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Since I don't really like Total Commander's internal diff Compare Contents used in Compare by content and Synchronize Dirs → Compare left & right, I want to use something else like WinMerge or KDiff3.

Is this possible to launch an external program with the paths to the marked files in the left & right pane? That would solve Compare by content. Any other way to solve it? Can I control Synchronize Dirs so it does the same when I compare file content there?

Any other suggestions to easily make diffs in Total Commander with external diff program?

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2 Answers 2

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There are many ways to do this (here I'm using BeyondCompare as an example, it's the best I've found in this category, but the solution also works well with WinMerge):

A) Edit wincmd.ini under %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\GHISLER\ by default, and add something like this:

[Configuration]
CompareTool=C:\Program Files\Shareware\FileCmp\BeyondCmp\BCompare.exe

Now all comparisons are made using this app instead of the internal tool.

B) Using TotalCmd's StartMenu (command "Change start menu..."), add these commands:

Title:

BC (Compare left-vs-right directories)

Command: %YourPath%\BeyondCmp\BCompare.exe

Parameters: %X%p %X%t

Title:

BC (Compare current file under cursor vs same file in the other panel)

Command: %YourPath%\BeyondCmp\BCompare.exe

Parameters: "%X%p%x%n" "%X%t%x%n"

Title:

BC (Compare current file in left vs current file in right)

Command: %YourPath%\BeyondCmp\BCompare.exe

Parameters: "%X%p%n" "%X%t%m"

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7
  • What is the effect of %X and %x?
    – Joel
    Feb 16, 2011 at 8:25
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    %X Interprets the following parameters after this parameter as left/right instead of source/target: %P, %p (left path), %T, %t (right path), %N, %n (left name), %M, %m (right name), %S, %s (left selected), %R, %r (right selected)
    – TheNewbie
    Feb 16, 2011 at 9:56
  • %x Interprets the following parameters after this parameter again as source/target Example: %X%P %x%P sends left and source path to the called program
    – TheNewbie
    Feb 16, 2011 at 9:57
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    As of TC 9 you can use %C1 %C2 for better emulating the way the internal compare tool works: %C1 Like the first parameter of "Compare by content" - %C2 Like the second parameter of "Compare by content"
    – marlar
    Feb 19, 2017 at 20:30
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    Hint: Under Configuration menu, there is a submenu called "Change ini file directly"
    – IceCold
    Jan 18, 2021 at 13:04
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I came accross this question because I wanted to use Visual Studio Code as external diff tool.

Since VS Code isn't primarly a diff tool one can't just invoke the exe-file with two filenames as parameters. Instead the option --diff or just -d has to be specified.

This is important when editing the WINCMD.INI. The line Comparetool has to take the path to code.exe and the diff-option:

[Configuration]
Comparetool="C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" --diff
...
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