Beyond Compare 5.0 Beta

5.0.0.29328 - April 12, 2024

Notable Changes

• After upgrading, settings will be incompatible with previous v5 betas. Make a backup if you may need to run older betas.
• Added support for importing BC v4 settings.
• macOS: Fixed 'Follow symbolic links' so it copies symlinks as the target file.
• Fixed crashes when scrolling in text compare and when closing app on Linux.
• Fixed file content being endlessly repeated when loading a comparison.

Appearance

• Linux: Fixed comboboxes autosizing too narrow.
• Linux: Fixed menu separators in dark mode being too difficult to see.
• Linux: Fixed various dialogs being too narrow and showing the Ok/Cancel buttons overlapping the Help button.
• Linux: Fixed checkboxes in list tables being hard to see in dark mode (e.g., Preferences > Commands).
• macOS: Fixed checkboxes not drawing in list tables (e.g., Preferences > Commands).
• macOS: Further improved appearance of buttons in the Picture Compare and the Text Compare Find panel.

File Views

• Fixed file content being endlessly repeated when loading a comparison.

Folder Compare

• macOS: Fixed 'Follow symbolic links' so it copies symlinks as the target file instead of as a symlink.

Misc

• macOS: Fixed mouse hover hints not updating/dismissing when moving from between cells/lines in a compare.
• Fixed error message when trying to register using a license key for an older version.

Settings

• Added full support for importing BC v4 settings.
• Windows: Updated first run to prompt to import v4 settings automatically.
• Improved behavior when settings files are from a older/newer version than is currently running.

Text Views

• Delete previous char/word at start of line below an orphan gap now deletes preceding line terminator.
• Delete next char/word in an orphan gap now moves to next line.

Crashes

• Linux: Fixed crash that would prevent the process from exiting when closing the last window.
• Fixed Folder Compare crash when using Actions > Quick Compare command.
• Fixed Text Compare/Merge crash after a vertical scroll.

5.0.0.29206 - March 28, 2024

Notable Changes

• Deleting in folder compare/sync will now use the recycle bin by default.
• Changed FTP/FTPS/SFTP server character encoding default from "Detect" to "UTF-8".
• macOS: Fixed setting last modified times when copying files to exFAT volumes.
• Windows: Fixed shell extension support for non-Explorer apps on Windows 10 and earlier.
• Various improvements to appearance, scaling, and stability.

Default Settings Changed

• Folder Compare and Sync sessions set "Use Recycle Bin if Possible" by default. This will affect existing sessions.
• Changed FTP/FTPS/SFTP profile "Server > Encoding" default from "Detect" to "UTF-8".

Appearance

• macOS/Linux: Fixed various edits showing black-on-black text in dark mode.
• macOS/Linux: Fixed right-aligned labels drawing past the edge of various dialogs.
• macOS/Linux: Fixed appearance of buttons in the Picture Compare, on the Text Compare Find panel, and the Text Compare gutter arrows.
• macOS/Linux: Fixed Options > File Manager Integration drawing in dark mode.
• Linux: Reverted fix for dark mode menu separators being difficult to see. Will be addressed again later.
• Linux: Fixed treeviews not displaying ▸ button to expand/collapse folders when using the hardcoded light/dark mode appearances.
• Windows: Fixed character encoding combobox (e.g., Text Compare > Session Settings > Format > Left encoding override) drawing the separator line in the edit area in dark mode.

Folder Compare

• macOS: Fixed setting last modified times when copying files to exFAT volumes.

FTP

• Changed FTP/FTPS/SFTP profile "Server > Encoding" default from "Detect" to "UTF-8".
• SSH public/private key generation in Profiles dialog now supports ed25519 and EcDSA keys and will generate ed25519 keys by default.
• Windows: Fixed misalignments when filenames included invalid character sequences.

High DPI Scaling

• Linux: Fixed trial mode nag dialog scaling.
• Improved scaling in Table Compare grid.
• Fixed overly large color spots in Folder Compare.
• Fixed size of resize hit area between column headers.

Installer

• Windows: Portable installs will now default to 64-bit versions on 64-bit Windows. Silent installs can use the /32 switch to force a 32-bit version.
• Linux: Fixed apt warning about missing i386 info in BC5 .deb repository after installing amd64 build.

Misc

• Windows: Fixed shell extension support for non-Explorer apps on Windows 10 and earlier.
• macOS: Fixed using [Spacebar] to click buttons.
• Linux: Updated readme's list of dependencies for Debian/Ubuntu and RedHat.
• Windows: Adjusted order of Explorer extension's commands so they're consistent across different selection types.
• Removed outdated pricing information from Help.

