WinDiff

Last updated
WinDiff
Developer(s) Microsoft
Initial release1992;31 years ago (1992)
Stable release
6.1.7716.0 / May 14, 2010;13 years ago (2010-05-14)
Operating system Microsoft Windows
Type File comparison tool
License Proprietary commercial software

WinDiff is a graphical file comparison program published by Microsoft, distributed with Microsoft Windows Support Tools, [1] [2] certain versions of Microsoft Visual Studio, and as source-code with the Platform SDK code samples. WinDiff was included in the Windows SDK (previously known as the Resource Kit, later Platform SDK) since 1992 [3] until Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 (a.k.a. Windows SDK 7.1). Because portions of the Windows SDK were shipped in Visual Studio, WinDiff was also included in Visual Studio until Visual Studio 2010. WinDiff was removed from the Windows 8 SDK and therefore is not included in Visual Studio 2012 or any later version. [4] A number of unofficial standalone uploads of the program remain available.

Contents

Versions

Signing DateFile VersionSHA-256 of the 64-bit exeSource
2008-01-166.0.6001.17131a7687e7be3c515337bddb5cf92b7e04830389be5dc589e0b78cdda1e9bc91ac1 Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 (link is broken, download not available)
2010-03-196.1.7600.16385436e714aa0eeee953329d5774b3ed24f0eee121e2ea9a6fae19847cfb58635feVisual Studio 2010 (?)
2010-05-146.1.7716.0deded18de43c248df3a80713bf010030285aea6a38a39e0ce5edfe3e9ed788b3 Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4

See also

Related Research Articles

An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source-code editor, build automation tools, and a debugger. Some IDEs, such as NetBeans, JDoodle and Eclipse, contain the necessary compiler, interpreter, or both; others, such as SharpDevelop and Lazarus, do not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows API</span> Microsofts core set of application programming interfaces on Windows

The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. The name Windows API collectively refers to several different platform implementations that are often referred to by their own names. Almost all Windows programs interact with the Windows API. On the Windows NT line of operating systems, a small number use the Native API.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Visual C++</span> Integrated development environment product by Microsoft

Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) is a compiler for the C, C++, C++/CLI and C++/CX programming languages by Microsoft. MSVC is proprietary software; it was originally a standalone product but later became a part of Visual Studio and made available in both trialware and freeware forms. It features tools for developing and debugging C++ code, especially code written for the Windows API, DirectX and .NET.

Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is a discontinued operating system family developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products.

Cabinet is an archive-file format for Microsoft Windows that supports lossless data compression and embedded digital certificates used for maintaining archive integrity. Cabinet files have .cab filename extensions and are recognized by their first four bytes MSCF. Cabinet files were known originally as Diamond files.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) consists of a set of extensions to the Windows Driver Model that provides an operating system interface through which instrumented components provide information and notification. WMI is Microsoft's implementation of the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Common Information Model (CIM) standards from the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF).

The Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) is an x86 assembler that uses the Intel syntax for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. Beginning with MASM 8.0, there are two versions of the assembler: One for 16-bit & 32-bit assembly sources, and another (ML64) for 64-bit sources only.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Installer</span> Software

Windows Installer is a software component and application programming interface (API) of Microsoft Windows used for the installation, maintenance, and removal of software. The installation information, and optionally the files themselves, are packaged in installation packages, loosely relational databases structured as COM Structured Storages and commonly known as "MSI files", from their default filename extensions. The packages with the file extensions mst contain Windows Installer "Transformation Scripts", those with the msm extensions contain "Merge Modules" and the file extension pcp is used for "Patch Creation Properties". Windows Installer contains significant changes from its predecessor, Setup API. New features include a GUI framework and automatic generation of the uninstallation sequence. Windows Installer is positioned as an alternative to stand-alone executable installer frameworks such as older versions of InstallShield and NSIS.

Windows Services for UNIX (SFU) is a discontinued software package produced by Microsoft which provided a Unix environment on Windows NT and some of its immediate successor operating-systems.

