Beyond Compare 5 Change Log

5.0.1.29877 - July 19, 2024

Notable Changes

  • General Table Compare improvements.
  • Fixed crash/failure when copying NTFS permissions.
  • macOS/Linux: Fixed crash when importing v4 settings.

Archives

  • Updated unrar to v7.1.100.1230 (Windows DLL) and v7.0.9 (macOS/Linux source).
  • macOS: Fixed comparing files in rar archives in file views or using the "Compare Contents" command.

File Formats

  • Fixed crash when comparing Rich Text Format (.rtf) files.

File Views

  • macOS/Linux: Added support for \n, \r, and \t escape sequences in regular expression replacement strings.
  • Fixed "File is being used by another process" error when trying to save a file that originally included only a UTF-8 byte order mark.

Folder Compare

  • Windows: Fixed crash/failure when copying NTFS permissions.
  • macOS/Linux: Fixed Session Settings > Other Filters > Larger Than/Smaller Than filters ignoring the KB/MB/GB combobox.

Misc

  • Fixed support for importing v5 State settings (e.g., MRU lists, form positions).
  • macOS/Linux: Fixed crash when trying to import v4 settings.
  • macOS: Fixed translated versions showing checkboxes with the original English text.

Table Compare

  • Added "Just current sheet" report option.
  • Added report headers indicating the sheet names.
  • Fixed "Hide Same Columns" hiding everything when loading a single-sided comparison.
  • Fixed crash when generating a report using "Just selection" on sheets past the first.
  • Fixed sheet tab captions not updating when swapping sides.
  • Fixed sheet tabs not recalculating their width when the caption or difference spot changes.
  • Fixed file info bar displaying incorrect or truncated strings.
  • Fixed issues with Info and Report generation for multiple sheets.

Text Views

  • Fixed crash when using Find > Select All twice when the found text exists on the last line of the file.

5.0.0.29773 - July 8, 2024

This is the first official release of Beyond Compare version 5.

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.
  • macOS: Native Apple M series support and additional performance improvements.
  • Linux: Upgraded to QT 5.

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.
  • Added file viewer keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + / ⌘+ and Ctrl - / ⌘- for "Display Font Increase/Decrease" and Picture Compare "Zoom In/Out".
  • Command line now supports using /fv="Hex Compare" for archive files.
  • File viewer encoding auto-detection now matches against the entire file instead of just the first 64KB.
  • 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: "Register for All Users" option will now store the key in C:\ProgramData (%AllUsersProfile%) instead of Program Files so it doesn't need to show a UAC prompt.
  • 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.
  • Linux: Added KDE6 file manager integration. Thank you to Benjamin Robin.

Default Settings Changed

  • 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.
  • FTP/FTPS/SFTP now uses UTF-8 for command/filename encoding by default. Previous "Detect" behavior can be changed in the profile's "Server > Encoding" tab.
  • Deleting in folder compare/sync will now use the recycle bin by default.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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.

Installers

  • Windows: Added /DisableUpdates switch to disable check for updates for the current user or all users.
  • Windows: 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.
  • Windows: "All Users" installs no longer prompt to run the Clipboard Compare on startup. Previously this only affected the installing user.
  • 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: 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.

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.

FTP/FTPS/SFTP

  • Replaced SFTP "Force faster uploads to older OpenSSH servers" profile option with "Use aggressive uploads to OpenSSH servers" one that affects all OpenSSH versions, not just v3.9 and earlier.
  • SSH public/private key generation in Profiles dialog now supports ed25519 and EcDSA keys and will generate ed25519 keys by default.
  • SSH keyboard interactive authentication now combines multiple prompts into a single dialog.