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WinCatalog Changelog

What's new in WinCatalog 2024.6.2.0205

Feb 5, 2024
  • Hello, a new maintenance update of WinCatalog was just released. It fixes the issue when WinCatalog crashes on an attempt to change volume details via the Volume Info tab of item properties.

New in WinCatalog 2024.6.1.0203 (Feb 4, 2024)

  • Search Tab Options: the New Search Tab command behavior changed in concern of the “Look In” filter. The entire catalog search scope is set by default for the “Look In” filter with the ability to reduce the search scope to the selected folder just in one mouse click. The “New search here” context menu option now accurately limits the search scope to the selected folder.
  • Context Menu Enhancements: We’ve added a “New search here” menu entry for empty spaces within the interface, and fixed the behavior of the the “New search here” command as it did not function as expected and limited the search scope by the parent folder instead of the selected one.
  • The Open In Catalog Command: now behave consistently in the search results and in the main UI. Previously the Open In Catalog command executed from search results opened the parent folder instead of the intended folder.
  • Search History and Folder Selection: Increased the number of entries in the Search History combo, which is set to 20, but can now be configured via the registry. Also, updated the software to not move down to the selected folder after the update process ends, streamlining the update experience.
  • Editable Volume Info Tab: Some fields on the Volume Info tab are now editable, offering more flexibility in managing volume information directly within the interface.
  • Search Field Focus: Fixed an issue where the search field would lose focus when switching between WinCatalog and other applications using ALT+TAB.
  • Interface Adjustments for High DPI: We’ve fixed an issue where the backstage Catalog page and program options did not fit the screen properly on large scaling factors, enhancing visibility and usability on high-resolution displays.

New in WinCatalog 2024.5.1228 (Dec 29, 2023)

  • Hello, we’re glad to announce that a new version of WinCatalog has been released. The version number is 2024.5. The highlight of this update is the revamped MediaInfo processing module. It’s now capable of extracting embedded thumbnails from video files, providing Titles for streams, and uncovering detailed information about chapters and other media elements.
  • Alongside the MediaInfo module upgrade, we’ve implemented numerous minor fixes and improvements for smoother operation and enhanced reliability.

New in WinCatalog 2024.4 (Nov 22, 2023)

  • Hello, we’re glad to announce that a new version of WinCatalog has been released. The version number is 2024.4. In this release, we focused on new features, stability, and improvements.
  • The main new feature of the update is the ability to grab text and thumbnails from Office Document Files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Markdown) in the same way WinCatalog did before for PDF files. This capability transforms how users interact with their digital archives, making content within these files searchable and easily identifiable.
  • The feature works seamlessly, indexing the content of each document as it is added to the catalog. Users can quickly search for specific phrases, keywords, or data within their extensive collection of Office files. This level of content accessibility is particularly useful for professionals and students who deal with large volumes of documents, enabling them to locate the required information without the need to open and manually search each file. Additionally, the generated thumbnail previews provide a visual representation of each document, making it easier to identify files at a glance.
  • The option to process files is turned on by default for the Full File Info scanning profile and is limited to grabbing the first 2,000 characters. The thumbnail size is set to 1080x1080 for readability. Find the Office Files section to change these settings.
  • The MediaInfo engine was rewritten and now works faster, the processing of audio files was switched to the new engine as well. In addition to that, WinCatalog now adds Bit Depth and Codec Info to the list of fields grabbed for Audio files. The ‘Various Artists’ label for multiple artists per composition is now separated when creating and assigning Tags.
  • In addition to that, the latest version contains a lot of smaller improvements and bug fixes. For example, now if you rename a file, WinCatalog automatically selects the file name base (i.e. without extension) in the editing field. Fixed the issue when WinCatalog crashed on an attempt to search using the Tags row only (when no other search options were selected). When thumbnail generation for images was turned off, WinCatalog didn’t get picture resolution for images not having Exif tags, now it detects dimensions by itself. When adding an archive via the Add File command, an extra entry with the archive name was created. Now WinCatalog creates no unnecessary entries.
  • WinCatalog now uses the associated scanning profile to identify the thumbnail size, when you assign or update the image via the Thumbnail tab of the Properties window. The Options button overrides this value for the selected entry or for non-file items (virtual folders, custom items - they don’t have a scanning profile associated).
  • A bunch of smaller improvements.

New in WinCatalog 2024.3.3 (Oct 22, 2023)

  • This is a maintenance update fixing the new diacritics-insensitive search not working properly in Windows 7 and in earlier versions of Windows 10. This issue has not been seen in later versions of Windows 10 (since version 20H1) and all versions of Windows 11. If you are a Windows 7 or Windows 10 (19H2 or earlier) user, the update may be critical.
  • This update also improves the WinCatalog’s behavior when renaming items. The Rename command now selects the file name without extension. For folders and files without extension, the whole name is selected.
  • Turkish translation was updated.

New in WinCatalog 2024.3.2 (Oct 18, 2023)

  • This is a maintenance update adding the ability to select more than one catalog folder for the Look In filter when searching. To select more than one folder for the Look In filter, hold down the CTRL key and click the mouse for multiple selections.
  • This update also fixes an issue where some processing modules were incorrectly handling individual files added via the Add File command.
  • In addition to that, WinCatalog now uses individual settings for remembering the last directory with Catalog Files, another one for Reports, and the third one for files added via the Add File command, and for thumbnails (the Thumbnail tab). This ensures that the open file dialog will always open in the previous folder, depending on the command being executed.
  • Another improvement concerns the command line interface. The command line argument parser has become more reliable. Previously, command line options had to start with a short dash (minus sign), slash, or colon. However, there were frequent errors when minus signs were replaced by long dashes, and command line arguments were no longer correctly interpreted by WinCatalog. Now WinCatalog perceives practically any dash as a correct beginning for an argument.
  • Several translations were updated.

New in WinCatalog 2024.3.0 (Oct 6, 2023)

  • New Feature: Reading File Tags from File Explorer:
  • The new feature lets you read file tags from the Details tab of File Properties in File Explorer. If the file type supports additional information, WinCatalog will read it! Keywords and rating are imported as tags (and the original rating value is stored internally for future usage), and comments are added to the Comment field. For hierarchical tags saved by, for example, Adobe Bridge (they are separated by vertical bars) can be separated.
  • This option is turned on by default for the Full File Info scanning profile, WinCatalog will grab File Explorer tags for new and modified files. If you want WinCatalog to add tags for files that have already been added to the catalog and have not been modified, temporarily disable the “While updating a disk or a folder: skip unmodified files (speeds up the update process)” option. It is located on the General Scanning tab for each scanning profile. Don’t forget to enable the option after updating the drives in order to speed up future updates.
  • Display the Total Number of Files and Folders:
  • Ever wondered how many files and folders are nested inside a particular folder? Wonder no more! WinCatalog 2024.3 can now display the total number of files and folders (and also drives, virtual folders and custom items) within each folder, providing you with a snapshot overview of your storage situation. You can find these number on the General tab of item properties. It works for drives, folders, archives.
  • This feature not only allows you to find out the number of files, but also to compare this data with what is displayed by a file manager such as File Explorer. That is why WinCatalog uses two counting methods for archives: if you select an archive and look at its properties, the General tab will display the number of files and folders inside the archive. However, if you select multiple files and folders (or look at the properties of the parent folder or disk), the entire archive will be counted as a single file. This is done so that the number of files and folders displayed by WinCatalog corresponds to the number displayed by File Explorer.
  • Show or Hide the Advanced Search Options Pane:
  • Now you can hide the Advanced Search Options pane to save vertical space for search results in case you don’t need it. The Look In filter is always visible, but the additional tabs can be collapsed.
  • Paste or Drag Thumbnails to Thumbnail tab:
  • To quickly assign a thumbnail to any entry in WinCatalog, you can now open the Thumbnail tab of the item properties, and paste the thumbnail from the Cliboard, or drag a picture from the System.
  • Permanent Tag Order:
  • The string representation of associated tags is now sorted alphabetically, so these values always look the same in reports or in the WinCatalog interface.
  • Minor Bug Fixes and Improvements:
  • As always, we’ve ironed out some minor bugs and made performance improvements to ensure that WinCatalog runs smoothly.

New in WinCatalog 2024.2 (Aug 28, 2023)

  • Diacritic-insensitive (or accent-insensitive) search:
  • The latest update introduces an exciting and highly anticipated feature: diacritic-insensitive search.
  • This new functionality empowers users with a more efficient way to locate their files and folders within the cataloged data.
  • Diacritics, those unique marks and symbols that embellish letters in various languages, often present challenges when searching for specific items.
  • With the diacritic-insensitive search, users can bid farewell to the frustration of meticulously accounting for these nuances, as WinCatalog now ensures that such distinctions no longer impede the search process.
  • This enhancement brings a significant level of convenience to users who frequently deal with diverse languages or variations in text representations.
  • Whether it’s finding files with accented characters, umlauts, or other diacritics, WinCatalog’s new feature offers a seamless experience.
  • Users can now enter their search queries without having to consider these linguistic subtleties, allowing for a more natural and fluid interaction with the software.
  • Please note: after the new update is installed, WinCatalog will automatically recreate fast search idex, which may take a few minutes.
  • Thumbnails or Comments or Auto - The Properties Pane was Enchased:
  • In the new version of WinCatalog, the Properties pane receives a significant enhancement that promises a more personalized and informative experience for users. With the introduction of the option to display comments instead of thumbnails, users gain greater control over how they interact with their cataloged files. This update offers improved flexibility when browsing through cataloged items.
  • A standout feature of the pane is the adaptation based on the presence of thumbnails. In cases where a thumbnail for a particular file is unavailable, WinCatalog automatically displays comments to ensure that users can glean valuable insights about the file.
  • For users who desire a more customized view, WinCatalog empowers them to explicitly choose between displaying comments or thumbnails in the Properties panel.
  • By the way, the Comments field is powered by the link highlighting and the ability to copy text to the Clipboard.
  • Relative Paths - A new Experimental Feature:
  • Introducing a groundbreaking addition to its feature set, WinCatalog now offers users the ability to add drives, folders, and files using relative paths. This new capability expands the way users manage and organize their cataloged data, simplifying the process and enhancing the software’s flexibility.
  • The concept of relative paths takes data organization to a new level of convenience. With this feature, users can now add files and folders to their catalog using paths that are defined in relation to the catalog’s current location.
  • The power of relative paths becomes particularly evident when, for example, you want to burn files to an optical media (or copy to a portable storage deivce) together with the catalog file.
  • The ability to define paths in relation to the catalog’s location ensures that WinCatalog keeps relations with files after moving to a new structure. This feature also simplifies the migration of catalogs between devices, as the paths remain adaptable to different environments without requiring manual adjustments.
  • Please note that relative paths work only inside the same drive (at least in Windows). Please also note that this feature was released as experimental and needs to be turned on explicitly in the Program’s options.
  • A video explaining the new feature will be published shortly.
  • Duplicate Finding Bug was Fixed:
  • A bug that had been causing unexpected search results during duplicate searches: files being erroneously identified as duplicates of themselves during the second and subsequent searches. The root cause of this issue was identified as a side effect of the newly introduced “search in search results” feature.
  • The “search in search results” feature was introduced in WinCatalog 2024.1 to enhance users' ability to refine their searches by allowing them to perform additional searches within the results of a previous search.

