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120 articles found
Accessing files on a Phone or Media Player

Beyond Compare 4 for Windows can access files and folders on Apple iPhones, Android phones and tablets, Windows Phone devices, and some media players using the Media Transfer Protocol (MTP).  ...

Additional File Formats for BC3

Users can share File Formats by exporting and importing them. If you develop a File Format you wish to share, please send it to us. Also include any example files that should use your File Format

Additional File Formats for BC4

Users can share File Formats by exporting and importing them. If you develop a File Format you wish to share, please send it to us. Also include any example files that should use your File Format

Additional File Viewer Rules for Beyond Compare 2

As of version 2.1, Beyond Compare users can share File Viewer Rules by exporting and importing them.  Here are some File Viewer Rules that you may find useful.  If you develop others, let ...

Alternate Color Schemes

You can easily share color schemes by exporting and importing them.  If you develop a color scheme you wish to share here, please send it to us. How To Change Your Color Scheme Warning:&...

Alternate Installers for Windows

Alternate Beyond Compare downloads including MSI installer and ZIP archived executable

Amazon S3

Beyond Compare 4 Pro includes support for Amazon S3. Creating an Amazon S3 Profile Open Tools | Profiles (Windows, Linux) or Beyond Compare | Profiles (macOS). Click +. Select Amazon S3 ...

Anti-Virus Reports Beyond Compare has a Virus

If your virus scanner reports a copy of Beyond Compare downloaded from this web site is infected with a virus, it is a false positive. We scan every release of Beyond Compare using the scanning ...

Archive Attribute

The Archive attribute is one of the original DOS file attribute flags (along with Hidden, System and Read-only). The Archive attribute is set whenever a file changes (needs to be backed up), and ...

Archive Types

Archives are files that contain other files, such as .zip.  Beyond Compare displays them as folders, with a zipper icon, but by default treats them as files when copying or comparing them.  ...

Automating a Synchronization

How can Beyond Compare be used for automated synchronization?  The first step is creating a script text file (*.txt).  Beyond Compare's help file includes specifics about creating scripts ...

Beyond Compare 2 Says "Nothing to Do!"

When synchronizing files using the Synchronize to Left or Synchronize to Right commands, the Synchronize Preview dialog says "Nothing to Do!". The default synchronize command copies newer and ...

Beyond Compare Mac 4.2.10

Version:  4.2.10, build 23938, released May 28, 2019 macOS Download   18731kb Standard and Pro Editions Supports macOS 10.6-10.14 Included localizations: English ...

Changing the Date/Time Format

You can configure your system's Locale time in order to update the way Beyond Compare 4 displays timestamps. Windows Go to your Control Panel and select your Regional and Language settings. ...

Changing the Default Settings

When editing Session Settings from within any session type, you can change the drop-down at the bottom of the dialog to Update session defaults. You can also edit default session settings directly ...

Character Encoding of File Differences Reports

Beyond Compare's File Differences Report command generates report files (plain text) in the same character encoding as the left side file. For example, if the left side file is ANSI, the report ...

Command Line Tools on macOS

"I would like to use Beyond Compare with my Version Control System."  or "I tried to use the Beyond Compare menu to Install Command Line Tools but it failed." Beyond Compare requires an ...

Common Solutions to FTP Problems

We update FTP support in Beyond Compare frequently.  Make sure you have the latest version available from our Download page.  You don't need to uninstall the old version first, run the ...

Compare NTFS Security Descriptors

Beyond Compare's Folder Compare cannot compare NTFS security descriptors (permissions).  As a workaround, export the permissions of each folder as text files using Microsoft's icacls tool, then...

Compare Registry Settings

Versions 3.2 and later include a Registry Compare session type.  For either side of the comparison, you can select: Your live registry The registry on a remote computer A .reg export file...

Comparing Files with Different Names

Right-click on the first file and pick Compare To... from the popup menu.  Then click on the second file.  They can be on the same side or different sides in the Folder Compare. Or, ...

