Knowledgebase Articles

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).  ...

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

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

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 ...

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 Beyond Compare downloads including MSI installer and ZIP archived executable

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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.  ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

"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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

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, ...

"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 ...

"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.  ...

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 ...

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...

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. ...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 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...

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

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. ...

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

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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\...

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 ...

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...

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/...

"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 ...

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...

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 ...

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...

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

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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, ...

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....

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 "...

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

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 ...

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. ...

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\...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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.  ...

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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 ...