New in WinCatalog 2024.1 (Aug 8, 2023)

  • The new version introduces an array of advanced search options, customization features, and optimizations. Let’s delve into the exciting new additions that make WinCatalog 2024 a must-have tool for anyone seeking efficient and streamlined catalog management.
  • Precision Search with Advanced Filtering:
  • WinCatalog 2024 takes search capabilities to a whole new level by offering advanced search options that delve into specific attributes extracted from various file types. Whether you’re searching for a photo captured by a certain camera or at a particular day, or a song with a certain artist, or a video with a French audio and English subtitles, the ability to search by Exif tags for photos, ID3 tags for audio files, and video attributes adds a whole new dimension to file search.
  • Visual Categorization with Custom Icons:
  • In a bid to enhance visual organization, WinCatalog 2024 introduces custom icons for catalog entries. With a repository of over 250 icons, users can assign individual icons to entries, creating a unique and intuitive visual categorization system. This feature adds a touch of personalization and streamlines the identification of files at a glance.
  • Efficient Tag Management with Keyboard Shortcuts:
  • Tagging your files for easy categorization is a powerful technique, and WinCatalog 2024 makes it even more convenient with the introduction of a keyboard-driven tag management system. The revamped Tags page in the Properties window divides tags into three sections, ensuring easy access and organization. The live filtering box combined with keyboard shortcuts simplifies tasks like adding, assigning, unassigning, or renaming tags. These enhancements are bound to delight users who heavily rely on tags for their file organization strategy.
  • Multi-Page Browsable HTML Reports:
  • Sharing catalog information with colleagues, friends, or collaborators has never been easier. WinCatalog 2024 introduces a new report type - multi-page browsable HTML reports. This feature allows users to generate HTML copies of their catalog files, enabling easy sharing and publication. Under the hood, the new reports engine empowers users to generate reports of any size, across all supported report types, including XML, CSV, HTML, and multi-page HTML reports.
  • Refined User Experience and Performance Optimizations:
  • As always, user feedback plays a pivotal role in shaping software improvements. WinCatalog 2024 is no exception, as it incorporates numerous smaller enhancements and performance optimizations based on user input. These refinements ensure a smoother and more efficient experience, making WinCatalog an even more indispensable tool for organizing your digital world.
  • Embrace the Future of Digital Organization with WinCatalog 2024:
  • As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the need for efficient file management becomes increasingly crucial. WinCatalog 2024 responds to this need with its advanced search options, customizable categorization, streamlined tag management, and powerful report generation capabilities. Whether you’re a professional managing extensive assets or an individual aiming for a clutter-free digital life, WinCatalog 2024 offers the tools you need to succeed.
  • Don’t let digital disarray hold you back. Embrace the power of WinCatalog 2024 and take control of your digital universe today. Experience the future of organization and efficiency like never before. Say goodbye to file-finding frustrations and hello to an organized future that’s designed entirely around you.

New in WinCatalog 2023.4.1 (May 14, 2023)

  • Hello, we’re glad to announce that a new version of WinCatalog was released. The version number is 2023.4.1.
  • The new version adds the ability to include files and folders to scanning by mask. This feature is completely opposite to already existing “exclude files and folders from scanning by mask” and allows to reduce the number of files in the catalog, for example, to create catalogs of certain types of files, say, PDF files only, or photos, or music files, and so on. This feature is complemented by the ability to not add empty folders to the directory. Both features are turned off by default, you can find them on the File Processing tab and configure individually for each scanning profile.
  • Content-based thumbnails for folders. If a folder contains “cover.jpg”, “cover.png”, “folder.jpg”, or “folder.png” images, one of these thumbnails will be uses as the folder thumnbail. If the folder contains no of these files, the first thumbnail will be picked for the folder.
  • When adding a drive or a folder, WinCatalog now checks if the drive or the folder already exists in the catalog and suggests updating the existing entry instead of adding a new copy. The new feature helps to avoid occasionely duplicated entries in the catalog.
  • Some people want to check stats and numbers after the process ends. The new ability to keep the scanning progress window open after finishing the scanning process will help.
  • The thumbnail preview pane now displays up to 9 thumbnails for the selection.
  • The process of grabbing thumbnails for video files is now more robust and changes the thumbnail extraction method after reaching a timeout (if any).
  • The Copy To Physical Drive operation for several entries now uses a bulk copy operation. The new addition allows clicking “do the same for the X next conflicts” in the standard Windows copy dialog and continue.
  • New experimental feature - IPTC tags extraction. Now WinCatalog can grab IPTC tags from photos and store them as Comments. In addition to that, it creates tags based on IPTC keywords. The “Extract Exif, IPTC tags from digital photographs” option should be turned on

New in WinCatalog 2023.2.5 (Mar 24, 2023)

  • The search logic has been adjusted. The main part was reverted to how it worked in the 2021.1 version, but the new search operator indicated the search term should be stricly located in the end of filenames or words was added ($ sign, as in regular expressions).
  • Now the simple search query “.xls” (without quotes) finds “report.xls” and “report.xls.zip”. To exclude the second entry from the search results, add the $ sign to the extension. The search query “.xls$” (without quotes) finds “report.xls” but it doesn’t find the “reoprt.xls.zip” because the “.xls” part in the filename isn’t in the end.
  • The $-sign operator works only when located in the end of the search query. If located in the middle, WinCatalog treats is as a normal character. If you want to search for files having extentions that ends by $, echo the operator: “.mp$” will find files having the “.mp$” extension.
  • In addition to quotation marks, round and square brackets, and the backslash itself, you can now echo all other word delimiters in search queries as well. The list of word delimiters include hashtag, uderscore, dash, exclamation and question marks, dot, equal sign, semicolon, colon, and others.

New in WinCatalog 2023.1 (Feb 7, 2023)

  • Hello, we’re glad to announce that the new version of WinCatalog was released. The version number is 2023.1.
  • The new version can now grab text from PDF files having the text layer and make it searchable just like it did for text files. The thumbnails of first pages are here as well.
  • Good news for photographers: WinCatalog now contains a new processing module for RAW files and can process RAW files (CR2/CR3, DNG, NEF, ORF, and other types) much faster than previously.
  • The ability to limit the number of thumbnails per folder was added to all types of files having thumbnails.
  • The new version contains other minor improvements and bug fixes.

New in WinCatalog 2021.5 (Aug 8, 2022)

  • The update contains other minor improvements and fixes.

New in WinCatalog 2021.4 (Jul 8, 2022)

  • Hello, we’re glad to announce that the new version of WinCatalog was just released. The version number is 2021.4
  • The update adds a new data source for Audio CDs: in addition to MusicBraiz.org, GnuDb.org is now available (unfortunately, without album covers, because GnuDb.org doesn’t have them but with the ability to select from several results if multiple entries are found in the database). Now you can select one out of three options: MusicBrainz.org, then GnuDb.org if found nothing in MusicBrainz. This option is the default out of the box. Two other options restrict WinCatalog to use MucicBrainz.org only, or GnuDb.org only.
  • A bug was fixed when it wasn’t possible to save scanning profiles imported from .json files.
  • The “end of the scanning process” sound was returned back (but turned off by default). This option was removed in the 2021.1 version based on feedback, but after making the changes, we started to receive requests to add it back. So, now this option was added back and includes now four different sounds: a Tibetian Gong, two melodies, and the classic Ta-Da sound. Of course, the option isn’t limited by these four sounds, and you can use other sounds you have.
  • Korean translation was actualized.

New in WinCatalog 2021.3 (May 16, 2022)

  • This is a maintenance update fixing minor issues: it wasn’t possible to cut text from the Search field because autocomplete fired each time. Pressing the CTRL+A in the grid view selects all entries (as previously) but now doesn’t display the ‘no matching entries found’ message. The catalog file converter from the Advanced Disk Catalog file format now supports XML files larger than 4GB. Clicking the red [X] button on the main window doesn’t close WinCatalog now if the scanning process is active. The Italian translation was renewed. Other minor issues were fixed.

New in WinCatalog 2021.2.1 (Apr 8, 2022)

  • The release fixes the bug when WinCatalog ignored the options not to calculate checksums/hashes for files smaller than, and for files greater than a certain size. The default values for these parameters were used instead.