Comparing multiple sheet Excel files

"I was comparing my Excel files in BC but it is only showing one sheet.  I want to compare all of the sheets in my Excel .XLS or .XLSX file" By default the Table Compare session type is used ...

Comparison Status Changes After Viewing Files

"I was comparing source code for two versions of our product.  I found one file that shows in tree view as different.  When I double click to compare them, it shows no difference.  ...

Copying Files Fails With "Parameter Is Incorrect"

When copying, moving, or synchronizing files, Beyond Compare gives the error message "The parameter is incorrect". This error is usually displayed when copying a file larger than 4 GB in size to ...

Copying Folder Structure

The following instructions will copy a folder structure from left to right (or right to left) without copying any of the files in the folders. BC version 4 This technique uses the Show None command...

Copying NTFS Security Descriptors

Beyond Compare 4, 3, 2.3 or newer Windows 2000 or better Domain Administrator or Local Administrator rights Description Beyond Compare provides an option to copy NTFS security descriptors. ...

CRC Comparison

A CRC is a 4-byte mathematical checksum of a file's contents.  If a pair of files have different CRCs, then you can be sure their contents are different.  If they have matching CRCs, then ...

Creating ZIP Files from Folder Compare

Beyond Compare has the ability to create ZIP files from files and folders in a Folder Compare session. To create a ZIP file: Start a Folder Compare session with at least one base folder loaded...

Daylight Savings Time 2007

Starting in 2007, Daylight Savings Time (DST) starts 3 weeks earlier than it used to.  Beyond Compare is not affected by this change.  No software updates are required for the DST 2007 ...

Daylight Savings Time

Under WinNT/2000/XP (and some other platforms) file timestamps are stored in "file time" and translated to local "system time" by a formula based on the system's timezone, and ...

Define Unimportant Text in Beyond Compare

support.php?zz=video&videotag=rvBwPHZhAtA" target="_blank">Defining Unimportant Text (3:58) bobjones/HowToDefineUnimportantText/Index.html" target="_blank">2:27 video by user Bob Jones --> To ...

Deleted File Recovery

Beyond Compare does not provide an undo command for file operations (Copy, Move, Delete, etc) in the Folder Compare or Folder Sync.  There are several options to recover files accidentally ...

Displaying BC for Linux Remotely

Displaying BC for Linux remotely requires an X-Window client.  BC will not run remotely via SSH unless an X-Window client is running on the local computer. Running Remotely using MobaXterm on...

Dot/Hidden Files on Unix FTP sites

Unix/Linux systems hide files (dot files) beginning with a period, such as .htaccess, or .profile. To display hidden files...

Dropbox

Beyond Compare 4 Pro includes support for Dropbox. Creating a Dropbox Profile Open Tools | Profiles (Windows, Linux) or Beyond Compare | Profiles (macOS). Click +. Select Dropbox Profile. ...

Enabling Network Registry Comparison

Windows default security configuration disables networked registry comparison.  The following steps will enable networked registry comparison of a Windows 7 PC...

End of Life / End of Version Support

When a new major version of Beyond Compare is released, software updates to the prior version of Beyond Compare will no longer be released.  If a critical bug is found in the previous version ...

Error 1009 - The Configuration Registry Database is Corrupt

On systems running Windows NT 4, Beyond Compare can display the error message "Error 1009, The configuration registry database is corrupt".  When Beyond Compare starts up, it reads a value from ...

Evaluate Pro when Licensed for Standard

If you are licensed for Beyond Compare Standard Edition but you want to evaluate Pro Edition features, you can place BC back into trial mode. To restore trial mode, close Beyond Compare, then ...

Explorer Shell Extension

The shell extension adds Beyond Compare to the Windows Explorer's right-click menu.  Then, from any Explorer window, you can select the files or folders and launch Beyond Compare to compare them...

