Diffuse

Diffuse is an advanced software application which helps you compare the content of two files, in order to find out whether they are identical or not, as well as easily spot any differences, since they are color-coded. It features several handy settings that should be easy to figure out by users.

The installation procedure does not take a long time to finish. The only notable aspect about it is that you can integrate an entry into the Windows Explorer shell extension for easy access.

The interface is represented by a regular window split into two panes which display the content of each file. These can be opened via the file browser or drag-and-drop method. It is possible to add as many panes as you want for file comparison.

Syntax highlighting is supported for several programming and scripting languages (e.g. C++, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Perl, Python). Items can be isolated or re-aligned, while Diffuse can be asked to jump to the next or previous difference. Text selections can be converted to uppercase or lowercase, lines can be sorted in ascending or descending order, while multiple panes can be merged into a single one. These are just some of the options available through this software utility.

There were no issues in our tests, since Diffuse did not hang, crash or pop up error messages. It has a good response time to commands and runs on low CPU and RAM, so it does not affect the overall performance of the PC. It is not particularly intuitive for first-time users, but Diffuse features some pretty handy advanced settings for file comparison.