Microsoft Compiled HTML Help is a Microsoft proprietary online help format, consisting of a collection of HTML pages, an index and other navigation tools. The files are compressed and deployed in a binary format with the extension .CHM, for Compiled HTML. The format is often used for software documentation.

Microsoft WinHelp is a proprietary format for online help files that can be displayed by the Microsoft Help browser winhelp.exe or winhlp32.exe. The file format is based on Rich Text Format (RTF). It remained a popular Help platform from Windows 3.0 through Windows XP. WinHelp was removed in Windows Vista purportedly to discourage software developers from using the obsolete format and encourage use of newer help formats. Support for WinHelp files would eventually be removed entirely in Windows 10.

Dependency Walker or depends.exe is a free program for Microsoft Windows used to list the imported and exported functions of a portable executable file. It also displays a recursive tree of all the dependencies of the executable file. Dependency Walker was included in Microsoft Visual Studio until Visual Studio 2005 and Windows XP SP2 support tools. The latest version v2.2.10011 is not available on dependencywalker.com website but is included in the Windows Driver Kit v10.

Microsoft Windows SDK, and its predecessors Platform SDK, and .NET Framework SDK, are software development kits (SDKs) from Microsoft that contain documentation, header files, libraries, samples and tools required to develop applications for Microsoft Windows and .NET Framework. Platform SDK specializes in developing applications for Windows 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003. .NET Framework SDK is dedicated to developing applications for .NET Framework 1.1 and .NET Framework 2.0. Windows SDK is the successor of the two and supports developing applications for Windows XP and later, as well as .NET Framework 3.0 and later.

This article compares computer software tools which are used for accomplishing comparisons of files of various types. The file types addressed by individual file comparison apps varies, but may include text, symbols, images, audio, or video. This category of software tool is often called "file comparison" or "diff tool", but those effectively are equivalent terms — where the term "diff" is more commonly associated with the Unix diff utility.

The Microsoft Windows operating system supports a form of shared libraries known as "dynamic-link libraries", which are code libraries that can be used by multiple processes while only one copy is loaded into memory. This article provides an overview of the core libraries that are included with every modern Windows installation, on top of which most Windows applications are built.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual Basic (classic)</span> Event-driven programming language

The original Visual Basic is a third-generation event-driven programming language from Microsoft known for its Component Object Model (COM) programming model first released in 1991 and declared legacy during 2008. Microsoft intended Visual Basic to be relatively easy to learn and use. Visual Basic was derived from BASIC and enables the rapid application development (RAD) of graphical user interface (GUI) applications, access to databases using Data Access Objects, Remote Data Objects, or ActiveX Data Objects, and creation of ActiveX controls and objects.

Sandcastle is a documentation generator from Microsoft. It automatically produces MSDN-style code documentation out of reflection information of .NET assemblies and XML documentation comments found in the source code of these assemblies. It can also be used to produce user documentation from Microsoft Assistance Markup Language (MAML) with the same look and feel as reference documentation.

Windows Support Tools is a suite of management, administration and troubleshooting tools for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 from Microsoft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual Studio</span> Code editor and IDE

Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such as Windows API, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Store and Microsoft Silverlight. It can produce both native code and managed code.

C++/WinRT is a C++ library for Microsoft's Windows Runtime platform, designed to provide access to modern Windows APIs. C++/WinRT is provided as a standard C++17 header file library, unlike C++/CX, which is an extension to C++ and requires a recent version of Microsoft Visual C++.

References

  1. "How to Use the Windiff.exe Utility". Microsoft.
  2. Tim O'Reilly; Troy Mott; Walter J. Glenn (1999). Windows 98 in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference . O'Reilly Media, Inc. pp.  425–427. ISBN   156592486X.
  3. Brad Hines (1992-10-22). "Details of SDK beta release".
  4. Ramel, David (November 16, 2022). "Windows App SDK 1.2 Lets Devs Create Third-Party Windows 11 Widgets". Visual Studio Magazine. Retrieved 2023-04-16.