Export Classification (ECCN)

The country of origin of Beyond Compare is USA.  Beyond Compare is eligible for export to all countries, except for Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria. Current Version The ECCN ...

External Conversion Rules

Beyond Compare is limited to comparison of plain text files.  To compare binary files, or to format files before comparison, Beyond Compare can call an external program to generate a temporary ...

File Save Blocked by Kaspersky Internet Security 2011

Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 can prevent Beyond Compare from saving changes to files in the Text Compare.  When you save, it will fail with the error message "Unable to remove the file to be...

Files are Different after Uploading to an FTP Site

There are two common reasons why files will be different immediately after uploading them: File Size No Longer Matches Text files (HTML, source code, etc) can be stored in a slightly different ...

Files are the Same, but Beyond Compare Says They are Different

If two text files look the same but show differences, it's likely there are differences in line endings.  When line endings are different, a binary comparison will show a mismatch even ...

Filters are Ignored by Copy, Delete, Move

Copy, Delete and Move commands affect all files in a folder, even those that have been filtered out of the display using View | Display Filters or Session | File Filters. If you select a folder, ...

Fix "The package is of bad quality" error in Ubuntu 11.04

The latest release of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhale includes a new method of package installation: Ubuntu Software Center.  This package installer treats a greater range of warnings as errors and ...

Help File Gives Action Canceled Error

Opening Beyond Compare's help file can give the error message "Action canceled" when Beyond Compare is installed on a network drive. This error message shows up after installing Security Update ...

How Licensing Works

We offer Per-User, Unlimited Site, and Enterprise licenses.  All licenses are perpetual. ">Beyond Compare License Agreement Per-user License Each licensed user may utilize Beyond ...

How to Make a Beyond Compare Install Disk

Follow these steps to burn a DVD or CD-R containing the Beyond Compare setup program and your license key: Create a folder to hold the DVD or CD image Download the program from our download ...

HTML Help Engine

The help resource in Beyond Compare requires Microsoft's HTML Help Engine.  This is built into Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista and later.  If you are running Windows 95 or NT4 and have trouble...

IBM iSeries AS/400 Character Encoding

When viewing files on an AS/400 via a Remote Share (\\sharename\folder\file), you may need to manually specify the character encoding.  To specify the character encoding, create a new File ...

Installing an Upgrade

Under Windows, each major version of Beyond Compare installs separately.  You can, for instance, install or uninstall version 4 without affecting a version 3 installation.  An exception ...

IPv6

IPv6 is supported in Beyond Compare 4.1 or newer.  Earlier versions of Beyond Compare only support IPv4...

Leap Day 2016 Crash

Due to a bug in leap year calculations, attempting to use Beyond Compare 4's cloud profiles (Amazon S3, Microsoft OneDrive, and WebDAV/web folders) on February 29th 2016 will not work and will cause a...

LICENSE AGREEMENT (V3)

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using Beyond Compare 3 (the "Software").  Unless you have a different license agreement signed by Scooter Software, your use ...

LICENSE AGREEMENT (V4)

You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using Beyond Compare 4 (the "Software").  Unless you have a different license agreement signed by Scooter Software, your use ...

Linux Context Menu Does Not Appear

If the Linux Context Menu does not appear in the right-click menu on a file or folder, please follow this troubleshooting guide. First, please be sure that the most recent version of Beyond ...

Linux Distribution Compatibility

Beyond Compare does not run as a console application on Linux.  It requires the X window system. Compatible Linux distributions Distributions supported with default desktop environment unless ...

Linux Installation Instructions

Beyond Compare 4.1 and newer require matching package and OS architecture (amd64.deb or i386.deb).  Beyond Compare 3 - 4.0.7 require the i386.deb package on all supported versions of Debian and ...

Linux Run as Root/Sudo Blank Window

Run Beyond Compare 4 for Linux as root using su or sudo.  Beyond Compare window contents are blank. Solution Modify Beyond Compare's launcher script to run using Qt 4 native rendering mode...

