New Update WinMerge Updates Thread

System utilities
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lokamoka820

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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.

Screenshot​

Screenshot 2024-10-29 at 05-28-19 Screenshots - WinMerge.pngScreenshot 2024-10-29 at 05-28-24 Screenshots - WinMerge.pngScreenshot 2024-10-29 at 05-28-29 Screenshots - WinMerge.pngScreenshot 2024-10-29 at 05-28-36 Screenshots - WinMerge.pngScreenshot 2024-10-29 at 05-28-57 Screenshots - WinMerge.png

Features​

WinMerge is highly useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions. WinMerge can be used as an external differencing/merging tool or as a standalone application.

In addition, WinMerge has many helpful supporting features that make comparing, synchronising, and merging as easy and useful as possible:

General​

  • Supports Microsoft Windows XP SP3 or newer
  • Handles Windows, Unix and Mac text file formats
  • Unicode support
  • Tabbed interface

File Compare​

  • 3-way File Comparison New!
  • Visual differencing and merging of text files
  • Flexible editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers and word-wrap
  • Highlights differences inside lines
  • Difference pane shows current difference in two vertical panes
  • Location pane shows map of files compared
  • Moved lines detection

Folder Compare​

  • Regular Expression based file filters allow excluding and including items
  • Fast compare using file sizes and dates
  • Compares one folder or includes all subfolders
  • Can show folder compare results in a tree-style view
  • 3-way Folder Comparison

Image Compare New!​

  • Support many types of images
  • Can highlight the differences with blocks
  • Overlaying of the pictures is possible

Table Compare New!​

  • Shows CSV/TSV file contents in table format
  • Text can be wrapped for each column

Version Control​

  • Creates patch files (Normal-, Context- and Unified formats)
  • Resolve conflict files

Other​

  • Shell Integration (supports 64-bit Windows versions)
  • Archive file support using 7-Zip
  • Plugin support
  • Localizable interface
  • Online manual and installed HTML Help manual
 
WinMerge 2.16.44
Oct 27, 2024

General​

  • Added Medium size (24px) option to Toolbar icons

Webpage compare​

  • BugFix: Differences panel for Webpage mode (winwebdiff#7)

Plugins​

  • BugFix: Floating-point precision issue in CompareMSExcelFiles.sct plugin (#2494)

Translations​

  • Translation updates:
 
WinMerge 2.16.46
Jan 27, 2025

General​

  • BugFix: ALT-F4 opens Tools menu instead of exit from WinMerge (#2592)
  • BugFix: Fixes an issue causing a momentary drawing shift when launching
    WinMerge with Windows animation effects enabled and the window maximized.

Folder compare​

  • BugFix: Compare - Text files different and case also different - bug when delete and copy (#2599)
  • Add a Prompt to Copy Only Differences in Folder Comparison (PR #2622,#198,#1168,#1350,#1995)

Plugins​

  • BugFix: Fixes an issue where the Plugins → Prediffer menu is not displayed
    correctly since version 2.16.43.
  • BugFix: Fixed an issue in the CompareMSPowerPointFiles.sct plugin that
    caused error 0x80048010 when comparing PowerPoint files
  • Enable per-file plugin application with file number specification (PR #2598)
  • Some Plugins window fixes (PR #2621)

Manual​

  • BugFix: Typos and minor errors in WinMerge manual (#2597)

Translations​

 
v2.16.50.2

File compare​

  • BugFix: WinMerge 2.16.50 regression: Crashes when doing "Show only comparison
    results (not file contents)" for large binaries. (#2874)

Folder compare​

  • BugFix: After Install of v2.16.50 Folder: Filter is now only being applied to
    1st folder path and not the 2nd and 3th folder paths (#2875)

Filters dialog​

  • BugFix: Fixed a crash in the Filters dialog's File Filters tab after installing or creating a new filter.

Translations​

 
WinMerge 2.16.54
Jan 27, 2026
General:
  • BugFix: Cyrilic shortcuts do not work for main menukeyboard shortcuts
  • BugFix: 2 recent-entries per project (#2990)
  • Updated expat to version 2.7.3
Folder compare:
  • Add logInfo, logWarn, logError functions to filter expressions (PR #3131)
  • Add new filter expression functions
  • (if, ifEach, choose, chooseEach, andEach, orEach, notEach) (PR #3132)
  • Add BaseName/IsFolder and new string transformation functions to filters
  • (PR #3146)
  • Add experimental customizable rename/move detection for folder comparison
  • (PR #3126)
Options window:
  • Adjusted the height of the Options dialog and the position of the Defaults
  • button
Shell extension:
  • BugFix: Add-AppxPackage fails if path ends with backslash (PR #3145)
Installer:
  • Removed build-time tools (lemon.exe, re2c.exe) from the installer package.
Translations:
  • New translation: Vietnamese (PR #3142)
Translation updates:
  • Brazilian (PR #3150)
  • Chinese Simplified (PR #3156)
  • French (PR #3137)
  • German (PR #3148)
  • Hungarian (PR #3149)
  • Italian (PR #3147)
  • Japanese
  • Korean (PR #3125,#3127)
  • Lithuanian (PR #3144,#3153)
  • Polish (PR #3154,#3155)
  • Turkish (PR #3152)
  • Ukrainian (PR #3130)
 
v2.16.54.2 (2026.02)

