Release Notes

WinMerge 2.16.6 Release Notes

About This Release
What Is New in 2.16.6?
Known Issues

February 2020

About This Release

This is a WinMerge 2.16.6 stable release. This release replaces earlier WinMerge stable releases as a recommended release.

Please submit bug reports to our bug-tracker.

What Is New in 2.16.6?

General

Added CWindowsManagerDialog class for handling open tabs with Ctrl+Tab, now the application is behave just like professional editors (Visual Studio, Notepad++, etc.) to switch and activate the open tabs. (GitHub #247)

File compare

Bugfix: GhostTextBuffer: Don't unexpectedly bring back empty lines user wants to delete (GitHub #244)
Bugfix: Prevent silent abort with File Comparison of files whose size is an exact multiple of 2^32 bytes (GitHub #257)
Bugfix: WinMerge 2.16.4.0 crashes after de-selecting Split Vertically (GitHub #259)
Bugfix: "Replace All" may not replace all text
Bugfix: An error message is shown when pressing Enter key in Diff pane (osdn.net #39924)
Bugfix: Non-moved lines are treated as moved lines (osdn.net #39851)
Add support for touchpad horizontal scroll (GitHub #254)

Image compare

Bugfix: Support 16-bit images (GitHub WinMerge/winimerge issue #6)
Add support for SVG, PDF, WMF and EMF file types (Only available in WinMerge 64bit version on Windows 10) Demo1 Demo2

Archive support

Bugfix: Third tgz doesn't get fully extracted (first two do) (GitHub #263)

Patch generator dialog

Bugfix: Crash when generating patch for multiple files and a file only on one side (GitHub #252)

Installer

Bugfix: Fix spelling of Git (GitHub #246)

Translations

New translation: Arabic (sf.net #3038)
Translation updates:
- Bulgarian (GitHub #236, #268)
- French (GitHub #251)
- German (GitHub #239, #245, #258)
- Lithuanian (GitHub #233, #267)
- Portuguese (GitHub #237)
- Spanish (GitHub #266)

Manual

Bugfix: Fix spelling of Git (GitHub #246)
Update Configuration.xml (GitHub #262)

What Is New in 2.16.5 Beta?

File compare

Bugfix: Suspicious lack of Release() calls in lwdisp.c (GitHub #171)
Bugfix: Performance using Unpacker (GitHub #180)
Bugfix: WinMerge toolbar appears too small on UHD and should default to the conforming Windows 10 scaling/DPI accessibility setting (GitHub #182)
Bugfix: "Recompare as" menu option doesn't follow current choice (GitHub #191)
Bugfix: Switching between "Find Next" and "Find Prev" need to click twice (GitHub #202)
Bugfix: Program is crashed! (GitHub #229)
Switch "Find" buttons in Find dialog (GitHub #201)
Improve UNICODE character support using icu.dll usable from Windows 10 Creators Update
Add support for color emoji (Only available in 64bit version) To enable color emoji support, select DirectWrite* in Rendering mode combobox on Editor page in the Options dialog. Demo

Folder compare

Bugfix: Crash when clicking Next Difference button after unchecking Show Different Items menu item
Changed symbols in Newer/Older column for better visual clarity (GitHub #169)
Add "Ignore codepage differences" to quick options (GitHub #197)
Limit the window flashing count. (GitHub #206)

Image compare

Bugfix: Image compare breaks when zoomed too much with large pictures (GitHub #188)
Bugfix: [Image compare] Zoom-in focuses on top-left corner instead of cursor position (GitHub #211)

Shell extension

Bugfix: "Run as Administrator" incompatible with "Shell integration" (ver 2.16.4) (sf.net #2234)

Installer

Bugfix: Installer russian translation (#168)
Bugfix: Windows 10 shell integration not working (GitHub #176)
Installer - Proposal - Separate Inno Setup strings from WinMerge installer strings (GitHub #167)

Translations

Update Italian translation (GitHub #164, #165)
Update Russian translation (GitHub #166)
Update Bulgarian translation (GitHub #170, #175, #179, #212)
Update Portuguese translation (GitHub #185, #199)
Update French translation (GitHub #187)
Update Lithuanian translation (GitHub #189, #208, #217, #225)
Update Swedish translation (GitHub #194, #196)
Update German translation (GitHub #204, #205, #215)
Update Polish translation (GitHub #218)
Update Simplified Chinese translation (GitHub #228)
Update Finnish translation (sf.net #3037)
Update English.pot (#216)
Add Japanese manual (GitHub #183)

Manual

Small Manual tweaks (GitHub #190)

What Is New in 2.16.4?