Linux Snap Package Errors

Newer versions of Ubuntu Linux include support for snaps, containerized software packages that are an alternative to traditional Debian (.deb) packages.  Snap packages are isolated from the ...

Loading a Subversion Repository as a Folder

Beyond Compare 4 Pro includes support for loading a Subversion repository as a folder. Subversion repository support requires the Subversion command line tools.  On Windows or Mac, download ...

Location of Beyond Compare 2's Program Folder

In all 2.x releases of Beyond Compare, the location of Beyond Compare's program folder is listed in the following Windows registry value: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\...

Log4J

Beyond Compare does not use the Log4j library. Beyond Compare is not affected by CVE-2021-44228, CVE-2021-45046, or CVE-2021-45105. Scooter Software's IT systems are secured against Log4j ...

macOS Sierra 10.12 compatibility issues

Beyond Compare 4.1.0 - 4.1.8 have a known compatibility issue with macOS Sierra (10.12). Unable to authenticate to (Profile): Failed to open keychain due to Apple Security Framework error:  The...

macOS

Beyond Compare 4 runs on Macintosh computers, under macOS 10.11 El Capitan and up. Settings Location Beyond Compare 4 on Mac stores settings in:   /Users/username/Library/Application Support/...

Making Same Change to Similar Files

"I am maintaining basically the same code on different platforms.  How do I apply changes made on one platform to the other, ignoring platform differences?" The Favor Left/Right feature in a ...

Manual Linux Context Menu Install Instructions

If the Linux Context Menu does not appear in the right-click menu on a file or folder, please first refer to our ">troubleshooting guide. As a general approach, check your Distro's expected Shell...

Max File Size and Number of Files (V2)

The capacity of Beyond Compare is limited by per-file memory overhead.  We've successfully compared up to 700,000 files, and we've had reports of failure on a few million or more files. Local ...

Max File Size, Number of Files, Line Length (V3, V4)

Beyond Compare 64-bit: The number of files will scale with memory available. Beyond Compare 32-bit on 64-bit Windows: 5 million files on each side. 32-bit Windows: 2.5 million files on each side...

Maximum Path Length

The maximum path length supported in tar archives is 100 characters...

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook locks the PST files that contain your messages.  One possible error message is "Outlook.pst will not backup as: the process cannot access the file because another process has ...

Moved Text is Considered Important

Beyond Compare performs alignment line by line and considers order to be important to the comparison.  If text has "moved" from one area of the file to another, then it will be considered an ...

MS Word DOC, Excel XLS, and Adobe Acrobat PDF

By default, Beyond Compare 3 and 4 support a read-only comparison of Word, Excel, and PDF files. Text Compare Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF files are converted to plain text and compared in a Text ...

My Whole File is Different

A common occurrence is to find that an entire file is marked as different, even if the text looks identical.  Another is to find that the entire file from a certain point onwards is marked as ...

Network Setup

Follow these steps to distribute a registered Beyond Compare to users on your network: BC version 3 or 4 Place a copy of the Beyond Compare setup program (eg. BCompareSetup.exe) on your network...

OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive support requires Beyond Compare 4.1 Pro or newer for Windows or Beyond Compare 4.3 Pro or newer for Mac.  Beyond Compare for Linux does not support Microsoft OneDrive. ...

Open With Examples

Beyond Compare allows the user to launch a file's associated application from the Folder Compare by selecting the file, then selecting the Explorer submenu from either the right-click menu, or the ...

Patch Files

Beyond Compare allows you to generate a Unix-style patch file of content differences.  Once you have a patch file, you can distribute it and use either Beyond Compare or a patch utility to ...

Perforce Helix SCC Support

Beyond Compare for Windows, Pro Edition uses the Microsoft SCC API for check-in, check-out, and version control status.  Newer versions of Perforce Visual Client (P4V) don't include SCC support...

Privacy Statement

Scooter Software is committed to protecting your privacy.  We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others.  Our website is structured so that you can visit and download...

