Then, you can select the paths you like to search or to skip. ISAD/SAD will always use what is in the knowledge file if one was used, add files in the paths you provide, and then remove all files that are to be skipped.

You will then have to decide which mode you want ISAD/SAD to function at. In the ISAD mode, all images specified in the paths you provided will be scanned and signaturized and in the SAD mode, only basic file information is queried from the Operating System. (Note: Like most other fields in this program, these buttons will remember their old values, so you can simply press the "Continue >>" button a few times and skip all these windows)

SAD will then start scanning your drives and if required, examining the image files. This can take as few as a couple of seconds or many hours, depending on the values you've specified and the content of your file system. Generally, 10 seconds is the time needed for each Gigabyte of drive space (HPFS) in SAD mode and about 3 seconds average per image additional in the ISAD mode.

Now, SAD is ready to search its knowledge (ie. your system) for files or duplicates.

The searchable items are:

Expression search (similar to OS/2 Warp's Find)
1. Match Expression. Searches all of your system for a file pattern, for example use *.zip to list all zipped files. Once you have reached this window, you can expect each expression search to take less than a few seconds, even for the largest file systems. This field can be used with other search methods.

   Searches based on name

2. Duplicate names. Searches for duplicate file names. For example, select this button and enter an expression *.EXE and ISAD/SAD will find all duplicate executables on your system.
3. Ignore image extensions. Searches for duplicate file names while ignoring their extensions; used to find various formats of the same image, for example apple.gif and apple.jpg.
4. Smart renames. Searches for duplicate file names while changing some similar characters, for example apple_1.gif and apple-1.gif would be considered the same.

   Searches based on size and content

5. Duplicate file sizes. Searches for files which are of the same size. If used w/o an expression, an average OS/2 system will have most of the files match in size with other files. You will want to use this with an expression similar to *.zip.
6. Identical contents. Select this to search for files which are 100% identical to each other. this is the absolute best way to find duplicate files and works real well when used with expressions similar to *.zip, *.jpg, ...

   Searches based on image information

7. Image Dimension. Search for images which are of the same size, only good for small image collection of non-standard (i.e. not 640x400, ...) sizes.
8. Scaled. Search for images which are of the same size or a proportional scales of each other. Also only good for small image collections of non-standard sizes.
9. RGB Signature. Find image's whose RGB signature is the same in additon to similar dimensions (or scaled dimensions)
10. Grayscaled. Similar to above but it will also consider images which may have been grayscaled.

    Searches based on image type

11. Other methods. Search for a certain image types, for example images which are the size of WWW banners, images which are very small or very large.

Once you have selected your search, it will be processed.

And the search results displayed. Now, simply press the Red buttons to destroy images (be careful, you won't be asked to confirm it) or the Green buttons to keep them. You can move between the groups of similar images by pressing the left or right arrow buttons and perform more searches by pressing the "Done" button.

A few example results are shown below:

A search based on duplicate file sizes. This was a bad move since most files on the system matched other files. In fact, 34244 files had duplicate sizes.

Search based on duplicate file names. This is a better search. The system contained many files which had the same file name, still, an expression such as *.exe or *.zip would have reduced the number of matches found. And exclusion of multiple OS installs would have also been a good move.

Search based on an expression. This search looked for any files which ended in *.zip. There was at least 20 Megs saved by this one alone.

Search based on image size and signature. This search looked for images which had the same RGB signature, may have been rescaled, or may have been grayscaled. This type of search does not usually find as many matches as searching for size and content but is great for finding similar images. In this case, Claudia's picture was found in two different sizes as well as grayscaled.

What are the System Requirements

ISAD/SAD's requirements are

- Warp 3.0 (FP 17 or later) or Warp 4.0. (no FP required)
- A 486 or better processor. (See note below)
- 16M RAM minimum.
- 20M Swapper minimum.
- 800x600 graphics card.
- Internet connection with access to WWW. (To register product)

Note: In the image mode, at least for the first time, ISAD/SAD will need to load and examine each image file. A fast processor (or you may wish to have it be done during lunch or overnight), 32 Meg RAM and much more Swapper space is required if there are many images to be examined. Using the knowledge file feature is recommended in this case.

How much does it cost and who sells it?

MD+F ISAD/SAD for OS/2 Warp is now available for FREE. To download, visit the [link removed] on this site. If you have previously purchased MD+F ISAD/SAD, hold on to your SN for the future.