File compare

Bugfix: coretools.cpp: linelen() should not truncate lines with embedded NULs (GitHub #156)
Bugfix: file compare : right-click doesn't select the diff under the mouse (GitHub #159)
Bugfix: Avoid an exception in GuessCodepageEncoding() when filepath equals "NUL" (GitHub #162)
Bugfix: Auto-indent did not work if the EOL-style was not CRLF

Folder compare

Bugfix: Generating HTML Folder Compare report including File Compare report did not complete (Bitbucket #15)
Bugfix: Compare Statistics dialog: The number of diff folders was counted in the number of diff files

Plugins

Bugfix: PrediffLineFilter.sct: Wrong encoding for settings dialog (Bitbucket #16)

Translations

Update Russian translation (Bitbucket PR #51)
Update Italian translation (Bitbucket PR #52)

Internals

Favor PathContext::GetSize() over PathContext::size() (GitHub #157)
Consolidate FolderCmp (GitHub #158, #160, #161)
Avoid some InnoSetup compiler warnings (Bitbucket PR #53)

What Is New in 2.16.3 Beta?

General

Bugfix: Slow startup with documents folder redirected to high-latency network drive (Bitbucket #155)
Add VisualElementsManifest for Windows 10 start menu (Bitbucket PR #47)
Reduce the size of the executable file

File compare

Bugfix: Location and Diff pane visibility broken in 2.16.1 (GitHub #138, Bitbucket #163, sf.net #2228)
Bugfix: Temporary files could not be created (GitHub #143, sf.net #2220)
Bugfix: Trivial bugfix (GitHub #155)
Bugfix: Regression: Incorrectly shows 'no changes' for large portions of certain binary files! (Bitbucket #162)
Small tweaks for HTML file reports (Bitbucket PR #44, #45)
Made diff algorithm selectable by using libXDiff. algorithms: default(Myers), minimal, patience, histogram
triple click to select whole line (Bitbucket #144)
Add support for merging word level diffs in selection. demo
Use own colors settings for folder compare (Bitbucket PR #49)

Folder compare

Bugfix: WinMerge 3-Way Compare Bugs: Always Shows Unique Items. (GitHub #154)
Bugfix: WinMerge could not compare files that are opened in other applications
Show progress bar while generating Folder Compare Report

Project file

Bugfix: Possible Bugs in 2.16.2 (sf.net #2221)
Supporting relative path in project file (Bitbucket #158)
Allow multiple <paths> in project file

Image compare

Bugfix: no message was displayed when file saving failed
Implement Insertion/Deletion Detection. demo

Options dialog

Tweak size of combobox "codepage" in options (GitHub #144)
Sort combobox codepage and add manual codepage (GitHub #145)

Installer

Allow per-user installation (only x64 installer)
Don't install Files.txt and don't add "Uninstall WinMerge" to the start menu (Bitbuket #38)

Translations

Update French translation (GitHub #149, #150)
Update Lithuanian translation (Bitbucket PR #36, #40, #43, #46, #48, #50)
Update Russian translation (Bitbucket PR #41, #42)

What Is New in 2.16.2?

