Integrating WinMerge in Visual Studio

I've been using WinMerge for a long time now because i think it's the best, FREE, comparison and merge tool available today. What i really don't like is the comparison tool that ships with Visual Studio.

For instance, the following line has a difference, but what is the difference exactly. You can figure out what it is by really staring at the line OR use WinMerge instead.

 vs_diff

The cool part about VS2008 is that you can configure a lot of things, and this also count for customizing tools.

To intergrate WinMerge follow these simple steps.

  1. Go to tools -> options -> source control -> visual studio team foundation server -> "configure user tools" button.
  2. Click Add
  3. Choose the following settings

    Extension: .*
    Operation: Compare
    Compare: C:\Program Files\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe
    Arguments: %1 %2

Now if you compare the files, you get the nice interface of WinMerge and can see directly what the difference in the lines is and enjoy the right features of WinMerge.

winmerge_diff

WinMerge can be downloaded from the following location. 

Enjoy.

Gr.
Martijn. 

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