Click Browse to select which folder you want to compare. Use the browse feature to select a folder that you want to compare. To select a folder, click “Browse…” on the far right just under the “1 st File or Folder” bar. You can install WinMerge for free from their website here. This guide will walk you through installing and using WinMerge to compare the files in two folders. You can see if there are any missing files or if any of the backed-up files are different from the originals. WinMerge is a tool that allows you to compare the contents of two directories. Next to Compare, you have options to copy files from left to right side and vice versa, and to sync both folders. You will then need to click ‘Compare’ to find the missing files in the listed folders. In order to enable this feature simply launch the application and specify both source (backup) and target folder path. If you want to compare files in those folders recursively, enable the Include subdirectories checkbox. In the Select Directories dialog box, type the two folder names that you want to compare in the Dir1 and Dir2 boxes.

On the File menu, click Compare Directories. As mentioned before, these are just some of the free tools available out there, not an exhaustive list. To synchronize the two folders, in the compare window, select the files you want to copy, then click on the checkbox between the columns and click Synchronize. Compare two folders and copy missing files If the folder(s) contain subfolders, you'll see the date each was last edited beside its name. This displays more information about each file and subfolder, including the type of file (e.g. The files that are currently selected in the source panel will also be selected in the target panel if they exist. Will select only files/folders that exist in both panels. Will find files/folder that exist in both panels and select only the newest of them. You just don't need actually to synchronise the files between the folders, but you will get a useful comparison result.Ĭompare Folders, Select Newest. Have you tried the Synchronise Folders command? It would compare the contents of the folder, including subfolders (if you wish), comparing files by contents, ignoring timestamp differences, etc.

Total Commander compare folders and subfolders

How to use winmerge to merge subfolders