Problems Opening Archive Files

There are several incompatible types of files that use the .CAB extension.  Beyond Compare only supports the Microsoft Cabinet format, and will not be able to open the other types. A related ...

Read Only Archives Not Supported

Beyond Compare gives the error message "Modifying read-only archives is not supported". Beyond Compare gives this message when something has corrupted its executable.  The solution is to ...

Return Policy

Scooter Software offers a 30-day fully functional trial of Beyond Compare for customers to have adequate opportunity to assess its value prior to purchase.  Please use the trial period to ensure...

Running Beyond Compare from Removeable Media

It is possible to run Beyond Compare from a USB drive (thumb drive), CD/DVD, or other removeable media. BC Version 3 or 4, Windows only Installing Beyond Compare on a USB flash drive ...

SCC Version Control Integration

Beyond Compare for Windows, Pro Edition can integrate with most version control systems using the SCC API.  It provides "Check in", "Check out" and "Undo Checkout" commands in the Text Compare, ...

Scripting Reference

See the Scripting Reference topic in Beyond Compare's help file for a full list of scripting commands. Here is a link to the current version's online copy: v4help/index.html?scripting_reference....

Section 508 Compliance

We have reviewed Section 508 and are confident that our Beyond Compare software product is in compliance.  In particular, Beyond Compare conforms to all items under § 1194.21 "Software ...

Security and Validation FAQ

Beyond Compare is retail, off-the-shelf client software for file and folder comparison and synchronization. It is not a hosted, cloud, or software as a service (SaaS) product. What are Beyond ...

Security: Windows Installer Elevation of Privilege Breakout (CVE-2022-36414)

Issue Date: 2022-07-20 Affected Versions: 4.2.0 - 4.4.2 Vulnerability CVE-2022-36414 is an elevation of privilege breakout vulnerability in the Windows EXE installer for Beyond Compare 4.2.0 ...

Security: Windows Uninstaller DLL Hijack (CVE-2022-36415)

Issue Date: 2022-07-20 Affected Versions: 1.8a - 4.4.2 Vulnerability CVE-2022-36415 is a DLL hijacking vulnerability in the uninstaller for Beyond Compare 1.8a through 4.4.2 when installed with ...

Serious problem with Linux release 3.1.11.12204

The uninstall script (uninstall.sh) included with Beyond Compare's v3.1.11.12204 .tar.gz Linux package has a serious error.  Do not use it! When run it will remove the install directory's ...

Settings Location and Transfering Settings

Beyond Compare stores user preferences, rules, and sessions.  These settings can be shared with multiple users and multiple machines.  In the Tools menu, choose Export Settings to save all...

SFTP Private Key Authentication

Beyond Compare 3 or 4 Pro allow you to authenticate an SFTP connection using a private key file instead of a password. Generate Private Key on Linux Server - BC 4.4 or Newer ssh-keygen -t ...

SFTP Private Key Compatibility

The default private key format used by OpenSSH 7.8+ is not compatible with Beyond Compare 4.3.7 or older. Error SFTP connections using an OpenSSH format key fail with the errors: No more ...

Sneakernet: Synchronize Using Removeable Media

Sneakernet is a nickname for synchronizing two computers by carrying changed files on removeable media between systems.  This example will cover synchronizing a work computer and a home ...

Sort Order of File and Folder Names

Beyond Compare follows Windows Explorer's sort order for file and folder names.  Windows XP and newer sort filenames by numeric value.  Windows 2000 and older sort filenames as text, not as ...

Standard vs. Pro

The Standard Edition of Beyond Compare is a powerful, full-featured comparison tool.  The Pro Edition includes all the Standard features and adds these: Text Merge Two- and three-way ...

Subversion and 3rd Party SCC Support

Beyond Compare for Windows, Pro Edition can integrate with most version control systems using the SCC API.  It adds Check in, Check out and Undo Checkout commands in the file viewer, plus a ...