File compare

Bugfix: Edit > Replace > All, Undo: should undo all (sf.net #2113)
Bugfix: Save As: default directory should be file's original directory (sf.net #2163)
Bugfix: Strings with embedded 0 bytes are handled incorrectly (sf.net #2187)
Bugfix: Removed word level merge support due to unstable behavior
Bugfix: Menu item "File->File Encoding" moves main window (Bitbucket #150)
Bugfix: Crash when maximizing MDI child window
bugfix: Crash when failed to load file
Add syntax highlight for Lua (Bitbucket #114)

Folder compare

Bugfix: Compare results refresh incorrectly after deletions (sf.net #2217)

Archive Support

Upgraded to 7-zip 19.00

Tab bar

Improve icon display at 120DPI

Image compare

Bugfix: Zoom In/Out shortcuts don't update zoom level in location pane (Bitbucket #149)
Zoom In/Out menu items for image compare (Bitbucket #148)

Open dialog

Allow quoted filenames in "Select Files or Folders" (sf.net #1240, GitHub #137)

Manual

Some tweaks for the manual (Bitbucket PR #35)

Installer

Bugfix: Gibberish language during installation (Bitbucket #147)

Translations

Update Catalan translation (Bitbucket PR #29)
Update Italian translation (Bitbucket PR #32)
Update Lithuanian translation (Bitbucket PR #33)
Update Simplified Chinese translation (Bitbucket PR #34)

What Is New in 2.16.1?

Open dialog

Alternatively to Swap buttons, allow drag & drop between filetype icons (GitHub #118)
Expose cleaner moving/resizing behavior esp. in non-maximized state (GitHub #119)
Avoid retaining bogus filetype icons from previous selections (GitHub #122)

File compare

Bugfix: Extra blank displayed after left/right single/double quotes (Bitbucket #134)
Bugfix: Click doesn't trigger document to scroll in Location pane under circumstance (Bitbucket #140)
Bugfix: Frustrating text selection bug (GitHub #109)
Bugfix: Left and Right files swap after losing focus v2.16.0.0 (sf.net #2213)
Bugfix: WinMerge 2.16.0.0 Unicoe X64 version displaying Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library Asset in DiffWraper.CPP line 984 (sf.net #2214)
Bugfix: Cancelation of selection range with reverse indent (sf.net #2215)
Bugfix: upward and downward search not work correctly
Bugifx: Fix menu accelerator conflict
Add File/Recompare As/Image menu item
Add support for merging word level diffs in selection Demo

Folder compare

Bugfix: Unique files are not shown (Bitbucket #138)
Bugfix: Improve Hard-IO error handling, other bug fixes, cleanup, tweaks (GitHub #120)

Archive Support

Upgraded to 7-zip 18.06 (Bitbucket #119)

Options dialog

Bugfix: Widen the width of labels in Options dialog (GitHub#108)
Bugfix: view settings make winmerge crash (Bitbucket #109)
Bugfix: 64bit version can't browse between option pages (Bitbucket #128)
Bugfix: Shell Integration "Enable Advanced Menu" disabled on new install (Bitbucket #137)
Bugfix: Binary File options don't change from default (Bitbucket #135)

Shell extension

Bugfix: CreateTranslatedRcFiles needs an update (GitHub #113)

Translations

Update Brazilian Portuguese translation (GitHub #108)
Update Swedish translation (sf.net #3035, GitHub #112, #114)
Update Lithuanian translation (Bitbucket PR #7, #8, #27)
Update Russian translation (Bitbucket PR #9-#26, #139)
Update Bulgarian translation (Bitbucket PR #28)
Update Turkish translation (sf.net #3036)
Update Japanese translation
Remove now unneeded MergeLang.dll

Manual

Bugfix: Some fixes in the manual (GitHub #116)
Bugifx: end of line documentation (sf.net #2211)
Clarification as per https://github.com/WinMerge/winmerge-v2/issues/41 (GitHub #126)

Internals

Remove `nFinalNullLines` checking, disabled by an earlier commit (GitHub #111)
Various minor updates, plus preparation for VS2019 (GitHub #115)
DiffTextBuffer: Create Unicode temp files (makes EscapeControlChars() obsolete) (GitHub #123)
Don't pass `DIFFITEM *` by casting to `uintptr_t` (GitHub #124, #125)

What Is New in 2.16.0?

