And TreeCompare has just been designed for that purpose. The free portable program for Windows compares the files of two selected root directories, including files in subfolders.

compare files

The two directories have to be selected in the beginning. This is done with the file browser, a click on compare will compare the contents of the directories. Each unique file is displayed in its own row in the program. The columns path one and path two specify if the file exists in directory one or two. The description column lists if the files are identical, or different.

TreeCompare compares several parameters that are divided into the categories attributes, times and miscellaneous. Parameters can be edited in the options, so that only relevant comparisons are made.

The following parameters can be added or removed from the comparison:

• Attributes: Archive, Hidden, Read Only, System
• Times: Access, Creation, Modification
• Miscellaneous: File Size, Binary Compare

tree compare

The software lacks the option to display the differences in detail, and there is also no option to open the file in an editor, or the directory in Windows Explorer to investigate the differences further.

Still, TreeCompare is a lightweight (33K) tool for Windows that may come in handy for quick directory comparisons. Users who need additional information should take a look at Winmerge instead.

Fingerprint calculates hash values of every file during the first selection unlike many other tools that simply report file size or file date modifications. This way might take a bit longer but it ensures that every modification can be noticed as the program compares the hash values and not data that can be easily modified.

Some aspects of a directory scan can be configured during setup. It is for instance possible to include or exclude files from the scan, switch from hash generation to file size, date and time records or schedule scans for the profile.

The Windows Task Scheduler is used to schedule file comparisons at a later time or on a regular basis. File changes will be written to a log file that is automatically displayed in the default web browser of the computer system. Fingerprint is a small program for the Windows operating system that can be downloaded from the developer’s website.