
If you want to install an extra language pack, you can select one or more of the many options in the language list at the bottom. By default, all extensions are enabled and there’s no real reason to turn them off – leave these options as they are. The second page allows you to configure which features to install. The first page of the installer is the licence agreement, click “Next” to agree and continue. Once the installer is downloaded, double-click it to start the installation wizard. You can install WinMerge for free from their website here. Just click the green “Download Now!” button in the top right corner to download it from SourceForge. This guide will walk you through installing and using WinMerge to compare the files in two folders. You can see if there are any missing files or if any of the backed-up files are different from the originals. WinMerge is a tool that allows you to compare the contents of two directories. Portable version available from PortableApps.If this sort of copy failure happens to an important document, and you don’t notice, you could end up with data loss. OverallĬompact, snappy and dedicated tool that works well on its own and integrates with other stuff just as well.

It is not critical (buttons to jump between differences help) but I think NetBeans has that nailed much better in its comparison interface that uses arrow-like markings to show were lines go, without inserting tons of blank space.

With high number of differences it can really blow up total amount of lines. Lines only present in one file are blank lines in opposing file. The one thing I don’t particularly like is how file comparison creates too much whitespace. There are plenty of plugins and filters features (with regular expressions support) to pick:Īpp also has extensive command line interface and integrates with everything from Windows Explorer to SVN tools. Strong featuresĪside for core comparing function (which is not that hard to implement) WinMerge goes extra mile to allow to customize and tweak how comparisons work. Interface is multi-windowed and can hold multiple comparisons (file or folder either) at the same time. It is bit of file manager and sync tool, bit of text editor and a lot of text comparison. What it doesīasically app compares files or directories to precisely find differences and allow you to work with those conveniently. I wanted to recommend something free, light and convenient (instead of heavier stuff I use generally) and remembered WinMerge.

One of those tasks you can’t expect human to do reliably (browsing several hundreds of files and thousand of lines – yeaaaah), but computers are wickedly good at. I have been hanging out in Theme Hybrid forums lately (it is research for new theme, not having fun solving obscure code puzzles, honestly! :) One of recent inquiries was how to determine if files were modified and what was changed.