New in WinCatalog 2021.1 (Feb 19, 2022)

  • The scanning module was optimized to reuse the same programming objects when generating thumbnails, and as a result, the scanning speed was increased up to 15% for cases when the scanning module grabs a large number of thumbnails for various types of files.
  • We started a large task of redesigning WinCatalog to make it look modern and fresh. The redesign will result in a completely new version later this year, and now as the first step of this process, the Scanning Options window was redesigned. It doesn’t have a dark theme yet (in order to comply with the other parts), but it is large monitors friendly and works correctly on screens with large scaling factors.
  • Other changes related to the scanning process. Now you can have individual thumbnail size options for different processing modules, so you can set one thumbnail size for pictures, another for RAW images, music album covers, PDF documents, video thumbnails, book covers, etc.
  • No more black frames for thumbnails. Thumbnails for images that may have transparency are stored in PNG format. It requires more space on the disk, but as a result, you get a better picture, especially for monochrome images (converting them to JPG often produces just black squares). WinCatalog continues using JPG format for storing thumbnails for image formats that don’t have transparent parts.
  • The “ta-da” sound and the setting of playing sounds at the end of scanning were removed. Both were there since Windows XP times.
  • The Select Folder window (that one you see when clicking the Add Folder button) can now display hidden folders (for example, C:ProgramData). Another addition is that it now allows adding entries by typing or pasting Paths, even if these paths can’t be selected in the Tree View above.
  • Another important feature: jumping to files in the Grid View. Start typing in the Grid View and the first item with a name that begins with the entered text will be selected. The search is case insensitive, so just start typing. A small hint will appear showing the currently entered text.

New in WinCatalog 2020.8.0 (Nov 1, 2021)

  • The new version fixes some issues with the command-line interface (CLI), it now correctly handles multiple paths passed via the catalog path (/CatalogPath or /cp) parameter, paths should be separated by semicolons, and the /ShowInCatalog behavior.

New in WinCatalog 2020.7.0 (Oct 8, 2021)

  • The search logic was updated in this release. It is possible now to find files using non-alphabetic characters in search queries (%, &, #, etc). Previously, all these characters were considered as word separators, and search queries “#word”, “##word”, and “word$” (without quotes) were equal for WinCatalog. Now WinCatalog treats them as 3 different search queries, and search results will be different for all three queries.
  • ‘Search Index wasn’t Updated’ issue after running the Add File command and selecting multiple files at once was fixed.
  • A mouse wheel incorrect scrolling behavior was fixed when the mouse wheel is in the page scroll mode.
  • Now WinCatalog uses two fields: volume serial number and volume label to identify volumes. The new addition fixes an issue when two different disks (volumes) have equal volume serial numbers.
  • The File Operation Queue opening speed was significantly improved for cases when the File Operation Queue contains a large number of files from drives not connected to the computer.
  • The option to exclude small files from checksum/hashes calculation was turned off by default (affects new catalog files only).
  • Other minor changes.

New in WinCatalog 2020.6.0 (Sep 17, 2021)

  • The new update was tested in Windows 11 and passed all tests, so we can claim it’s Windows 11 ready.
  • A critical issue was fixed: when updating drives, WinCatalog didn’t capture new thumbnails for some video files. The issue occurred only for files processed by both Media Information and Audio Information modules, mostly for .mp4 video files. The “Media Information” module was starting first and grabbed thumbnails. Then, the “Audio Files” module was starting, and after not finding thumbnails in the ID3 tags (or ID3 tags in general) it was deleting existing thumbnails (added previously by the Media Info module).
  • Minor issues were fixed: the grid view occasionally switched to the thumbnails view (and automatically back) in some circumstances. The periodic backup reminder popped up twice if canceled. The progress indicator for duplicates finder didn’t work properly: it reached 100% but the search was still active, now this behavior is fixed.
  • The ability to change the sort order in the left Tree view and the Thumbnails view via context menus (right mouse click) was added. You can see the example of the context menu on the screenshot.
  • The release contains other minor improvements.

New in WinCatalog 2020.5.0 (May 20, 2021)

  • Hello, we’re glad to announce that the new version of WinCatalog was just released. The version number is 2020.5. The new update will mostly contain bug fixes.
  • The new features are the ability to recreate the external (fast) search index initially by clicking a button in the Search Index Options dialogue.
  • Another new feature is the blue color for files inside archives. So now WinCatalog uses three color codes and displays files located inside archives using blue font color, cloud-on-demand files using green color, and files in the file operation queue in gray color (as previously).
  • The new update fixes incorrect behavior of the thumbnails view: it wasn’t possible to browse tags when the right view was switched to thumbnails.
  • The search logic was fixed: previously WinCatalog incorrectly reported the “search syntax error” if the NOT operator was used more than once or after AND/OR operator. Now it works as expected.
  • The double-click action was fixed for non-file items: when the “open in explorer” option was selected as the double-click action, WinCatalog tried to open non-file entries in File Explorer which wasn’t correct because they do not have any file system object relations (custom items, locations, tags, virtual folders). Now this behavior was fixed and WinCatalog acts correctly.
  • A new command-line option for rebuilding the search index was added “-SearchIndex Rebuild”. All instances of WinCatalog using the catalog file should be closed before running the command. Some other search index-related logic was fixed and/or adjusted.

New in WinCatalog 2020.4 (Mar 2, 2021)

  • The new version fixes bugs and adds several new features: it adds new columns to the Grid view (that is why the installation will reset the column set you have). The new columns are duration (for video and audio files), dimensions (for video and pictures), audio and video codecs, and date taken (for photos). More columns will be added in the next major upgrade (the 2021 version) later this year.
  • The other addition is the option to use only system icons. From the early beginnings, WinCatalog used custom icons for archives, video files, and photos if it was able to parse the files and grab additional information. Custom icons were a kind of marker indicating that additional information was grabbed for files.
  • Now this feature can be turned off and WinCatalog will display system icons for all files independently from the fact if it grabbed Exif tags, media information, or parsed the archive contents.
  • Another new feature is the ability to change sort logic by switching between natural and ordinal (i.e. computer) string comparison.
  • The default option is the natural string comparison (a1→a2→a3→a10→a11→a20→a30→a100), that is how WinCatalog sorted strings previously. Turning off the natural comparison feature means the sorting decisions are based on simple byte comparisons (a1→a10→a11→a100→a2→a20→a3→a30).
  • The second addition to the search logic is the ability to enable or disable showing folders and drives above files (when sorting alphabetically). Displaying folders above files is the default behavior and that is how it works in File Explorer. Turning this option off will cause displaying folders and files sorted by names ignoring types (Mac OS Finder style).
  • The ability to select multiple tags in the Tags tree view by holding the CTRL key and clicking was added.
  • The support of .MXF files (a container format for professional digital video and audio media) was added, now WinCatalog can grab thumbnails and media information from .MXF files.
  • Better handling of optical drives: Now when WinCatalog parses EXIF tags from photos burned to optical drives, it performs a sequential reading to the memory and performs the parsing and thumbnail generation in the memory. This approach helps to avoid excessive head movements of optical drives. WinCatalog automatically detects optical drives and turns this feature on if needed.

New in WinCatalog 2020.3.1 (Jan 21, 2021)

  • This is the maintenance update fixing the Portuguese (Portugal) UI translation and updating Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Slovak, and Turkish translations.

New in WinCatalog 2020.3 (Jan 19, 2021)

  • The new update introduces the Saved Searches feature - the ability to save search parameters and restart frequently used searches with just two mouse clicks. The Saved Searches functionality resides under the down arrow of the Search button. The new feature comes with a set of pre-defined searches, you can delete the existing searches and save others on your own.
  • The support of CR3 raw image files from modern Canon cameras was added.
  • Slovak UI translation added to WinCatalog.
  • Other minor improvements. A new Dark template was added for HTML reports. Layout menu entries were added to the View menu for the Main and Search tabs. The loading of the Tags tab was moved to the background (previously the loading was noticeable on large number of tags). Some minor issues were fixed.

New in WinCatalog 2020.2.8 (Jan 7, 2021)

  • The following issues were fixed:
  • The type of some data CDs was incorrectly detected as Audio CDs.
  • A system sound was produced when closing search tabs.
  • An issue in the search logic was fixed when the European-style date-like search term was used (for example, “18.12.2020”) enclosed in double-quotes.
  • The issue fixed when WinCatalog ignored the Album Cover option for Audio files and always grabbed covers even if the option was turned off.
  • File Operation Queue displayed empty entries after processing the queue.
  • Other minor fixes.

New in WinCatalog 2020.2.3 (Nov 26, 2020)

  • The update fixes two issues of the previous version: the internal search (when WinCatalog works without creating the external fast search index) did not understand complex search queries correctly and could find fewer results than the external fast version. Now both versions (internal and external) work identically.
  • The second issue appeared as an incorrect panel displaying (the thumbnail panel or properties panel) in the search view when just one of two panels was hidden.

New in WinCatalog 2020.2 (Nov 25, 2020)

  • The update fixes the issues when the -ExitWhenDone command-line option caused the search index to rebuild. Changing the column autofit (Outlook-style) option required program restart, now it is applied on the fly.
  • The new update adds the ability to switch between Horizontal and Vertical layouts for the Properties and Thumbnail panels or hide the panels to save screen space. Click the Catalog button, then Options, and then Layout to configure these options.
  • The Report generator adds the Associated Tags column.
  • Italian UI translation was actualized.

New in WinCatalog 2019 19.6.0 (Feb 21, 2020)

  • The new version adds an ability to prevent the computer from entering sleep while the scanning or the updating process is running. This option may be turned on or off individually for each scanning profile. It is turned on by default.
  • The Properties panel now displays disk size in the Disk Info section using the classic File Explorer like format: “20.53 GB free of 232 GB”.
  • Czech, French, Greek, Italian, Polish, Spanish, and Swedish translations were actualized.

New in WinCatalog 2019 19.4.1 (Jan 16, 2020)

  • The new version fixes the issue when WinCatalog incorrectly reported that the backup was completed unsuccessfully after a successful backup. Turkish, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese translations were actualized.