General

Bugfix: Disabled icon on toolbar not gray out when running on XP

File compare

Bugfix: Copy to X and Advance" not work in 3way-compare (Bitbucket #123)
Bugfix: File compare always showing different ending (GitHub #106)
Bugfix: Scrolling issue (GitHub #105)
Bugfix: A crash (GitHub #104)
Add separators to "Zoom" and "Diff Context" menus (Bitbucket PR #5)

Open dialog

Bugfix: Drag&Drop in Open Dialog won't work correct (Bitbucket #125)

Installer

Drop ClearCase integration (Bitbucket PR #6)

Translations

Add Lithuanian translation (Bitbucket #124)
Update Portuguese translation (GitHub #102,103)

What Is New in 2.15.5 Beta?

General

Add support for very long path and file names (GitHub #87,95,99)
Enable Ctrl+C shortcut key on the file path bar
Remove support for old version control system (GitHub #96)
Improve Options > Color > Differences dialog layout (GitHub #89)
Improve information and formatting in Help > Configuration reporting (GitHub #92)
Improve visual layout of Open dialog (GitHub #97)
Add icon for "New (3 panes)" menu item (GitHub #97)

File compare

Add Window/Split menu item
Improve handling of last lines in files (GitHub #89,90,93)
Improve "Visual C++ Loose" filter (GitHub #95)
BugFix: Crash when saving a file if the active pane is diff detail pane
BugFix: Crash when pressing Alt+Down key while loading large files
BugFix: Crash when "mousing over" Plugin Setting context menu if Plugins are disabled
BugFix: Various problems reading of files > 2GB (GitHub #81)
BugFix: Selecting files "From MRU list" again works correctly

Translations

Update Italian translation (GitHub #86)
Update Japanese translation (Bitbucket #3)
Update Dutch translation
Update German translation
Bugfix Spanish translation error (Bitbucket Issue #108)

Internals

Various diffengine and compilation/build fixes (GitHub #89,90,91,92,94)

What Is New in 2.15.4 Beta?

Appearance

BugFix: Dot icon in a drop-down menu is not drawn correctly

File compare

BugFix: Crash when reading a file in Google Drive File Stream (sf.net#2206)
BugFix: Crash when removing ghost lines (GitHub #80)
BugFix: Lines without EOL appears even though it is not the last line
Add Ctrl++/Ctrl+-(not numpad key) shortcut key to zoom in/out (sf.net#1727)
Remove 2GB file size limit for 64-bit build (GitHub #81, #82)

Folder compare

Add Pause button to Folder Compare Progress dialog (sf.net#828,#1222,#1237)
Re-detect the file encoding when opening files (sf.net#2131)

Open dialog

Add Options button to Open dialog
Add Save Project button to Open dialog

Patch generator dialog

BugFix: File1/File2 fields don't remember manual input (sf.net#1949)

Reports

BugFix: Garbled text was copied to the clipboard when generating a report on the clipboard (sf.net#2200)

Plugins

Add PrediffLineFilter.sct plugin
Make ignored lines by Prediffer plugin colored

Translations

Update Slovak translation (sf.net#2902)
Update Portuguese translation (GitHub #84,#85)

Internals

Adapt to VS2017 version 15.6.1 (GitHub #79)

What Is New in 2.15.3 Beta?

File compare

Fix assertion error when started on Windows XP
Fix a problem that moved blocks are sometimes shown as normal diff blocks
Fix a problem that EOL is removed unexpectedly when removing lines included ghost lines
Fix reverse search to search last line correctly
Fix infinite loop when replacing ^ (sf.net#2094)
Fix to show text that contains & on message box, correctly (sf.net#2067)

Folder compare

Fix a problem that unique files are invisible when comparing files using 'Date' compare method
Remove trailing garbage from a dragged text (Github#75)

Patch generator dialog

Fix a problem that typed-in Context in Generate Patch is not applied (sf.net#2179)

Location pane

Add support for HiDPI screens (Github #54)

Plugins

CompareMSExcelFiles.sct: Add "Compare headers and footers" checkbox to settings dialog (sf.net#2102)

Installer

Remove extra space in installer: " Launch WinMerge" (sf.net#2144)
Add "How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs" section into GPL.rtf (sf.net#2098)

Translations

Add Finnish translation (sf.net#3031)
Add Sinhala translation (sf.net#3032)
Update Korean translation (Github #61)
Update Portuguese translation (GitHub #56-78)
Update Polish translation (sf.net#2177)
Update Turkish translation (Bitbucket#85, #86)
Change the file encodings of all .po files of WinMerge GUI to UTF-8

What Is New in 2.15.2 Beta?

