Main window — analyze, classify and rescue at a glance

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✨ Key Features

📂 Smart file organization Auto classification — scans folders recursively and sorts by type. Two-level structure — organized by Category → Extension (Images/JPG/, Documents/PDF/). Custom categories — create your own groups and manage their extensions. Safe copy — organized files are copied out; originals remain untouched. 🔍 Duplicate detection Three-stage detection — size grouping → partial hash (64 KB) → full hash. BLAKE3 hashing — fast, reliable cryptographic fingerprinting. Detailed reports — file counts, paths and total wasted space. Instant reopening — reload previous analyses without rescanning.

❌ Smart duplicate deletion Three strategies — Keep Newest, Keep Oldest or Keep Smallest. Real-time preview — see exactly what will be deleted before confirming. Advanced filtering — search by filename and filter by size range. Space calculation — shows how much disk space will be freed. 🎨 Built for humans Multilingual UI — 6 languages, switchable at runtime. Drag & drop — drop folders straight into the source/destination fields. Cancellable operations — interrupt long scans and exports anytime. Dark theme — a clean, custom Windows Forms interface.

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🧩 Duplicate Deletion Strategies

Choose the strategy that matches your intent — the preview updates instantly.

Strategy	What it keeps	Best for
🆕 Keep Newest	The most recently modified file	Keeping the latest version
📜 Keep Oldest	The original / oldest file	Archival, preserving originals
🗜️ Keep Smallest	The smallest file in the group	Maximizing freed disk space

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📋 Requirements

Component	Why you need it	Link
Windows 7 / 10 / 11 (x64)	The app is a Windows Forms desktop application	—
.NET 8 Desktop Runtime	To run the lightweight (framework-dependent) build	Download

💡 The standalone build bundles the runtime — no separate installation is required. Just download and run.

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📥 Installation

Option A — Portable (recommended)

Download KiloFilter.exe from the Releases page and double-click it. The standalone build is self-contained: no installation and no external dependencies.

Option B — Build from source

git clone https://github.com/AIMDYCK/KiloFilter.git
cd KiloFilter
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained false -o publish

The executable will be at publish\KiloFilter.exe.

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🚀 How to Use

Basic file organization

1. Source Folder — select the folder with your files (or drag & drop it).
2. Analyze Disk — scan and auto-classify files by type.
3. Review — check categories and file statistics.
4. Configure — adjust categories, blacklist and minimum file sizes (optional).
5. Destination Folder — choose where organized files will be copied.
6. Rescue — copy selected files into the organized category/extension tree.

Smart duplicate deletion (v2.1.0+)

1. Analyze Duplicates — scan for identical files using cryptographic hashing.
2. Apply Filters (optional) — search by filename and set a min/max size range.
3. Select a strategy — Keep Newest, Keep Oldest or Keep Smallest.
4. Review the preview — see files marked for deletion and the total space freed.
5. ❌ Smart Delete — execute the deletion, then confirm in the dialog.

⏹️ Use the Cancel button at any time to interrupt analysis, duplicate scanning or a file rescue.

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🧠 How It Works

File organization

1. Scans the source folder recursively.
2. Groups files by extension and custom categories.
3. Filters by blacklist and minimum file size settings.
4. Organizes output hierarchically: Category → Extension.
5. Displays results in an interactive list with statistics.

Duplicate detection

1. Stage 1 — groups files by identical file size.
2. Stage 2 — hashes the first 64 KB of each file (fast comparison).
3. Stage 3 — computes the full BLAKE3 hash for exact matches.
4. Report — shows duplicate groups with the total wasted space.
5. Optional deletion — safely remove duplicates while keeping originals.

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🏗️ Architecture

KiloFilter is a .NET 8 Windows Forms application built around a small, focused core that separates analysis, caching and UI concerns.

Program.cs ──► MainForm
                 │
     ┌───────────┼───────────────┬───────────────┐
     │           │               │               │
  Core/        Forms/          Models/         Assets/
 (logic)      (WinForms UI)    (data models)   (icons, media)

Project structure

KiloFilter/
├── Program.cs            # Application entry point
├── Core/                 # Localization, caching and duplicate logic
│   ├── CacheManager.cs
│   ├── Localization.cs
│   └── SmartDuplicateDeleter.cs
├── Forms/                # Windows Forms GUI
├── Models/               # Plain data models
├── Assets/               # Graphic resources (screenshot, icons)
├── KiloFilter.csproj
├── KiloFilter.sln
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

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🌍 Localization

Code	Language
en	English (default)
es	Spanish
fr	French
de	German
it	Italian
ja	Japanese

Translations are managed by Core/Localization.cs and can be switched live from the UI — no restart required.

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⚡ Performance: Smart Cache System

Analyzing the same folders repeatedly is fast thanks to the built-in cache:

1. First analysis — scans the folder completely and saves results to cache.
2. Subsequent analysis — detects changes using cryptographic content hashing.
3. No changes? — instantly reloads the previous results (typically < 1 second).
4. Changes detected? — offers a fresh scan or loading the cached results anyway.

Cache management

• Stored as human-readable JSON in %AppData%\Roaming\KiloFilter\Cache.
• Entries older than 30 days are removed automatically on startup.
• Browse, reload or delete individual entries from the 📋 History window.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• Language: C# 12
• Framework: .NET 8 (Windows Forms)
• Hashing: BLAKE3 (cryptographic file fingerprinting)
• Concurrency: Parallel.ForEach for multithreaded scanning
• UI: Windows Forms with a custom dark theme
• Localization: 6 languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese)

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⚠️ Disclaimer

Use at your own risk. The author is not responsible for any data loss. Always verify destination paths and keep backups of important files.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are what make open source amazing! Whether it's a bug report, a translation, a documentation fix or a new feature — you are welcome.

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for the repository structure and the pull request process.

• 🐛 Found a bug? Open an issue
• ✨ Have an idea? Open a feature request

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📄 License

Released under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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🛠️ Credits & Development

KiloFilter was designed and developed by AIMDYCK.

This project was built with the help of the following tools and technologies:

• Visual Studio — the primary IDE for .NET 8 / Windows Forms development, debugging and publishing.
• Supermaven — AI-powered code completion that accelerated day-to-day coding.
• Roo Code — the AI coding agent used to plan, refactor and implement the application.
• DeepSeek API — the large language model powering the AI-assisted development workflow.

A heartfelt thank you to the open source community behind BLAKE3 and the .NET platform, without whom this project would not exist.

Made with ❤️ for anyone drowning in unsorted files

⭐ If you like this project, don't forget to star the repository! ⭐