WinMerge
WinMerge is an open source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Windows
- PortableApps.com
- Wine
Features
- Folder Comparison
- Diff detection
- File Comparison
- Merge Files
- Image-Diff
- Shell integration
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Ad-free
- Portable
- Directory sync
- Compare Text
Tags
- merge-folders
- compare-xlsx
- compare-pptx
- compare-pdf
- compare-docx
- merging
WinMerge News & Activities
Recent News
Recent activities
- TBayAreaPat reviewed WinMerge
A great program for those who want to get into intensive file merging. I do, however, think that there should be a simplified method for merely appending one file to another. Note that you can get context menu to choose 1st and other items Should be default setting in my opinion.: Edit → Options → Shell Integration category, and check "Add to context menu". Then enable "Enable advanced menu" to replace the basic "WinMerge" shortcut with "Select Left (1st)" and "Select Right (2nd)". Another...
- TBayAreaPat replied to a comment / review on WinMerge
nabbisen added WinMerge as alternative to ForskScope- RemovedUser added WinMerge as alternative to ForskScope
- mikelmanson liked WinMerge
- Ulrich thinks Image-Diff is a important feature of WinMerge
- Ulrich rated WinMerge
- Ulrich liked WinMerge
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Useful apps for Windows Additional resources: [https://www.softpedia.com/](https://www.softpedia.com/)
What is WinMerge?
WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle. 32 languages. With the xdocdiff-Plugin you even can compare Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and some more files.
Since version 2.16 it's a a mirror release of a fork 
WinMerge JP.
Features
Visual differencing and merging of text files.
Flexible editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers and word-wrap.
Handles DOS, Unix and Mac text file formats.
Unicode support (as of version 2.8.0, UTF-8 files are correctly read without a BOM).
Difference pane shows current difference in two vertical panes.
Location pane shows map of files compared.
Highlights differences inside lines in file compare.
Can also generate HTML report with differences highlighted.
Regular expression based file filters in directory compare allow excluding and including items.
Moved lines detection in file compare.
Ability to ignore whitespace and letter case changes.
Creates patch files.
Shell integration (supports 64-bit Windows versions).
Rudimentary Visual SourceSafe and Rational ClearCase integration.
Archive file support using 
7-Zip .
Plug-ins.
Language localization via plain-text PO files.
Online manual
and installed HTML help manual.
Generates normal, context, and unified patches.
WinMerge information
Developed by
Thingamahoochie Software Licensing
Open Source (GPL-2.0) and Free product.Written in
Rating
Average rating of 4.8Alternatives
69 alternatives listedSupported Languages
- English
AlternativeTo Categories
File Management, DevelopmentGitHub repository
- 8,312 Stars
- 932 Forks
- 453 Open Issues
- Updated
Comments and Reviews
3 pane compare. Extremely useful for resolving conflicts when programming.
Decent compare tool, but as of today Diffinity (free) is much better.
I prefer Diffinity too, but it won't open image files.
A great program for those who want to get into intensive file merging. I do, however, think that there should be a simplified method for merely appending one file to another. Note that you can get context menu to choose 1st and other items Should be default setting in my opinion.: Edit → Options → Shell Integration category, and check "Add to context menu". Then enable "Enable advanced menu" to replace the basic "WinMerge" shortcut with "Select Left (1st)" and "Select Right (2nd)". Another great thing is that WinMerge can be used to compare image files.
Just needed to find why two folders had different qty of items. WM found the "missing" files in a couple of seconds. Easy-peasy.
Versatile and fast! Fires up in milliseconds.
Works well with comparing folders and files.
Very good app, unfortunately it doesn't have the capability to output difference reports like BC. In most engineering environments this is a must.
[Edited by NuncioBitis, April 13]