New in WinCatalog 2019 19.4 (Jan 13, 2020)

  • Hello, we’re glad to announce that a new version of WinCatalog was released. The version number is 19.4.
  • The new update introduces Dynamic Patterns for the Name column (we started from ID3 tags), timeouts for all processing modules, grabbing thumbnails from HEIF/HEIC (High-Efficiency Image File Format) and WebP image files, full support of ID3 tags for FLAC files. ZipBackup and CSV reports were updated.
  • Timeouts for processing files:
  • Previously WinCatalog used timeouts for external processing modules only, now it uses timeouts for all the processing modules. The default value is 10 seconds per file. If processing the file takes longer, WinCatalog stops processing the file and stores a mention in the comments field that the process was terminated by a timeout.
  • New image formats: HEIF/HEIC and WEBP:
  • Now WinCatalog can generate and keep thumbnails for the High-Efficiency Images (files with .heic and .heif extensions) and .webp files. The current version does not grab EXIF tags for these formats yet, the support of EXIF for HEIF/HEIC images will be added in the subsequent updates.
  • Full support of FLAC files:
  • Now WinCatalog fully supports FLAC audio files, including album covers (from ID3 tags), and other values that were previously supported for MP3 files.
  • Compressed backups and CSV reports improvements:
  • The compressed backups feature (ZipBackup) now uses the destination folder as a temp folder for the archiving process. Previously the backup process could fail with an “out-of-space” error message even if the destination drive had enough free disk space (but the drive hosting the system temp folder didn’t).
  • The CSV reports contained an unnecessary places field delimiter at the end of each line, it was removed.
  • (!) Dynamic Patterns for the Name field:
  • For files and folders, WinCatalog has two fields called Name and Filename.
  • Filename contains the name of the file or the folder as it was originally named in the file system. The Filename field is used by WinCatalog to keep a connection with the real file on the disk and cannot be edited in WinCatalog.
  • The Name field (which may also be called the Display Name) may have any value you want and represents the entry in WinCatalog. The column is editable.
  • Previously, for music files having ID3 tags, WinCatalog built-up the Name column during the scanning process by placing Artist - Title value instead of a filename.
  • The current version introduces a different approach. Now WinCatalog just grabs and stores ID3 tags, but does not build the Name field during the scanning process. Instead, the Dynamic Pattern is used to display the Name field when you’re working with WinCatalog.
  • If you used a previous version of WinCatalog, on the first run WinCatalog will update your catalog file to reset all the previously generated Names for music files (if you didn’t modify them manually) and will make them ready for the Dynamic Patterns.
  • You can read more about the Dynamic Pattern feature here in the user manual.

New in WinCatalog 2019 19.3 (Dec 3, 2019)

  • This is a maintenance update fixing the issue in the version 19.2 when the size of the disk entry (root entry on the disk) was turned to zero after updating the disk if the disk contains no changes. The issue affected only root entries - sizes of folders remained correct.
  • To fix the size issue and display the correct sizes please update the affected drives. We apologize for the inconvenience that this issue caused you.
  • The next feature update will be released later this month (version 19.4), it will contain dynamic display patterns for the Name column and other improvements.

New in WinCatalog 2019 19.0.2 (Jul 23, 2019)

  • The new version includes the updated Swedish translation and a new feature: now during scanning a disk or a folder WinCatalog can handle “files on-demand”: WinCatalog doesn’t initiate downloading these files from cloud storage and grabs just basic file attributes for these files
  • The new feature is turned on by default for all scanning profiles, you can change it on the “General Scanning” page for each scanning profile individually.
  • Files having the “On-Demand” attribute are shown in dark-green color in WinCatalog
  • Upgrade:
  • WinCatalog 2019 version 19.0.2 is available as a free upgrade for everyone who purchased a license for WinCatalog 2019, WinCatalog 2018* or purchased a lifetime upgrade status. Other customers can purchase the upgrade 50% off the regular price.
  • You can check your upgrade status here by entering your existing registration key or email address that was used to purchase WinCatalog.
  • To download WinCatalog 2019 please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog. Just install the latest version over the existing one.

New in WinCatalog 2019 19.0 (Jul 11, 2019)

  • The main new feature of this update is the ability to delete real files and folders right from WinCatalog. This was the most wanted feature based on the feedback and suggestions we collected among all our customers.
  • Since the files you delete may be located in various disks and some of them may not be connected to your computer at the moment, the deletion process consists of two steps.
  • On the first step, you just mark files for deletion and add them to the File Operation Queue to delete them later. And the second step – you click the Start button in the File Operation Queue and WinCatalog performs the real file operations – moving to the Recycle Bin, or deleting permanently: depending on your preferences – asking you to connect missing disks.
  • This feature may be helpful for those who, for example, want to clean their drives or wipe duplicated contents.
  • How to delete real files from WinCatalog:
  • PLEASE BE CAREFUL, this is the very dangerous feature, use it on your own risk and responsibility. We implemented TWO confirmation messages before you delete your files, but, once again, please be careful and review what you’re intending to delete before processing the Queue in order not to lose something important.
  • So… Select a file, a folder or several entries in WinCatalog. This works both for Search results (for example, after finding duplicates) and for the main grid view when you browsing your catalog file. Then hit Delete. You will see the delete confirmation prompt – exactly the same as previously, but containing one more option – “Delete the real files and folders from the disk(s)”.
  • On this step, if you click Yes without marking the “Delete the real files…” option, WinCatalog will just remove the selected entries from the catalog. The real files and folder will not be touched. This behavior wasn’t changed in comparison to the previous version.
  • If you click “Delete the real files and folders from the disk(s)” checkbox, another window will popup where you can review the entries you selected and add them to the File Operation Queue for processing the Queue later.
  • After adding files and folders to the File Operation Queue, they will be shown in grey color and with the Cross icon in WinCatalog (meaning that they are marked to be deleted) until you process the Queue or remove entries from the Queue.
  • When you’re ready to process the File Operation Queue, open it by clicking the File Operation Queue button in the right bottom corner of the main window. The File Operation Queue window will popup.
  • Here you can review the files and folders to be deleted, open properties of any entry or remove the selected entries from the Queue (without deletion from disk). Make a right mouse click on the selection and hit Properties or Remove.
  • You can also see which files and folders are online (meaning that the disks with these files and folders are connected to your computer) and which operations will require connecting other disks.
  • On the Disks tab, you can see the list of disks you need to connect to the computer to process the Queue. The last tab – Event Log – displays the history of the operations including all the succeeds and errors.
  • Click the Options button to select if you want to move files and folders to Recycle Bin or delete them permanently. The Refresh button updates the status codes for each entry.
  • Ensure twice that the File Operation Queue contains the list of files and folders you want to delete and click Start All.
  • WinCatalog will process the queue starting to delete entries having the online (green) status. After completing all the files and folder WinCatalog could access if any entries remain in the Queue, WinCatalog will ask you to connect other disks to continue.
  • After the File Operation Queue is processed, information about the files deleted from disks will also be deleted from the catalog. You can always check the Log entries to see which files were deleted. The Log is stored in the catalog file and will appear on the Event Log tab until you clear it. You can export the Log to a text file, or clear it – please use the context menu for these operations.
  • Improvements:
  • Thanks to the recursive queries, the Look In filtering on the cold launches was improved in the Additional Search Options – now WinCatalog builds the “Look In” filter for the deep branches more than 10 times faster. And we’re speaking about minutes, not seconds. For example, filtering a catalog file containing 8,749,219 entries to a branch containing files and folders from 6 hard drives (totally 3,814,782 files and folders) on an average test laptop now took 20 seconds instead of 4 minutes 10 seconds using the previous version.
  • The difference is more noticeable in “cold” searches (the first search after rebooting the PC or not using WinCatalog for a while).
  • And if you often use the Look In filter when searching, you will appreciate this improvement.
  • All other new features will be available in the subsequent updates.

New in WinCatalog 2018 18.7 (Feb 4, 2019)

  • Hello, we’re glad to inform that a new update of WinCatalog was just released. The version number is 18.7.
  • This is a maintenance update fixing an issue when the scanning process crashed on processing “bad” mp3 files containing incorrect (or corrupted) audio frames.
  • If you didn’t force with this issue, you may skip the update (but installing it is recommended).
  • To download WinCatalog 2018 version 18.7, please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog – just install the latest version over the existing one.

New in WinCatalog 2018 18.6 (Jan 25, 2019)

  • Hello, we’re glad to inform that a new update of WinCatalog was just released. Version number is 18.6.
  • This is the maintenance update continuing and updating the fix from the previous 18.5 (the last update fixed an issue with abandoned entries when in some circumstances while updating a disk or a folder WinCatalog hid the entries instead of deleting them). We found that the issue was fixed, but the internal structure of catalog files created before 18.5 must be updated to meet the new fix. That is the main reason for the 18.6 update.
  • When you open a catalog file first time in the new version, WinCatalog will take some time to recalculate some internal values that provide catalog file integrity, it may take a few minutes depending on the catalog size and on the productivity of your computer. The average estimated time is a minute per a million records (files and folder in the catalog file).
  • The issue fixed in 18.5/18.6 affects 2018 version only; if you still use any previous version of WinCatalog and do not want to upgrade to the latest one, it is safe to stay with your version. Otherwise, if you upgraded to 2018, the 18.6 is free for you and others who own a valid license for WinCatalog 2018 or purchased a lifetime major upgrades option.
  • To download WinCatalog 2018 version 18.6, please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog – just install the latest version over the existing one.

