A lightweight, standalone executable (.exe) tool built in Python for comparing files and directories to visualize differences. This tool allows you to quickly spot discrepancies between code, data, or folder structures and export the comparison results into a clean, interactive HTML format.
No installation required—just download and run.
The tool has been completely overhauled from previous versions. Here are the major upgrades:
- Directory Comparison Mode: Recursively scan and compare entire folders. The UI displays
MODIFIED,LEFT_ONLY,RIGHT_ONLY, andSAMEfiles. - Diff Minimap: A scrollable, clickable "bird's-eye view" canvas on the right edge shows red/green/yellow chunks to allow lightning-fast navigation in large files.
- Interactive Sidebar: A color-coded sidebar allows you to quickly click through and inspect file differences straight from the directory scan results.
- Deep Compare Toggle: Switch between lightning-fast metadata directory scanning or thorough content-level deep scanning.
- File Extension Filtering: Easily filter directory scans by extension (e.g.,
*.py, *.c, *.h) to focus only on the code you care about. - Paste-able Path Entries: You can now manually paste file and folder paths directly into the UI instead of relying solely on the file browser.
- Binary File Safeguard: The tool now instantly detects binary files (PDFs, images, executables) and gracefully displays a "Binary files differ" message, preventing the UI from freezing.
- Threaded Scanning: Directory scans run on a background thread with a progress bar, keeping the GUI completely responsive.
- Advanced Visual Diffing: Side-by-side color-coded comparisons (Red = Deletion, Green = Addition, Yellow = Modification).
- Modern UI & Navigation: Sleek dark mode interface (powered by
CustomTkinter) featuring perfectly synchronized mouse wheel scrolling across all text panes. - Smart Formatting: Automatically formats
.jsonfiles for clean comparisons and aligns.csvfiles row-by-row. - Multi-Format HTML Reports: Generate shareable, self-contained HTML diff reports for individual files, or comprehensive summary reports for entire directory structures.
- Zero Configuration: Packaged as a standalone Windows executable. No Python installation, external libraries, or setup required.
| Category | Extensions / Formats |
|---|---|
| Data Formats | .json, .csv |
| Plain Text | .txt, .md, .log |
| Source Code | .c, .py, .js, .java, .cpp, .html, .css, .sh, and more |
- Windows OS (provided as a
.exefile). - No Python runtime or external dependencies are required.
- Go to the Releases section of this GitHub repository.
- Download the
FileComparator_V.exefile. - Double-click the downloaded executable to launch the tool.
- Select File Mode or Directory Mode.
- Browse for or paste the paths for your Source (Left) and Target (Right).
- (Optional) Apply file extension filters or toggle Deep Compare for directory scans.
- Click Compare to view the differences.
- Click Export to HTML to save the formatted results locally for sharing or archiving.
I am continuously working to improve this tool. Upcoming features include:
- Increased number of supported file format: Expand capabilities for different binary format files.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.