Table Compare

• Colored spots in column headers, row number cells, and sheet tabs are now only shown when there are differences to make them stand out more.

Crashes

• Fixed crash when expanding archive types that use the 7-zip libraries.
• macOS: Fixed Picture Compare crashes when opening ProRAW and DNG images.

5.0.0.28983 - February 21, 2024

Notable Changes

• File encoding auto-detection now matches against the entire file instead of just the first 64KB.
• Added protection against SSH Terrapin vulnerability.
• Linux: Enabled apt (.deb) and yum (.rpm) repositories for BC 5.
• Various other fixes and enhancements.

Appearance

• Linux: Fixed detection of system light/dark color scheme on Ubuntu and other distros that don't update the Qt5 theme.
• Linux: Made dark mode menu separators more visible.
• macOS/Linux: Improved visibility of Picture Compare labels and slider controls.
• Windows: Fixed scaled width of horizontal splitters in file views.

Archives

• macOS: Fixed 7-zip and various other archive types on M-series CPUs.
• Windows: Fixed reading/writing .bcss snapshots on systems where the system ANSI encoding is UTF-8.
• Windows: Fixed .cab archive extraction in 64-bit builds.
• Updated 7-zip library to 23.01 on all platforms.
• Windows: Updated UnRAR DLL to v6.24.
• macOS/Linux: Updated UnRAR library to 6.2.12.

File Views

• File encoding auto-detection now matches against the entire file instead of just the first 64KB.
• macOS/Linux: Fixed switching between over/under and side-by-side layouts hiding one of the panels.

FTP

• Updated SFTP/TLS/cloud storage library.
• Added protection against SSH Terrapin vulnerability.
• macOS: Fixed SFTP connection hang on M-series CPUs.

Installer

• macOS: Fixed Check for Updates failing if the Beyond Compare.app bundle was renamed.
• Linux: Enabled apt (.deb) and yum (.rpm) repositories for BC 5.
• Linux: Creating an empty /etc/default/bcompare file will prevent the .deb package from adding the Beyond Compare repository and public signing key to the system configuration.
• Linux: Uninstalling the .deb package will now remove the repository and public signing key configuration files if they were added automatically.

Misc

• Windows: Disabled path autocompletion for URLs that aren't supported.
• macOS: Removed ability to run on macOS 10.11 and 10.12.

Table Compare

• Updated Excel reading libraries.

Text Views

• macOS: Fixed gutter getting out of sync with main content area when scrolling.

Text Merge

• macOS/Linux: Fixed support for detached Output window.

5.0.0.28767 - January 9, 2024

Notable Changes

• General polish, bug fixes, and improved stability.

Appearance

• Fixed file view crosshatching for missing lines being too bright in dark mode.
• Improved appearance of the mini window thumbnails in Folder Compare confirmation dialogs.
• "Check for Updates" dialog now matches light/dark mode.
• macOS: Fixed path edit coloring in dark mode when a remote profile is loaded (e.g., SFTP, cloud).

Command Line

• Fixed scripting error dialogs closing immediately after being shown.

File Views

• macOS/Linux: Fixed file format conversion errors incorrectly reporting that the converter app isn't found.
• Drag & drop now opens on the correct side when dropping on editor scrollbar and statusbar areas.

Installer

• Windows: Fixed updates prompting to reboot or failing with an access denied error when BCClipboard is running.

Misc

• macOS: Added M-series native 'bcomp' executable.
• macOS: Fixed window jitter when resizing using the mouse at the top of the window.
• macOS: Fixed drag & drop always loading items on the left side of the view.
• Windows: Updated license in installer.

Text Edit

• Fixed unnecessary scrolling when editing.
• macOS: Fixed cases where scrolling was allowed past the end of the file.

Text Compare

• Fixed viewport position when changing display filters.
• Fixed "When loading new files, go to first difference" when both files begin with a large amount of matching lines.

Text Merge

• Fixed word wrap to wrap all input lines to the same height.
• Fixed support for "When loading new files, go to first difference" option.

Crashes

• Windows: Fixed Table Compare hang when editing a cell in dark mode.
• Fixed Text Compare/Merge crash when enabling word wrap while scrolled to the right.

5.0.0.28643 - December 11, 2023

Text Views

• Fixed scrollbar maximum calculations.
• Fixed excessive flicker and cases where changes weren't redrawing the display correctly.
• Fixed copying a gap to the other side leaving the caret at an odd position.
• macOS: - Fixed "### filtered lines" repeating past the end of a filtered display.

Crashes

• Fixed Text Merge crash when input files don't have a trailing line terminator.
• macOS/Linux: Fixed potential crashes in 64-bit builds.

5.0.0.28625 - December 7, 2023

Text Views

• Fixed "Next/Previous Edit" jumping to the wrong location.