New in WinCatalog 2018 18.4 (Dec 15, 2018)

  • Catalog size issue was fixed:
  • The catalog size grew when you added disks, but did not decrease when you delete contents from the catalog. This issue affects only the catalog files created in WinCatalog 2018. If your catalog files were created in any previous version of WinCatalog (even if you opened it in the 2018 version), the issue does not occur.
  • The problem was that since version 18.0 WinCatalog was switched to a new SQLite library (catalog files are raw SQLite databases) and after removing entries from the catalog the catalog file remained the same size. Unused entries were marked as deleted and were reused for subsequent additions. So no catalog file space was lost. However, the catalog file did not shrink. The explicit “Compress Catalog” command from the Catalog Tools should be used to rebuild the entire catalog file and thus reclaim unused disk space.
  • The new update turns the auto shrinking option on. Once again, the issue affects the catalog files created in WinCatalog 2018 only, if you created your catalog file in any version prior to 2018, you did not force with the issue, so no actions described below are required.
  • Otherwise, after downloading and installing the new update, please click the Catalog button (left from the Main tab of the Ribbon toolbar):
  • WinCatalog 2018 - Catalog Button:
  • Then click Tools. In the Tools please click Compress Catalog File. This will turn the auto-shrinking on and will shrink the current file. Please wait until the operation is complete.
  • From that moment, if you remove a disk or a portion of files from your catalog file, the catalog file size will be reduced.
  • Please note that you should perform these steps for each catalog file you use.
  • The final steps of the disk updating process were optimized:
  • After synchronizing a previously cataloged disk or a folder, when a lot of files or folders were removed from the disk, WinCatalog takes up to twice less time to remove the deleted files from the catalog.
  • The changes are especially noticeable for a large number of files or folder to remove (from a hundred thousands and more).
  • In addition, WinCatalog now displays an understandable progress indicator that may help to estimate a time to complete the operation.
  • A better look for monitors with a scaling set to 150% or more:
  • The new update brings a better look of WinCatalog for those who use monitors with a scaling size set to more than 100% (especially to 150% and more), now WinCatalog correctly displays the icons for files and folders, readable sized yellow hints and images.
  • Download link and upgrade status:
  • The upgrade is free for everyone who owns a valid license for WinCatalog 2018 or purchased a lifetime major upgrades option.
  • To download WinCatalog 2018 version 18.4, please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog – just install the latest version over the existing one.

New in WinCatalog 2018 18.3 (Nov 22, 2018)

  • This is a maintenance update fixing the following issues: the previous version did not update thumbnails for modified pictures. It, actually, did but continued to keep and display an older thumbnail. The other issue was the inability to change the minimum and the maximum sizes for checksums/hashes calculations – the values were always turned back to defaults. Another issue that deserves attention was fixed in this update: WinCatalog sometimes hanged displaying several thousand picture thumbnails located in one folder or in search results.
  • Now if the “Disk Info Only” scanning profile was used, WinCatalog displays disk used space as the disk size (for other scanning profile, as previously, the size value of each folder, including the root disk record, is the sum of sizes of all the contained files).
  • Another visual improvement – now if you collapse any section of the Properties panel (located on the right side of the window by default), WinCatalog remembers that and displays this section collapsed until you expand it.
  • The update is free for everyone who owns a license for WinCatalog 2018 or purchased the Lifetime Major Upgrade Option. The update is recommended to install.
  • Please note that this update changes the free trial terms from 10 disks per a catalog file to 30-day full-featured but time-limited trial period. If you don’t have a license for WinCatalog 2018, your 30-day trial will start after upgrading to 18.3. After the trial period ends, if you haven’t purchased a license, WinCatalog will continue working in a read-only mode (and can be used as a reader for previously created catalog files). If you have a license for WinCatalog 2018, WinCatalog will continue working without any limitations and you may skip this notice.

New in WinCatalog 2018 18.2 (Aug 13, 2018)

  • This is a maintenance update fixing an issue of selecting a correct scanning profile (previously if you delete all the scanning profiles from a catalog file and then create a new one WinCatalog used default settings instead of using the selected profile).

New in WinCatalog 2018 18.14 (Jun 26, 2018)

  • This is a maintenance intermediate update fixing an issue of updating a single file (previously WinCatalog dropped file size to zero when updating a single file). There were no issues when updating a folder or a whole disk. Another issue was fixed – now WinCatalog preserves drive types during update process in case if you changed it manually.

New in WinCatalog 2018 18.12 (Jun 15, 2018)

  • This is a maintenance minor update fixing an issue of inability to import one catalog file into another (in the previous version any attempt to import another catalog file finished unsuccessfully). The importing process was also slightly improved and now works faster. In addition, it got its own progress bar.
  • A command line option to display or skip the Update Report after the update process ends was also added in this update. Use the -UpdateReport key (the short version is -ur) with the following parameters: show to display the update report independently from the value of this option in the scanning profile, skip to skip the update report after the process ends (also independently from the option set in the scanning profile), and default (or def) to use the value from the scanning profile. Instead of using the default option, you can omit the whole -UpdateReport parameter to get the same results.
  • Examples of usage:
  • WinCatalog.exe -u -cp "CatalogVacation Photos 2018" -UpdateReport skip
  • Use the skip parameter to turn off the Update Report after the scanning process is finished independently from the value set in the scanning profile.
  • WinCatalog.exe -u -cp "CatalogVacation Photos 2018" -ur show
  • Use the show parameter to display the Update Report after the scanning process is finished independently from the value set in the scanning profile.
  • This is the minor upgrade, it is free for everyone who owns a license for WinCatalog 2018 or purchased the Lifetime Major Upgrade Option.
  • To download WinCatalog 2018 version 18.12, please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog – just install the latest version over the existing one.

New in WinCatalog 2018 18.1 (May 30, 2018)

  • This is a maintenance update fixing several issues from the previous release. The issue when the Report window did not show up is fixed. The issue when WinCatalog ignored an option to exclude small files from MD5/SHA256 calculation is fixed. The issue when WinCatalog ignored the option to skip the update report is fixed. Italian, Czech, Finnish, French, Indonesian, Polish, Portugal, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Chinese translations were actualized. An ability to edit Properties from the Update Report was added.
  • This is the minor upgrade, it is free for everyone who owns a license for WinCatalog 2018 or purchased the Lifetime Major Upgrade Option.
  • To download WinCatalog 2018 version 18.1, please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog – just install the latest version over the existing one.

New in WinCatalog 2018 18.00 (May 21, 2018)

  • The new version introduces a brand new feature – scanning profiles – providing an ability to have several sets of scanning options and switch between them easily. The new version also contains a lot of smaller visible and hidden improvements based on a feedback and suggestions provided by our customers. For the new update, we performed an optimization, reviewed the code for errors and more. Below you will find descriptions of the most interesting features.
  • Scanning profiles (sets of the scanning options):
  • We decided to call this function “scanning profiles” or, as previously, “scanning options”. Scanning options were moved from Program Options to a separate and dedicated options manager. You can open it by clicking the Scanning Options button on the Ribbon toolbar:
  • WinCatalog 2018 - Scanning Options:
  • When WinCatalog creates a new catalog file, it also creates four profiles for the scanning options: disk only – for adding information about the disk without scanning the contents, disk and folders – for adding information about the disk and grabbing folders structure, but skipping the files, basic file info – for adding all the files and folders, but grabbing just basic file information like size, created and modified dates, file attributes – all advanced processing modules, for example, ID3 tags extraction for audio files, or thumnails grabbing for images, are turned off for this profile, and, finally, full file info – when WinCatalog grabs all the info it can grab. All options in the last profile are set to their default values.
  • If you upgraded from a previous version of WinCatalo and changed scanning options before, another profile will be created – called my settings. It will contain all the settings you set in the previous version and all the previously added disks will be connected to this profile (you can always change the profile on the Volume Info tab in the Properties of any item).
  • Any of the existing profiles can be modified, renamed, deleted. You can also create new profiles for your needs. You can read more about the Scanning Options manager in the user manual (the PDF version is available here).
  • When selecting a disk or a folder to add, in the Add Disk or Add Folder dialogues, you can select the profile for the next scanning session. When a disk or folder is added, WinCatalog remembers the profile and uses it again automatically when you update the disk or a folder (or you can switch to another profile before updating on the Volume Info tab).
  • Other improvements:
  • In addition to the main new feature, WinCatalog 2018 contains a lot of improvements and additions. For example, the Properties panel (located on the right part of the main window by default) now displays tag information and disk info for the selected items. The progress window for the scanning and updating processes displays now the disk label. When you open a new search tab, the focus is set to the search field, so you can start typing immediately. The Report Generator button was added to the main panel of the Ribbon toolbar, the process of the report generation now displays a progress bar (so WinCatalog does not freeze now on long report generations), and the Report Generator itself now resides in a separate window. New option to limit checksum and hashes calculations was added: now it is possible to set up a threshold for large files in addition to the small ones. The optimization work and a code review for error detecting were performed for the scanning module. Now WinCatalog scans and updates disks faster, especially for the catalog files having a large number of tags.

New in WinCatalog 2017 17.3 (Nov 17, 2017)

  • This is a maintenance update fixing some minor issues found from the previous update and slightly improves the update speed for disks and folders containing a large number of files and folders inside.
  • Thumbnail generation for video files was also improved, now WinCatalog will grab thumbnails for a various number of video formats even if the File Explorer does not display them (previously, displaying the thumbnails in File Explorer was a prerequisite). A support of .vob, .flac, .swf and other types of files was added.
  • Now you can clear the search history, zip backup compression also is now an option.

New in WinCatalog 2017 17.2 (Jun 29, 2017)

  • The new version contains improvements and new features.
  • Now you can select several tags, locations or contacts and see all the associated items in the grid view. Use CTRL+Mouse click to add or remove an item to/from the selection, SHIFT+CLICK to select a range of items and CTRL+UP/CTRL+DOWN to expand the selection.
  • The other new feature is the optional ability to display search queries on the search tabs. This feature is useful for those who create several search tabs at the same time. The feature is turned on by default.
  • Thanks to the partial data loading, WinCatalog now improves the speed of displaying contents of the folders that contain large number of files and sub-folders.
  • The Administrative tab was added to the Program’s Options. It allows turning the debug logging on and off and switch to the ‘old’ scanning module that does not requrie .NET Framework.
  • Two issues concerning CRC32 and other hashes were fixed. Now WinCatalog correctly grags CRC32 values for files located inside ZIP archives (previously it grabbed negative values for some entries). Previously, the MD5 calculator locked the file and blocked CRC32 or SHA256 calculations. Now all three values can be calculated during the scanning process.

New in WinCatalog 2017 17.1 (Apr 17, 2017)

  • The latest version adds SHA256 hash calculation for files. The feature is turned off by default. To turn it on, please run WinCatalog, click the Catalog button (left from the Main tab of the Ribbon toolbar), and then click Options. Follow to the General Scanning page, find the Checksum calculation section and mark the “Calculate SHA256…” option. Please note that changing this option affects to the new scans only. If you wish to calculate SHA256 for previously catalogued files that were not changed, please turn the following option temporarily off: “While updating a disk or a folder: skip unmodified files (speeds up the update process)”. Please do not forget to turn this option back on after all to speed-up future updates.

