Today's GAOTD offer is SoftChronizer, a duplicate file finder / similar music-song detector:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/softchronizer/
As usual, there are many comments about alternative titles. Rather than add my two cents on that page -- and be just as guilty as most of those posters who are NOT critiquing today's offer based on installing and using it -- I decided to put my comment here (with a mention on that page).
One very simple and lightweight (and free!) Windows comparison utility that, over the years, has worked well for me is Microsoft's "Windiff", which may already be on your system. It is a single EXE file that allows comparing the contents of two folders, or byte-for-byte text comparing of two files; and being very simple it is very fast to load. Just search your C: drive for "Windiff.EXE", then do a right-click "Properties" to confirm what version of Microsoft product it is.
(If not present, it is free in several of Microsoft's SDK (Software Development Kit, packages/collections of software development utilities/tools). To get a copy, download one of the Microsoft SDKs that contains it. Just search on Microsoft's support site, or Google "microsoft sdk windiff.exe" and you should find several choices identified.
Be aware that, depending on the SDK, some have older versions of Windiff as the SDK itself was "new" back in, say, the Windows 98 days, so try to select a recent one. My copy is version 6.1.76 from July 2009; much older versions of Windiff.EXE required an additional file, GUITLS.DLL, to reside in the same folder.
After running the SDK installer, just save the Windiff.EXE file somewhere on your disk, say, C:\Program Files\Misc Tools\Windiff.exe , or note where the installer put it.)
Next you'll want to make your own shortcut to it to put in the Start > Programs > Accessories menu, or wherever you like, for easy launching.
If comparing two mostly-text files (or of any kind, handy for finding where changes occur in, say, original vs. patched binary files; or between legal documents) you get a "composite" view file with the differences highlighted in two colors and a couple of vertical columns on the left represeting where you are within the two files (sort of like scroll bars) with the colored sections representing globally where the differences are located. Press F7/F8 keys to jump up/down to the next difference section, or click somewhere on either of the vertical bars to jump to that location in that file.
If comparing two folders you initially get an "Outline" listing of all the file names in both folders, with a column on the right indicating whether they are identical, different, or unique (belonging only to one folder or the other). Highlighting a file name and pressing the "Expand" button (or double-click on it) opens it in the other "composite" view described above (press "Outline" to return).
You can then edit either file or the "composite" version (right-click for choices); and in the options/preferences you can choose your own editor for doing this, say, Wordpad, MS Word, a hex editor, etc.
Although Windiff has a "File" menu to enter (or browse and choose) the files or folders to be compared, a very handy thing is to also put a shortcut to Windiff in your right-click "Send To" menu, so that all you have to do is highlight a couple of files or folders (on the desktop, in a Windows Explorer window, etc.) then right-click the pair and "Send To" Windiff. After highlighted the pair, the one you actually right-click on will become the "left-side/old" file or folder -- you'll see what I mean when you try it.
To add a shortcut to your "Send To" menu list, just open this folder: C:\Documents and Settings\<USER>\SendTo , where <USER> would be your name. Consider adding other shortcuts of other programs as well (say, Notepad, Wordpad, MS Word, Internet Explorer, IrfanView, Quicktime Player, Windows Media Player, etc.) to your SendTo folder and you'll have multiple choices for easily opening any file you right-click on, bypassing the assigned default program.
This is sort of like the right-click "Open With" option, except it is quicker; it's more often there (sometimes "Open With" isn't); and you get to manually choose what's in the list of programs.
Don't forget you can have sub-folders under the "Send To" folder to organize your choices (those shortcuts to programs) as your list grows bigger. Very handy!