Crashes

• Fixed Text Compare crash when refreshing if the comparison is scrolled and there's a selection.
• macOS: Fixed crash when clicking/hovering over column headers.
• macOS: Fixed crash when clicking the toolbar Session dropdown.

5.0.0.28589 - November 29, 2023

Appearance

• Fixed gutter selection arrows in light mode so they're correctly colored instead of white.
• Windows: Fixed scaled width of vertical splitters in file views.
• Linux: Fixed column headers being too short.

Explorer Context Menu

• Windows 11: Context menu is now only installed using the embedded .msix file.
• Windows 11: Top level context menu now supports drive letters.
• Windows 11: Fixed support for \netshare and media devices
• Other minor polish and improvements.

File Views

• Added Ctrl + / ⌘+ and Ctrl - / ⌘- keyboard shortcuts for "Display Font Increase/Decrease" and Picture Compare "Zoom In/Out".

Misc

• macOS: Improved handling of mouse cursors.
• macOS: Improved various issues on secondary monitors.

Settings

• macOS: Fixed assigning shortcuts that involve the [+] key.

Text Views

• macOS: Fixed blurry text on macOS 14 Sonoma.
• macOS: Fixed Line Details showing incorrect lines when navigating in the main editor.
• Linux: Fixed gutter width when line numbers are hidden.
• Fixed line details scrollbar not updating correctly.
• Fixed scrolling horizontally when using the mouse to drag and select text.
• Fixed changing display filters leaving the editors scrolled too far.

Text Compare

• Fixed Find Next and Next Difference so matching lines outside the current viewport scrolls enough to show the match near the top of the view.

Crashes

• Fixed Text Compare crash when enabling word wrap.
• Fixed Table Compare crash when closing.
• macOS: Fixed crash in caret handling after closing a file compare.
• macOS: Fixed crash when opening Preferences on macOS 10.13.

5.0.0.28324 - September 15, 2023

Notable Changes

• macOS: Fixed various cases where the editor would display incorrect data or scrolling artifacts.
• After a search the matched text now flashes brighter to make it easier to see, before switching back to the normal selection color.
• Fixed hex compare incorrectly marking some single byte matches as differences.
• General improvements to stability, high DPI support, and dark mode appearance.

Per Monitor Scaling

• Windows: Icons and images will be now sized correctly for all monitor scaling factors rather than only using prescaled images at fixed sizes.
• Windows: Fixed modal dialogs on non-primary monitors with different scaling factors not disabling their parent window and not taking focus when they're first shown.

Appearance

• Adjusted dark mode color scheme to make it more readable and improve contrast.
• Increased dark mode saturation and contrast of dynamically recolored icons. Folder "Older" and "Exact" coloring are much more different now, more closely matching their text colors, and Newer/Orphan coloring is less washed out. Icons can be closer to pure white.
• Changed unfocused selection color to gray and added ability to customize it.
• Dark mode default color for the folder compare log is now based on the active theme rather than using hardcoded colors.
• Windows: File "Open" and "Save As" dialogs and folder "Open" dialog now follow system dark mode and support per-monitor DPI scaling better.
• Windows: Made it more obvious when menu items are checked in dark mode.
• Windows: Fixed white flash when first opening a dark window.
• Linux: Fixed Options dialog's side panel coloring when using a dark system theme.

File Views

• After a search the matched text now flashes brighter to make it easier to see, before switching back to the normal selection color.
• The "current" editor now uses the active selection color even if it doesn't have focus (e.g., when focus is in the "Find Text" panel).
• Windows: Fixed using Ctrl+Shift+Mouse Wheel to change viewer font size.
• Windows: Using Ctrl+Shift+Mouse Wheel to change viewer font size now forces an immediate repaint to smooth out the zoom.
• macOS: Fixed comparison results icon not showing in the status bar.

Hex Compare

• Fixed single byte matches being incorrectly marked as differences.

Misc

• Appearance > Theme Mode is now Imported/Exported/Reverted to Defaults as part of the "Colors, Fonts" settings rather than "Program Options".
• Updated pdftotext to 4.04.
• macOS: Fixed mouse wheel scrolling the entire viewer when the cursor was over the titlebar, toolbar, or status bar.
• macOS: Fixed dragging viewer windows when clicking on the window caption.
• macOS: Fixed double clicking on the titlebar to maximize/restore a viewer window.
• Windows: Fixed "Import Settings"/"Restore Factory Defaults" not showing the "Delete existing..." checkboxes, and the Source Control integration file operation dialog not showing the "Keep files checked out" checkbox.
• Windows: Fixed some flicker when first showing a maximized window.