WinMerge 2.15.2 is a beta release which mainly adds support for experimental 3-way comparison and image comparison.

Appearance

Flatten GUI pane edges
Partial support for HiDPI (not Per-Monitor DPI Aware)
Remove splash screen. The splash screen image is now displayed in About dialog

Tool bar

Add "View->Toolbar->Huge" menu item
Add drop down menu to Options icon
Add icons for 3-way merge functions

Open dialog

Change window type of Open dialog from modal window to MDI child window
Add Read-only checkbox to Open dialog
Add buttons to swap items
Add the third path combobox for 3-way comparison
Allow file name patterns like not only *.ext but file*.ext

Tab bar

Make Tabbar reorderable by using drag-and-drop
Add "Close Other Tabs", "Close Right Tabs" and "Close Left Tabs" menu items to system menu
Add "Enable Auto Max Width" menu item to Tab Bar context menu
Show close button when hovering over tabs
Add icons to each tab

Options dialog

Add "Close Select Files or Folders Dialog on clicking OK button" checkbox to "General" page
Add "Language" combobox to "General" page and remove Language dialog
Add "Ignore codepage differences" checkbox to "Compare/General" page
Remove checkboxes in "Enable multiple compare windows for" group from "General" page (Now always enabled multi compare windows)
Add "Include Subfolders" checkbox to "Compare/Folder" page
Add "Automatically expand all subfolders" checkbox to "Compare/Folder" page
Add "Ignore Reparse Points" checkbox to "Compare/Folder" page
Add "Number of compare threads" textbox to "Compare/Folder" page
Add "Compare/Binary" page
Add "Compare/Image" page
Add checkboxes whether to use custom colors for text to "Colors/Differences" page
Add "GitHub/Bitbucket" button to "Colors/Differences" page
Add "Margin" color button to "Colors/Text" page
Add "Colors/Markers" page
Remove "Use stand-alone 7-Zip if available" and "Use local 7-Zip from WinMerge folder" radio button from "Archive Support" page (Now always use local 7-Zip from WinMerge folder)
Make $file and $linenum parameters available in External editor textbox on "System" page
Make Custom codepage on "Codepage" page selectable from dropdown list
Add "Detect codepage for text files using mlang.dll" checkbox to "Codepage" page
Remove "Include subfolders by default" checkbox from "Shell Integration" page (ShellExtension now refers to "Include subfolders" checkbox on "Compare/Folder" page or on "Select Files or Folders" dialog)
Remove "Add Shell menu to context menu" from "Shell Integration" page (WinMerge now always adds shell menu to context menu in Folder window)
Add "Register shell extension" button to "Shell Integration" page

Folder Compare

Add Multi-thread compare support for Full Contents or Quick Contents method
Color the background of items in list view
Restore collapse/expand state of folder tree after re-comparison
Make comparing window closeable
Make sub-folder re-comparable
Display folder items in list view during comparison
Display the file name currently being compared in progress window
Add "Parent Folder" menu item in 'Open Left/Middle/Right' menu
Add "Compare Non-horizontally" menu item to context menu
Add "Copy items To Clipboard" menu item to context menu
Add "Swap panes" menu item to View menu
Add "Auto/Manual Prediffer" menu item to Plugin menu
Open selected folders in new tab when clicking "Compare" menu item with pressing Ctrl key
Cleanup Date column alignment (GitHub #25)
Bugfix: Version column not sorted correctly
Bugfix: A unique item that is a binary file was not detected as a binary file
Bugfix: Properly handle 3-way comparison of Binary files (Github #23)
Bugfix: Use proper font for View>Use Default Font menu item (GitHub #24)