New in WinCatalog 2017 17.05 (Apr 6, 2017)

  • Version 17.05 fixes the ta-da sound that did not play after the update process is completed.

New in WinCatalog 2017 17.04 (Mar 28, 2017)

  • This is a maintenance update that fixes Windows XP incompatibility and thumbnails grabbing (previously WinCatalog reduced thumbnails size to 200 pixels for a larger side independently from the selected value of the “Thumbnails size (in pixels)” option).

New in WinCatalog 2017 17 (Feb 23, 2017)

  • Advantages of the new version:
  • A scanning algorithm has been completely renewed.
  • A speed of scanning a disk has been greatly increased.
  • A process of updating a catalog has been renewed and works mush faster.
  • As you can see, the new version does not include any visible changes (so, unfortunately, we can’t just tell you “please click here to see all the new features”), but it contains a lot of internal improvements for the scanning and updating processes.
  • The scanning module was rewritten from a scratch using a new platform and now it works much faster and reliable (but keeps all the same functionality). 2017 release is a huge step forward for us opening new capabilities for the future development and for the new features.

New in WinCatalog 2016 16.5 (Feb 13, 2017)

  • This is a maintenance update that improves the scanning process. The update is recommended for those who actively populate their catalogs.

New in WinCatalog 2016 16.41 (Dec 28, 2016)

  • fixes occasional interruptions of the scanning process on some computers

New in WinCatalog 2016 16.4 (Dec 21, 2016)

  • This is a maintenance update that increases the scanning and updating speeds.

New in WinCatalog 2016 16.3 (Dec 5, 2016)

  • Importing and exporting tags. This feature will be useful for those who uses the Tags functionality a lot. Now it is possible to import a list of tags from a text file and save the tags into a text file (for example, for adding them to another catalog file). To import/export tags, please open the Tags manager or follow to the Tags tab in the Properties of any item and you will see new Export and Import buttons next to the New and Delete buttons.
  • Collapsable progress dialog. Now you can show more or less info during scanning a disk. Just click a small up/down arrow next to the Progress bar to show more or less info.

New in WinCatalog 2016 16.21 (Oct 10, 2016)

  • This is a maintenance update that fixes the issue with cropping large thumbnails extracted from video files. Now WinCatalog extracts large thumbnails (1080+ pixels on the larger side) and all other thumbnails correctly
  • Another improvement was made to the Properties window. The Thumbnail page of the item properties windows now displays the size and the dimensions of the stored thumbnail (please see the picture)
  • To download WinCatalog 2016 version 16.21, please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog – just install the latest version over the existing one. The upgrade is free for everyone, who owns a license for WinCatalog 2016, or older 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011

New in WinCatalog 2016 16.2 (Sep 8, 2016)

  • A new option for the Type search filter – “Disks and root folders” allows finding disks and root folders (meaning the folders added via the Add Folder command).
  • New search filter option – an ability to limit search depth was added.
  • The Tags row of the Search Filter now saves the selected tags and the Condition.
  • The command line parameter -ShowInCatalog has been improved: now it switches left tabs if a tag, a location or a contact is passed to show.
  • An ability to extract embedded thumbnails for images (if available) instead of generating new thumbnails based on the original image was added. This feature increases the scanning speed for pictures that have embedded thumbnails, however, the size of the embedded thumbnails is usually 120 pixels for the larger side. This feature is turned off by default.

New in WinCatalog 2016 16.1 (May 25, 2016)

  • Improvements of the Search feature:
  • Now WinCatalog can search using filter BETWEEN for sizes and dates
  • A new search condition added to the Search By Tags feature: now EACH OF finds items with all listed tags linked (and any other tags linked), ONLY finds items with the only tags listed in the field
  • Improvements of the Reports:
  • WinCatalog can now generate XML reports
  • Now WinCatalog can export Thumbnails and Icons into HTML reports
  • Synchronization report:
  • Now WinCatalog can save synchronization report into XML, HTML or CSV, the keyboard shortcut CTRL+S added for the Save command
  • WinCatalog can now copy the Sync Report lines to the Clipboard as HTML (a context menu for the Copy command and keyboard shortcuts CTRL+C/CTRL+INS were added as well)
  • Other improvements:
  • A new option for double click actions added – now you can set up Open in Explorer double click action for files only or for files and folders
  • WinCatalog now opens the contents of the folder if Open In Explorer executed on a folder. Previously File Explorer selected the folder instead of showing the contents
  • Now if a tag is selected, the status bar area displays the number of linked entries
  • Other minor fixes

New in WinCatalog 2016 16.0 (Mar 18, 2016)

  • The update includes big features (like the new User Defined Fields system) and many improvements to existing functionality (like the resizable Properties dialog box, improved thumbnails extraction for PDF files, or support of Rar 5 archives and Blake2 checksums).

New in WinCatalog 2015 15.5 (Jan 7, 2016)

  • This is a maintenance update that fixes an issue of grabbing thumbnails from some types of video files in Windows 10.

New in WinCatalog 2015 15.4 (Nov 19, 2015)

  • If the “Scan only folders (do not add files to the catalog)” option is selected, the new version of WinCatalog correctly calculates a size of added folders (previously, the size of empty folders was always zero).
  • Now you can change a type of any disk in a catalog and WinCatalog will keep the changed type after disk updates.
  • If you partially update a disk or a folder, WinCatalog will correctly handle paths for the other not updated items.
  • Minor GUI fixes.
  • The experimental feature: SuperMode. Previously you could move any item (file, disk or folder) from real (yellow) folders to virtual (blue) folders. Now with SuperMode you can move any item (even non-file one) to any folder. This feature can be helpful, if you want to move previously moved files and folders back to their original location. The feature can be enabled only via the command line parameter “-smode” with three options: “on” – to enable the feature, “off” – to disable it, and “tmp”.

New in WinCatalog 2015 15.3 (Sep 3, 2015)

  • After updating a disk or a folder, WinCatalog displays synchronization report where it shows all the added, updated and removed files and folders:
  • Now WinCatalog allows to set the font size for the Properties window (rightmost panel displaying attributes for the selected items). You can choose from Small, Medium, Large and XL. Small is the default. You can change this option on the Look & Feel page of the program’s options.
  • The new version grabs and displays more Exif tags:
  • The new version grabs and displays more Exif tags from image files and digital photographs. In addition to previously supported tags, WinCatalog now displays aperture, shutter speed, focal length, ISO equivalent, and others.
  • Now WinCatalog displays progress indicator when importing from another collection or when deleting a disk or a folder. The deletion process itself has been also improved.
  • File operations were improved. Now if you click “Execute” or “Open in Explorer” for a file or a folder from within an archive, WinCatalog will execute (or open in explorer) the archive instead of showing “file not found” message.
  • Save button added to the Thumbnail page of the Properties window – now you can save associated thumbnails to the disk as Jpeg images.
  • WinCtalog can now find items if you type a part of the linked tag (or tags) in the search field:
  • In other words, you search for tags and find linked files and folders as well. This feature is turned on by default, but only for new collection files. For existing collection files, you should rebuild the search index and include the “Tags associated” field into the index. To rebuild Search Index please click the Collection Management button, then Search Index.
  • When you open a new search tab, the Look In field will automatically contain the path to the selected folder.
  • In search results, if you click Open in Collection on a tag – the linked items will be shown in the list view.
  • Command line parameter “-CatalogPath” now accepts several paths separated by semicolons. This allows running the Update commands for several disks or folders in a queue.
  • The new version contains an ability to compress collection file by utilizing unnecessary space that may be left after deleting a large amount of files. To access this function click the Collection Management button, then Collection Tools button on the Collection page.

New in WinCatalog 2015 15.2 (Jul 24, 2015)

  • The new version adds a command line support for basic operations. Now you can include WinCatalog into your automation processes. By passing the command line arguments into WinCatalog you can:
  • Create a new collection file
  • Open existing collection file
  • Add a new disk, a folder or a file to the collection
  • Update previously added disk, folder or a file
  • Start WinCatalog and navigate to any catalog folder
  • Start search and specify full set of search filters, including filtering by size, date, tags, location and collection branch
  • Start search for duplicates

New in WinCatalog 2015 15.1 (Jun 19, 2015)

  • The new version brings improvements to the collection backup functionality: it now applies Zip compression the backup copies of the collection files. The new feature requires .Net Framework 2.0 or higher, otherwise WinCatalog will use an ‘old’ backup method when it copied and renamed collection files.
  • Bug fixed: now WinCatalog correctly finds files and folders when you search using Tags with “None of” condition applied.

New in WinCatalog 2015 15.02 (May 23, 2015)

  • Polish translation has been updated

New in WinCatalog 2015 15 (May 22, 2015)

  • This is a maintenance update, it improves the scanning and updating speeds, especially for folders with a lot of files.
  • A new startup option was added: now you can choose if you wish to expand Tags, Locations and Contacts branches. Disabling this option helps WinCatalog to start faster (in case if you have a lot of tags in your collection).
  • The second new option improves scanning speed: you can tell WinCatalog to skip the calculation process and do not display the total number of files on the Scanning Progress dialog. Previously WinCatalog skipped the calculation of total number of files automatically for optical drives (CD, DVD, DVD-RW, Blu-ray, etc). Now you can turn it off for all types of drives. Enabling this option may give advantages not only for slow drives, but for regular HDD or even for SSD.
  • One more new feature allows you to set a timeout for processing files by external file processing modules. Now if it takes too long to process a file, WinCatalog will just skip it and move to the next one. The default value is 10 seconds (but for optical drives WinCatalog multiplies the value by 3).

New in WinCatalog 2015 14.5 (May 12, 2015)

  • The new version adds a new column for displaying drives’ serial numbers, brings minor improvements to the scanning process and fixes some issues: the ability to switch search view from detailed to thumbnails and back works now (again), the Add Disk dialog automatically scrolls the contents of the list of available drives to the selected position.

