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.
Features
- Folder Comparison
- Diff detection
- File Comparison
- Merge Files
- Image-Diff
- Shell integration
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Ad-free
- Portable
- Directory sync
- Compare Text
WinMerge News & Activities
Recent News
Recent activities
- Archkain liked WinMerge
- TBayAreaPat replied to a comment / review on WinMerge
Moorey79 added WinMerge as alternative to Directory Compare Pro
sikulam33 added WinMerge as alternative to PorovnejText
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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 4.7Alternatives
74 alternatives listedSupported Languages
- English
AlternativeTo Categories
File Management, DevelopmentGitHub repository
- 8,752 Stars
- 972 Forks
- 465 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 fast file merging. Easy to transfer individual files to an outside folders. Be nice if there was a simplified method for merely appending one file to another (combining). Dual Context menu sides takes work. The program Diffinity does this automatically. In WinMerge, getting context menu to choose 1st and other items should be a default setting in my opinion. Here is method: 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. One pretty big drawback is that Winmerge won't save manually hidden items in projects if you are doing folder comparisons, though you can use glob filters like d!:Folder1 where it offers file filters. Other programs, like FreeFileSync, can save manual choices.
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]
WinMerge can do that in txt or html format