General​

  • Add automatic crash detection and reporting (PR #3167)

Appearance​

  • BugFix: white flash after opening WinMerge with Dark Mode (#3210)

Folder compare​

  • BugFix: Fixed “Expand all subfolders” not working when rename/move detection
    is enabled
  • BugFix: Fixed incorrect results or crashes during recompare (F5) when
    "Merge renamed items into a single item" is enabled
  • BugFix: Fixed an issue where the Comparison Result showed 0 items after
    selecting “Refresh Selected” from the folder comparison context menu when
    rename/move detection is enabled
  • BugFix: Fixed the folder comparison window not updating after saving renamed
    files in file comparison
  • BugFix: Fixed incorrect file comparison being opened for rename/move items
    in 3-way folder comparison
  • BugFix: Prevent sorting while directory comparison is in progress
  • BugFix: Delayed file opening on double-click to prevent leftover clicks from
    affecting other windows
  • BugFix: Display each file extension when merged renamed items have different
    extensions
  • BugFix: Optimized column reloading and fixed a ReflectGetdispinfo-related
    crash

Options dialog​

  • BugFix: Request to resize text boxes (#3163)

Plugins​

  • BugFix: Fixed handling of empty replacement arguments in the Replace plugin
  • BugFix: Fixed incorrect substitution of plugin arguments (${1}, ${2}, …) by
    properly parsing the argument string

Archive support​

  • Update 7-zip to 26.00

Manual​

  • Fixes and completion of French translation including complete Manual
    (PR #3182)

Translations​

 
v2.16.56 (2026.04)

General​

  • Show error message when entering invalid path in header bar (PR #3322)
  • Add recent items and clipboard history to header bar menu (PR #3330)

Folder compare​

  • Add Folder comparison mode with archive extraction support (PR #3320)
  • Refactor: unify open parameters and move recurse to OpenFolderParams (PR #3326)
  • Add codepage filter UI and hasbom field support (PR #3318)

Archive support​

  • Use 7-Zip IsArc API for archive detection and refactor format guessing logic (PR #3323)
  • Prioritize explicitly selected plugins over archive detection (PR #3324)

Translations​

Documentation​

  • Update Italian documentation (PR #3319)
  • Update French manual (PR #3325)
 
v2.16.56.2 (2026.05)

File compare​

  • BugFix: Fix incorrect copy when selection ends inside a word diff (PR #3358)
  • BugFix: Skip invisible lines in search/replace
  • BugFix: Fix text misalignment and repaint artifacts when toggling line numbers in word wrap mode
  • BugFix: Fix crash in 3-pane diff when move block detection is enabled

Folder compare​

  • BugFix: Preserve tree expansion and UI state after refresh (#3366,PR #3369)
  • BugFix: Do not convert drive-relative paths like C: to C:\ (PR #3373)
  • BugFix: "Right only files" missing when showing left/right only (#3378)

Image compare​

  • BugFix: Image compare does not remember the state of the "Blink" toggle between sessions (#3368)
  • BugFix: [FEATURE] override option for unrestricted Image Compare (#3382)

Plugins​

  • BugFix: Fix missing "Unpacked file extension" value in Edit Plugin dialog

Archive support​

  • Update 7-Zip to 26.01

Installer​

  • Fixed missing Vietnamese WinMerge translation in installer

Translations​

  • Translation updates:
 
v2.16.58 (2026.07)

File compare​

  • BugFix: Crash (Access Violation) when file changes externally over a given
    threshold (#3456, PR #3457)
  • BugFix: Parts of the panes become black text on a black background after
    copying changes in 3-way merge mode (#3468, #3469)

Folder compare​

  • BugFix: Fix archive vs folder comparison selecting the wrong source
    (#3449, PR #3458)
  • BugFix: Fix HICON resource leaks in image list initialization

Select files or folders dialog​

  • BugFix: Handle exceptions raised while creating the common file dialog
    (#3462, PR #3464)
  • BugFix: Fix MRU handling for three-way comparisons. (#3452)

File Compare Report​

  • Add support for generating a single HTML report from multiple file
    comparisons (PR #3450)

Patch Generation​

  • Add a file list with checkboxes to the Generate Patch dialog (PR #3470)

Archive Generation​

  • Add support for creating comparison archives (PR #3483)

Command line​

  • Add /g command line option for single-instance groups (PR #3472)

Translations​

 
v2.16.58.2 (2026.08)

Appearance​

  • BugFix: Fix cramped toolbar icon spacing at high DPI

File compare​

  • BugFix: Fix word diff calculation for hidden lines (#3535)
  • BugFix: Fix a minor word selection issue (#3521)
  • Improve diff view rendering speed for large contiguous hidden sections
    (PR #3517)

Folder compare​

  • BugFix: [BUG] Sorting of files is temporarily wrong while diff is running
    (#3579)(PR #3581)

Filter expressions​

  • BugFix: Allow none to be ignored when concatenating strings with +
    (#3550)

Archive generation​

  • BugFix: Allow archive generation for one-sided file comparisons

Plugins​

  • BugFix: Fix off-by-one bug losing the last byte of BUFFER_PACK_UNPACK
    plugin output

Installer​

  • BugFix: [BUG] Error displaying accented characters in French (#3497)

Translations​

  • Translation updates:

Documentation​

  • BugFix: Fix syntax errors in the Spanish "Filters" manual page
 

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