New in WinCatalog 2015 14 (Mar 23, 2015)

  • The new update adds an ability to grab metadata and cover images from electronic books. WinCatalog 2015 supports the following ebook formats: ePub, iBook, Fb2 and Mobi (.epub, .ibook, .fb2, .mobi, .prc, .azw and .azw3 extensions). This functionality requires .Net Framework version 2.0 or newer. Absence of .Net Framework does not affect on WinCatalog functionality: only on the ability to process ebooks.
  • The speed of processing RAW files has been significantly improved. Now WinCatalog can extract thumbnails and basic Exif tags from RAW files up to 3x times faster! An ability of extracting XMP metadata from RAW files is expected to be one of the next updates.
  • A significant issue of version 13.5 has been fixed: WinCatalog was not able to process archives and ISO files contents in some versions of Windows 7, Vista and XP. In Windows 8 and 8.1 it worked fine. Now it works in all versions of Windows as expected. If you use WinCatalog 13.5 in any Windows prior to Windows 8, the update is highly recommended for you.

New in WinCatalog 2015 13.5 (Feb 17, 2015)

  • This is a maintenance update which brings a stability to the scanning process, especially when it grabs media info and thumbnails from video files, EXIF tags and thumbnails from RAW images, and thumbnails from Microsoft Office and PDF files.

New in WinCatalog 2015 13 (Jan 19, 2015)

  • This is a maintenance update which improves the scanning speed, especially for “deep” folders.

New in WinCatalog 2015 12.22 (Dec 31, 2014)

  • This is a maintenance update which fixes two issues with interpreting complex search operators and inability to find files added via Add File command when you click Execute or Open in Explorer.

New in WinCatalog 2015 12.21 (Dec 30, 2014)

  • This is a maintenance update which improves an ability to extract media info from some types of video files (like .mkv) and fixes interface translations.

New in WinCatalog 2015 12.2 (Dec 27, 2014)

  • The update adds two columns to display Added and Updated dates for catalogued drives. Added date means a date when a drive or a folder has been initially added to the catalog and Updated date means a date when a drive or a folder has been updated last time.

New in WinCatalog 2015 12 (Nov 18, 2014)

  • The thumbnail preview panel in the new version is detachable and resizable, so it is able to display thumbnails of any size and may be docked anywhere on the main window. Just grab the “Thumbnail preview” caption and drop it anywhere on the screen.
  • Rate WinCatalog and send feedback to developers directly from the program. Just click the Star button on the Help and support tab of the Ribbon toolbar, type your message and click Rate!
  • Status bar of the main window now displays short summary information about the selected folder. It shows a total count of objects located in the folder and number of folders and files.
  • You asked for it, you got it. Another most wanted feature is the ability to exclude files and folders from scanning by mask. This option can be configured on the General Scanning page under the Scanning section of the Program’s Options. This feature is switched on by default and contains 4 predefined masks to skip *.tmp, *.bak and all desktop.ini and thumbs.db files. You can easily add your own patterns to this list.
  • Now WinCatalog can automatically add numbers to rows when it generates HTML reports. If you use WinCatalog to generate printable lists of files, this new feature will make your reports even better.

New in WinCatalog 2014 11.2 (Oct 2, 2014)

  • The update fixes an issue with wrong grouping order by the Filename column in the search results when finding duplicates.

New in WinCatalog 2014 11.1 (Oct 1, 2014)

  • The new update adds an ability to use password hints for collection passwords and fixes several minor issues: WinCatalog now closes all search tabs when you switch between collection files; an issue with inability to remove tags assigned with items has been also fixed; Czech, French, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Spanish translations have been updated.

New in WinCatalog 2014 10.1 (Sep 18, 2014)

  • This update fixes an incompatibility with Windows XP (Windows XP does not support Windows Media Foundation which is used by WinCatalog since version 10 to grab basic information about video files like duration, resolution, etc).

New in WinCatalog 2014 10 (Sep 18, 2014)

  • The new version now uses Windows Media Player to grab basic information about video files (like resolution, duration, bitrate, audio channels, etc).
  • It should be mentioned that WinCatalog can also grab thumbnails for video files and pictures, keep them inside your collection file and make them available for preview even if the original files are off the PC! In other words, you can see thumbnails for photos and video files without touching the files.

New in WinCatalog 2014 9 (Jul 18, 2014)

  • The new version can generate reports based on search results and displays the total number of files left to process during scanning or updating a drive (this works for all drive types except optical drives because of speeding up scanning).

New in WinCatalog 2014 8 (Jun 3, 2014)

  • The search feature has been completely redesigned in that update. Now WinCatalog uses search filter values as additional conditions when it searches in the database, instead of applying them after the search is complete.
  • The new feature makes search results more accurate and relevant.
  • The other improvement gives an ability to change root path for a catalogued drive or a folder. This feature may be helpful in cases when you move your files from one drive to another, or reorganize your physical folder structure within a drive.

New in WinCatalog 2014 7.0 (Jun 3, 2014)

  • The new version can now keep non-empty comments for files when it updates a previously catalogued drive or a folder. The scanning speed has been also improved a bit.

New in WinCatalog 2014 6.3 (May 1, 2014)

  • The new version can now keep non-empty comments for files when it updates a previously catalogued drive or a folder.
  • The scanning speed has been also improved a bit.

New in WinCatalog 2014 6.2 (Apr 14, 2014)

  • If you work with a password protected collection file WinCatalog 2014 version number 6.2 asks for a password just once now – when you open the collection file. Then it remembers it for one session and reuses it when you open a new search tab or a report generator.

New in WinCatalog 2014 6.1 (Mar 12, 2014)

  • The update significantly improves scanning speed of HTML and MHT (a web page archive format) files.

New in WinCatalog 2014 6.0 (Mar 4, 2014)

  • The new version fixes issues with some Windows 8.1 installations on computers with touch screens and adds new features.
  • Now you can reduce size of your collection file by deleting all the grabbed thumbnails (for pictures, RAW images and video files). This feature may be useful for backup purposes. Many of our clients asked for this feature.
  • Another new improvement concerns the Search filter: it is now possible to list all items (files, folders, non-file records) which are NOT linked with a specific tag (keyword).
  • There is a visual improvement: now the Properties panel (which appears on the right) displays properties of the parent folder (or drive) if nothing is selected in the main list view.
  • A “New Search” button has been added to the Ribbon toolbar and now you can assign any shortcut to the button which will open a new search tab.

New in WinCatalog 2014 5.0 (Dec 11, 2013)

  • WinCatalog 2014 can grab thumbnails for video files (codecs are required to be installed on the computer). Thumbnails also can be grabbed from some other types of files. In short, if Windows Explorer can display previews for your files, WinCatalog will also be able to grab the thumbnails.
  • Using WinCatalog 2014 you can interrupt the scanning process, save intermediate results and continue at any time from that point. Now during the scan when you click Stop in the progress window, WinCatalog asks you if you wish to save or discard changes. This feature works for both scanning and updating processes.

New in WinCatalog 4.15 (Sep 3, 2013)

  • In some cases sorting by Type worked like sorting by Name. The reason was that sorting by Type considered all files (except pictures and archives) as having the same type (file), so the Name column was used (as a second sorting criteria, which is used for identical values in other columns).
  • In some cases on search queries returning large result lists (more than 10-15+ thousands found items) some items could be lost. WinCatalog does not lose any results now, however the GUI freezes for a while on fetching huge result sets now while tries to display all the results. We’re planning to solve this as well.
  • Chinese translation has been updated.

New in WinCatalog 4.11 (Aug 19, 2013)

  • The new update fixes an issue: the only long date format (like Friday, August 16, 2013) has been available for saving into reports. Now you can switch from long to short and vice versa.
  • The French translation of user interface has been also updated.

New in WinCatalog 4.1 (Aug 1, 2013)

  • A few bugs have been fixed, new features have been added.
  • WinCatalog displays properties of a video fileNow WinCatalog can grab basic information about video files like resolution, frame rate, duration, codec information, etc.
  • The search feature has been improved: now you can limit search results by a single brunch. The new option has been implemented as a search filter “Look in”.
  • New interface languages have been added: Chinese Traditional, Dutch, Indonesian, Italian and Korean.

New in WinCatalog 4.01 (Apr 24, 2013)

  • The new version contains two major improvements:
  • The search feature has been redesigned. The search for duplicates has been moved to search filters and now you can filter the results and keep only duplicated items.
  • The ability to group search results is now available in a regular search.
  • The second major improvement will make happy photographers. WinCatalog 2013 can now create and keep thumbnails for RAW images. There is a large number of digital camera and image types supported. The extensions list: .raw, .cr2, .crw, .nef, .tif, .nrw, .kdc, .raf, .pef, .mrw, .3fr, .dcr, .dng, .erf, .arw, .orf, .mef, .mos, .rw2, .sr2.

New in WinCatalog 3.75 (Jan 3, 2013)

  • The new version contain significant improvements in search index and in the disc updating. When you start WinCatalog 3.75 for the first time it will make some adjustments in your existing collection file. Please be patient. For large collection files this operation can take up to a few minutes. After WinCatalog finish update the index your collection file size will be decreased for approximately 15%.
  • WinCatalog now updates discs and folders much faster. Now it ignores and does not process unmodified files. WinCatalog thinks that the file wasn’t modified if it’s size, creation, modification dates and file attributes weren’t changed since the previous update or scan.
  • There are more new options: WinCatalog can now skip system, hidden files and Recycle Bin folder (ignoring the Recycle Bin folder was critical for Hard Drives scanning). All mentioned options are switched on by default by you may always turn them off if you wish.
  • A new column has been added to the grid view. Now you can display Tags for every item. The column is hidden by default and you should mark it visible to see it.
  • The latest look-and-feel improvement: WinCatalog can now start with Search panel opened. Most probably you’re running WinCatalog to search for something and this little improvement show you the search panel. This tiny feature saves just a single mouse click, but you may love it. The feature to start with search panel is switched off by default. To enable it please open General tab of the Program’s options

New in WinCatalog 3.7 (Aug 20, 2012)

  • The new version now remembers the dates when each disc was added and updated.
  • Now it is possible to set tags recursively. Just mark the checkbox when you edit tags to apply changes to all subitems.
  • The other new feature – WinCatalog can now periodically check for updates and inform you if a new version is available for download. This feature is turned on by default. If you want to disable this feature you can find the setting under the General section of the program’s options.