System Error 5 Access Denied

When copying, moving, or synchronizing files, Beyond Compare gives the message, "System Error 5. Access Denied". This error typically shows up when copying files from a local or network drive ...

System Requirements for Beyond Compare

Intel processor; 1 GHz or faster recommended 1 GB RAM; additional memory recommended for large comparisons 50 MB of available hard drive space 1024 x 768 display resolution * * Using a higher ...

System Requirements for Scooter Software's Online Shop

Scooter Software's online shop and other secure (HTTPS) portions of our website require TLS v1.2 encryption.  SSLv2, SSLv3, TLS 1.0, and TLS 1.1 are not supported.  Javascript must also be...

Team Foundation Server Not Listed in Source Control Integration Dialog

Beyond Compare for Windows, Pro Edition will list installed Microsoft SCC providers in the Source Control Integration dialog when you add a working directory.  If you have Microsoft Team ...

Temp Files

Beyond Compare uses temporary files for expansion of archive (zip) files and for content comparison (CRC, Binary, Rules-based) of files on FTP, FTPS, SFTP, and cloud storage servers. Windows ...

Tips for Using BC for Linux

Beyond Compare for Linux requires X-window.  If you attempt to run BC for Linux in a console or SSH terminal without an X-window client, it will not run (including scripts). Improve ...

Tweaks

Beyond Compare "Tweaks" are hidden options.  They may be features that we are experimenting with and not yet officially implemented.  Or, they address rather obscure needs, and we don't ...

Unicode/International Filenames Display as ????

If the Windows Regional and Language Options do not match the language of your filenames, they will display with ??? characters. Beyond Compare 2 only supports ANSI file names, not Unicode names...

Using Beyond Compare 2 over SFTP

Beyond Compare 2 supports FTP natively, but does not support the more secure SFTP (FTP over SSH) protocol.  By using the ExpanDrive, Tunnelier, or MindTerm SSH clients it is possible for Beyond ...

Using Beyond Compare from SQL Examiner

TulaSoft SQL Examiner allows you to launch Beyond Compare as an external comparison tool. To configure Beyond Compare as an external tool: Select Tools | Options from the menu. Select "...

Using Beyond Compare with Dreamweaver

Beyond Compare can be used as an external comparison utility in Adobe Dreamweaver on Windows and Mac...

Using Beyond Compare with EditPlus

You can configure the popular EditPlus text editor to send a pair of open files to Beyond Compare for comparison: In EditPlus, select Tools | Configure User Tools. Click Add Tool >> and ...

Using Beyond Compare with TextPipe Pro

Beyond Compare can be configured as the external difference utility in TextPipe Pro. To configure Beyond Compare as a diff tool, run TextPipe Pro, then select Preferences from the Edit menu. ...

Using Beyond Compare with Total Commander

You can configure the popular Total Commander file manager to send a pair of files or folders to Beyond Compare for comparison: In a text editor, open:  C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\...

Using Beyond Compare with Version Control Systems (macOS)

Beyond Compare can be configured as the external difference utility in many popular VCS applications.  The following are configuration instructions submitted by our users.  Let us know if ...

Using Beyond Compare with Version Control Systems

For macOS, ">see this article. Beyond Compare can be configured as the external difference utility in many popular VCS applications.  The following are configuration instructions for specific ...

Using Custom Style Sheets in HTML reports

Beyond Compare allows you to customize HTML reports using custom style sheets. Here are some sample style sheets that you can modify for your needs...

WebDAV

Beyond Compare 4 Pro includes support for loading a WebDAV server as a folder.  Servers or services that support WebDAV include Microsoft Sharepoint (on-premise/standalone) and Box.  ...

Windows Platform Compatibility

No brief

Year 2000 Compliance

All versions of Beyond Compare from version 2 on are Y2K compliant.  Beyond Compare does not process or store years as two digit numbers, and it has no need to recognize leap years.  It ...

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