WinMerge is a free, open-source differencing and merging tool for Windows that helps compare and merge both files and folders. Essential for developers, writers, and anyone working with multiple document versions, WinMerge provides visual comparison with intuitive merge controls.
File comparison displays documents side-by-side with color-coded highlighting showing differences. Line-level and character-level comparison reveals exactly what changed. Navigation buttons jump between differences quickly. The location pane provides bird's-eye view of document differences.
Folder comparison examines directory contents recursively, identifying files that exist in only one location, files that match, and files that differ. Filtering by filename pattern, date, and size focuses comparison on relevant files. Subfolders can be included or excluded from comparison.
The merge functionality copies differences between documents with simple keyboard shortcuts or mouse clicks. Entire sections or individual changes can be merged selectively. Three-way comparison and merge handles complex scenarios with base file and two modified versions.
Syntax highlighting supports programming languages including C++, Java, Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and many more. Code folding collapses unchanged sections for focused review. Regular expression search finds patterns across compared files.
Plugins extend functionality with file transformations for XML formatting, Base64 decoding, and more. Image comparison displays pictures side-by-side with visual difference overlay. Archive support compares contents of ZIP and other archive formats directly. Shell integration enables comparison from Windows Explorer context menu.