Options

• Windows: Fixed "Explorer Integration" saying it's a portable install if BC was installed and registered by an administrator and then run by a limited user.
• Windows: Fixed "Apply" button not enabling when toggling commands in the "Explorer Integration" table.

Text Views

• When changing display filters, making edits, etc, the text editor now preserves the top line instead of trying to maintain the "current" line's position in the view.
• Fixed graphical glitches when changing the current line.
• Fixed caret not showing immediately when opening a new compare/editor view.
• Fixed "# Filtered Lines" bars scaling too large, and not resizing when moving between monitors with different DPIs.
• macOS: Fixed various cases where the editor would display incorrect data or scrolling artifacts.
• macOS: Fixed selection color not dimming when window loses focus.

Crashes

• Fixed crash when clicking in text compare after loading binary data.
• Fixed crashes when changing between light and dark themes.

5.0.0.28069 - June 29, 2023

Significant New Features

• Word wrap in Text Compare and Text Merge.
• Dark mode.
• Table Compare can compare multiple Excel sheets and has other enhancements.
• Text Merge manual alignment supports multi-line selections.
• Windows: Per-monitor DPI scaling.
• Windows: Explorer context menu integration enhanced and supports Windows 11.
• Linux: Upgraded to QT 5.
• macOS: Native Apple M series support and additional performance improvements.

Additional Enhancements

• Version Compare supports more header fields, and has better MUI and error handling.
• Media Compare (formerly MP3 compare) has been enhanced and supports additional file types (FLAC, MP3, MP4/AAC).
• Media Compare, Picture Compare, and Version Compare now launch Hex or Picture Compare when double clicking on tags.
• "Open Clipboard" command added to Registry Compare, Media Compare, Version Compare, and Text Edit.
• SSH keyboard interactive authentication now combines multiple prompts into a single dialog.
• Command line now supports using /fv="Hex Compare" for archive files.
• Fixed reading BC scripts saved as UTF-8 without a byte order mark.
• Mouse wheel scrolls the control under the mouse cursor rather than the one that has focus.
• Windows/Linux: Titlebars now show "Administrator:" or "(Root Session)" when run elevated.
• Windows: Loading a base folder that contains a Windows shortcut file named "target.lnk" will no longer automatically redirect to the target of that shortcut.
• Windows: Fixed various issues with control and menu appearance on Windows 11.
• macOS: Copies within a single file system now make linked copy-on-write clones, so the file data isn't duplicated until one of them changes.

Default Settings Changed

• Table Compare default comparisons have been significantly improved. Existing sessions won't yet import.
• Windows: File views now assume UTF-8 instead of ANSI encoding for files unless it detects extended characters.
• FTP/FTPS/SFTP use binary transfers for all files instead of doing ASCII ones for some file types. The previous "Auto" behavior still exists as an option.
• Windows: "Tools > Source Control" dialog (MSSCCI integration) is now hidden by default since most version control systems no longer support it. It can be manually re-enabled in "Options > Toolbars, etc".
• Increased "Binary size for binary compare" from 65KB to 4MB.
• "Limit next difference files to current folder" is now off by default.
• Added "Ignore Same", "Favor Left", and "Favor Right" buttons to Text Merge toolbar.
• Removed Text Compare "Full Edit" toggle. Full editing support is always enabled.

Table Compare

• Autodetection of file formatting and column type has been improved.
• Multiple MS Excel sheets and multiple HTML tables can be compared with tabs. Sheets will be aligned based on their names.
• Default comparison uses a standard alignment rather than a sorted one.
• Individual cells are colored based on their differences.
• CSV files support editing on a cell-by-cell basis.
• Existing v4 sessions will not import yet.

Windows Explorer context menu extension

• Works in the top-level menu in Windows 11.
• Added "Compare Using Hex Compare" for archive files.
• Added support for right clicking on the desktop or in the background of a folder view to act on that folder.
• Using "Select Left File" and then right clicking on a folder now supports comparing a file of the same name within that folder.
• "Edit" command is now enabled for a selection of up to 15 files.
• Added "View Patch", "Compare to Clipboard", and "Open for Compare" commands.

Windows Installer

• Added /DisableUpdates switch to disable check for updates for the current user or all users.
• Install mode prompt (All Users, Current User, Portable) is now shown before the UAC prompt, so it no longer needs admin privileges for non-admin installs.
• "All Users" installs no longer prompt to run the Clipboard Compare on startup. Previously this only affected the installing user.

Picture Compare

• Mouse now uses a precise + cursor when over images and the two images that the mouse isn't over show smaller cursors in the same relative positions.
• Mouse wheel scrolls the view rather than zooming. Shift+Wheel will scroll horizontally and Ctrl+Wheel will zoom in and out.