New in WinCatalog 3.61 (Aug 14, 2012)

  • This quick update fixes the version’s 3.6 search issue which occurred only under Windows XP: the new phonetic search feature implemented in WinCatalog 3.6 did not work properly under Windows XP. Now the issue is fixed.

New in WinCatalog 3.6 (Aug 4, 2012)

  • The main new feature of the new version is the new thumbnail view for your files. The progress dialog for the scanning process is updating once per a second now (instead of updating statistics on processing every single file like it was done previously). This may help to scan large drives a little bit faster on some computers

New in WinCatalog 3.5.51 (Jun 1, 2012)

  • Correctly detects the root item for files and folders if you click Update not on the root folder of the branch.
  • The new update also fixes a visual issue with the collection tree update after synchronization.

New in WinCatalog 3.5.50 (Jun 1, 2012)

  • Fixes the bug with strange “futuristic” dates for newly added discs, improves data access layer, brings the ability to stop search if there are too many results and introduces 4 new interface languages: Arabic, two versions of Hungarian, Polish and German.

New in WinCatalog 3.5.2 (Jan 3, 2012)

  • The search function behavior has been modified. Now you shouldn’t add leading asterisk into the search queries to find all occurrences of the search term.
  • The ability to automatically backup your collection files on a regular basis has been added. WinCatalog will gently remind you to backup your data (or it will do that automatically).
  • The collection converter has been improved. Now it can convert collections created with any previous version of WinCatalog (including WinCatalog Light).
  • Now it is possible to minimize WinCatalog during the scanning process.
  • The option to unlock list view columns has been added. Now it is possible to scroll list view right and left.
  • A drag&drop issue has been fixed.
  • The ability to access the program documentation (help file) from the main window has been added.
  • WinCatalog now automatically rotates thumbnails according to EXIF orientation tag (on processing pictures).
  • WinCatalog can now generate CSV reports (HTML reports are coming) based on a search results or on a custom set of folders.

New in WinCatalog 2.92 (May 3, 2010)

  • The default double click action for folders and disks under keywords and users is changed
  • Now WinCatalog 2009 can extract more that 255 characters from text files (the configurable option is added).

New in WinCatalog 2.91 (Jan 14, 2010)

  • The default double click action for folders and disks under keywords and users is changed. Now in the main window if you double click on an item linked with a keyword the following will happen:
  • If the item is a folder, a disk or an archive, it will be located in the catalog.
  • If the item is a file or a custom record, the item’s properties will be shown (as before).

New in WinCatalog 2.9 (Jan 12, 2010)

  • We are glad to announce that a new maintenance update of WinCatalog 2009 has been released. The version number is 2.9.
  • Now WinCatalog can extract more than 255 characters from text files (the configurable option is added). To configure this option please click Tools, then Program’s Options. Follow to the Scanning tab and click Configure Additional File Processing Options button. Then select Keep text from plain text files and click Properties. Here you can limit the text extraction or simply switch it off. We recommend to leave this option in it’s default state (limit text extraction to 255 characters).
  • Locate in catalog menu item is added to the popup menu when you browse keywords or lent volumes in the main window.

New in WinCatalog 2.89 Christmas Edition (Dec 26, 2009)

  • The ability to add several files simultaneously by using WinCatalog 2009 has got Ready for Windows 7 award.

New in WinCatalog 2.88 (Sep 26, 2009)

  • Now WinCatalog 2009 can add several files to the catalog simultaneously by using Add File command…

New in WinCatalog 2.87 (Sep 17, 2009)

  • Now WinCatalog can compare MD5 checksums while updating a volume. WinCatalog can now display Free Space for volumes in the bottom properties window.

New in WinCatalog 2.86 (Jul 17, 2009)

  • We are glad to announce that a new version of WinCatalog 2009 has been just released. The new version can now calculate CRC32 checksum for files (in additional to MD5 checksum from an earlier version).
  • The option to calculate the CRC32 is switched off by default. To enable it, please run WinCatalog 2009, click Tools menu item, then click Program’s Options and follow to the Scanning tab to mark the correspondent checkbox. It is also possible to exclude small files from CRC32 calculation.
  • The CRC32 calculation works faster than the MD5 calculation; however it still slows down the scanning process.
  • The other improvement of the new release is MP3 file scanning enhancement. Now WinCatalog 2009 correctly works with MP3 files with broken or invalid ID3 tags.

New in WinCatalog 2.85 (Jun 22, 2009)

  • A new version of WinCatalog 2009 is released. The compatibility issue with some versions of Windows XP is fixed.
  • While adding new items to the catalog the previous version of WinCatalog 2009 (2.84) could not load a new mp3 scanning plugin (mp3Info2.dll) on some Windows XP installations. The new version 2.85 fixes this issue.

New in WinCatalog 2.84 (Jun 18, 2009)

  • There are two significant improvements in the new version: in mp3 files scanning and in Audio track names retrieving.
  • ID3 tags
  • ID3 is a very popular audio file data tagging format in active use by software and hardware developers around the world. ID3 tags are supported in software such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp. ID3 tags contain information about Song Title, Artist, Genre etc.
  • While adding an mp3 file to the catalog, WinCatalog 2009 extracts ID3 tags and changes the display name for the file by using “Artist – Song Title” template. WinCatalog 2009 also creates a keyword with Artist name and links the keyword with the added mp3 file. This will help you to navigate your files in the future.
  • The ID3 tags summary is placed into the comments field for the mp3 file just like it’s shown on the screenshot.
  • Audio Track Names
  • Since version 2.84 WinCatalog 2009 can retrieve Audio track names from several online sources simultaneously. This new improved feature finds almost 100% Audio tracks over the Internet.
  • If WinCatalog did not find any tracks for your audio disks in the past, you definitely should give it another try to do this.

New in WinCatalog 2.83 (May 10, 2009)

  • Importing from collection files created with WinCatalog Light is improved.

New in WinCatalog 2.82 (Apr 15, 2009)

  • CSV reports are improved and now are fully compatible with MS Excel CSV file format.
  • Automatic backup now can be switched off.

New in WinCatalog 2.81 (Mar 14, 2009)

  • Now WinCatalog can compare MD5 checksums while updating a volume.
  • WinCatalog can now display Free Space for volumes in the bottom properties window.

New in WinCatalog 2.8 (Dec 10, 2008)

  • Now it is possible to calculate MD5 checksum for files, however enabling this option will extremely slow down the speed of large files scanning. This option
  • is switched off by default.
  • Location field now available not only for file items and volumes but also for every item in WinCatalog 2009. The Location field has been moved from Volume Info tab to General tab.
  • Due to new fields addition, the file format for WinCatalog 2009 has been changed. WinCatalog 2009 will open all collection files created with any previous version of WinCatalog, but a previous version of WinCatalog may not open the collection file in the new format. Please make a backup copy of all your existing collection files before using the new version.
  • Now it is possible to expand and collapse tree branches using popup menu.
  • Scanning report dialog now contains "Updated" tab in additional to "Added" and "Deleted" tabs.
  • Now it is possible to keep Report dialog open on generating a report.
  • The ability to exclude "leaf" items from reports: it is possible to exclude files, archive and/or empty folders.
  • Specific property page for user properties in the main window.
  • The ability to backup a collection file before save by adding "BackupX" (where X is a number) word to the filename. The most recent backup file has no number at all. You can configure this feature in the Auto Backup tab of the Program Options dialog box.

New in WinCatalog 2.7 (Sep 6, 2008)

  • Now WinCatalog can scan inside disc images (ISO files).
  • The ability to customize advanced scanning options (like archives content extraction) is added.
  • Since previous release WinCatalog can extract EXIF tags from digital photographs and jpeg pictures.
  • WinCatalog now scan inside Zip archives larger than 4GB!
  • The ability to scan inside 7zip archives is added. Now WinCatalog can scan inside Zip, Rar and 7zip arhives.
  • The program's main menu has been reorganized. It became easier to find key features of the program.

New in WinCatalog 1.66 Christmas Edition! (Nov 30, 2006)

  • WinCatalog is now ready for Windows Vista!
  • From November 30 till the New Year you can purchase WinCatalog with 20% discount!
  • New column added into the Search window. Now it is possible to display Volume Information for files drectly in the Search window.

New in WinCatalog 1.65 (Nov 21, 2006)

  • Now it is possible to suppress system error messages and password prompts while scanning a disk containing shortcuts to remote or unreachable locations

New in WinCatalog 1.64 (Oct 17, 2006)

  • Now WinCatalog can scan inside archives created with ZipBackup for Windows.
  • New menu is added to the Search window.
  • Now WinCatalog can correctly scan inside any ZIP archive with size up to 2GB.

New in WinCatalog 1.62 (Sep 26, 2006)

  • Now WinCatalog can scan inside archives created with ZipBackup for Windows.
  • New menu is added to the Search window.
  • Now WinCatalog can correctly scan inside any ZIP archive with size up to 2GB.

New in WinCatalog 1.61 (Jul 24, 2006)

  • New menu is added to the Search window.
  • Now it is possible to display size for Virtual Folders. This feature is enabled by default. To disable this feature click Tools | Options menu item to open Program options dialog and unmark "Display size for virtual folders" checkbox.
  • Now WinCatalog checks volume serial number on updates. If there is no disk in drive or wrong disk is inserted, WinCatalog asks for another volume.
  • A bug with scanning inside ZIP archives created with WinZip 9 is fixed. Now WinCatalog can correctly scan inside any ZIP archive with size up to 2GB.

New in WinCatalog 1.60 (May 1, 2006)

  • Memory allocation algorythm has been rewriten.
  • Tree system aliases are added. Now you can press Win R and type "wcs", "wincatalog" or "wincatalogs" to quickly run WinCatalog Standard.