Compare directory structures windows

Scripting Forums. PowerShell Forums. PowerShell on TechCommunity. Doctor Scripto October 9, Scripto Challenge. The Scripting Wife and I are on a road Doctor Scripto October 10, Hi, With that, you only need to create a script to copy the missing files, is there a way to see the lastwritetime for each element?

Best Regards. NET Core. Recordset ADOR. Code Compare is another free files and folder compare software for Windows. This software is mainly used by programmers to compare programming codes of two files.

But, you can also compare folders with it. It has an option named new folder comparison which is used to add and compare folders. A split interface is provided by this software to add one folder on left side and another folder at the right side of interface. After the test, you can view all the common content of both folders at the top of the list.

Non-identical content of left side folder is marked in red color, while the content of right side folder is marked as green. You can also access and view all the contents of folders directly from the Result list. This software also has many other handy features like synchronize folders , find and replace feature for documents, hide identical files , etc. The result of folder comparison can be exported as a project, while file comparison result can be saved in various document formats.

Note : Some features of this software like compare line by line , difference explorer , etc. To unlock all the feature, you have to buy its pro version. DirDiff is a free and portable folder compare software for Windows.

Through it, you can compare directories, folders, or even individual files with each other. In DirDiff, you can add and compare two folders, at a time. On its interface, you can view contents contained by both folders in a single list. In this list, unique contents of both folders are highlighted in different colors red and green and common content remains white. Files and documents contained by folders can also be modified directly from this software.

Through its file comparison feature, you can also compare two files. Instead of showing the text of files side by side, it actually superimposes the text of one file to other. All the common text remains the same. It also has some additional features that you may find useful, like option to view the structure of XML document, find in feature to find any particular text, floating drag handle icon to quickly add documents or files for comparison , etc.

DiffDaff is another alternative for a free software to compare folders. It can also be used to compare files, and web pages. Using it, you can compare two files and folders at a time.

You can also compare folders that have sub folders in it. Text can also be compared using this software, but special characters used in word and excel file formats are not supported by it. To compare folders, you have to add two folders in it. From the results, you can easily identify common and unique contents because of the use of highlighting schemes green and red.

Comparison result also incorporates partitioned interface to split the content of folders. FreeCommander is an advanced folder compare software for Windows. It is also used as an alternative of Windows file explorer. Its main feature is its dual panel file explorer window, through which you can open and compare files and folders of the system. To compare folders, just select any two target folders through its dual panel file explorer. On the toolbar, you can view various sections like File, Folders, View, etc.

In output, you get only unique files of both folders on their respective sides of the panel. The only limitation of this software is that it does not show common contents between folders. Active Oldest Votes. In Windows 7, the powershell won't work for this, FYI. Then do it again, so that you have two of them open next to each other. Using 'cd' commands. If you're not comfortable with this, then you should probably go with the external utilities, unless you want to learn command prompt stuff.

You'll now have two text files that list the contents of each directory. The command 'fc' means file compare. This will spit out a list of the differences between the two files, with an extra line of text above and below each difference, so you know where they are.

You can also pipe the differences into another file by using something like 'fc A. Have fun. WinMerge was helpful comparing the directory output txt files.

Of course, every "Directory of" line is a mismatch because the directory names are different. It worked great for me in the GUI. BobStein thanks for posting WinMerge - it's an excellent solution for Windows users!

Scripto 3rd party edit How to run a PowerShell script explains how to run the code above in a script. Kirill Yunussov Kirill Yunussov 1, 1 1 gold badge 14 14 silver badges 22 22 bronze badges. It would be useful if you explained what the different components of the commands do. Add -Force to Get-ChildItem to include hidden file system entries.

This works no matter how deep the nesting is — puerile. This didn't work for me. No output anywhere for two directories with identically-named text files with disparate contents, while kdiff3 correctly reported the very obvious differences.

I wanted: To compare the same filesystem with itself, i. A list of what files were added or removed, didn't care about inner file changes.

What I did: First snapshot before. Community Bot 1. Camilo Martin Camilo Martin 1 1 gold badge 4 4 silver badges 11 11 bronze badges. AlexB AlexB 91 1 1 silver badge 3 3 bronze badges. May be this will help. Saurabh Barjatiya Saurabh Barjatiya 4, 1 1 gold badge 28 28 silver badges 33 33 bronze badges. Thanks, but it does not solve my problem I'm looking for the diff to actually tell the differences.

I would use Meld for that. Pablo Pablo 7, 24 24 gold badges 66 66 silver badges 81 81 bronze badges. Meld works really well for this if you want a GUI solution. Freedom Fighter Freedom Fighter. Update parameters of ls to reflect the attributes you need to check. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password.