File Compare

Add support for 3-way compare/merge
Add "Diff Context" menu to View menu to adjust the number of displayed diff context lines
Add "Split Vertically" menu item to View menu
Add "Add Synchronization Point" to Merge menu
Add "Auto/Manual Prediffer" menu item to Plugin menu
Show the name of the applied plugin in the status bar
Add shortcut(Ctrl+Alt+E) to open with external editor
Add Go and Rust highlighter
Add VHDL syntax highlighter (Bitbucket #2)
Add C++11 keywords
Make merge editor window D&Dable
Highlight the search text and implement Marker
Highlight the EOL pane in status bar if there is a difference in the EOL of files
Reload files when another application changes files opened by WinMerge
Improve in-line diff algorithm
Bugfix: More on Issue #73 Fixed the -dl -dm and -dr description parameters for conflict files (for both 2 way and 3 way conflict files).(Bitbucket #1)
Bugfix: Fix Memory Leak with Drop Targets (GitHub #26)

Binary Compare

Install binary file editor (frhed) component again by default
Make binary file editor undoable

Image Compare

Add image file compare/merge support

Reports

Add "Include File Compare Report" checkbox to "Folder Compare Report" dialog
Change the encoding of HTML folder compare report from ANSI to UTF-8
Add icons to the HTML folder compare report
Change visual style of HTML report

Archive Support

Install 7-zip plugin by default

Drag and Drop

Accept drag&droped files or folders from various places like: Zip folder, FTP folder, Recycle bin, images in Web browser

Plugins

Introduce new plugin type FILE_FOLDER_PACK_UNPACKER which allows unpacking data in a file to multiple files in a folder
Use FILE_FOLDER_PACK_UNPACKER plugin for decompressing archives
Add support for unpacker plugin written in VBScript/Javascript.
Add WinMerge32BitPluginProxy.exe to make 32-bit plugins usable in 64-bit WinMerge
Rewrite some plugins in VBScript
Add CompareMSPowerPointFiles.sct plugin
Add ApplyPatch.sct plugin
Add SortAscending, SortDescending and ExecFilterCommand menu item to Plugin->Script menu
Make plugins configurable with settings dialog of each plugin

Filters

Update *.flt files for Visual Studio 2015 and 2017

Shell extension

Display another WinMerge icon in Explorer's context menu when a folder is selected

Installer

64-bit version of WinMerge is available
Install plugins by default

Translations

Update Portuguese translation (GitHub #2-17)
Update Korean translation (GitHub #45)
Update Traditional Chinese translation (GitHub #53)
Remove "Language" menu item from View menu (You can specify UI language at Options dialog)

Command line

Incompatible change: The third file path is now treated as a right path for 3-way comparison, not output path Use /o option for ouput path instead
Add /wm, /dm, /fl, /fm, /fr, /al, /am and /ar option for 3-way comparison

Other changes

Add support for jump list introduced in Windows 7

Internals

Use POCO C++ libraries instead of pcre, expat and scew. They use pcre, expat internally
Link statically with MFC and VC runtime libraries
Various compilation/build fixes (GitHub #1,19,21,29,31-33,36-38,42-44,49-52)

Known Issues

Old IE version can cause crashes when handling archive files.

Workaround: If WinMerge crashes when handling archives, consider updating IE to version 6.0 or later.
Supercopier application causes WinMerge to hang.

Supercopier application causes WinMerge to not exit properly and leaves WinMerge process hang. See the bug reports:
- #1976241 the winmerge.exe process doesn't stop itself
- #1602313 WinMerge stays in tasklist after closing
Workaround: Disable the Supercopier when using WinMerge.
Filters only applied when using full compare.

Line filtering is only applied in folder compare when using Full Contents-compare method.

If you are using any other compare method, line filters are not applied. Files marked different in folder compare can get status changed to identical when opening them to file compare.
Unset WinMerge integration from ClearCase

To remove WinMerge integration, you'll need to edit one file by hand:
1. Find ClearCase installation folder
  Usually it is something like C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase
2. Go to subfolder lib\mgrs\
3. Open file map in there to editor program
4. Comment-out the line starting with "text_file_delta xcompare", containing "WinMergeU.exe"
5. Uncomment the line starting with "text_file_delta xcompare", containing "cleardiffmrg.exe"