Tool for comparing 2 binary files in Windows

Question

I need a tool to compare 2 binaries. The files are quite large. Some freeware or trial tools I found on the Internet are not convenient to use for large files. Can you recommend me some tools?

score 241 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 14 '18 at 03:48

241

If you want to find out only whether or not the files are identical, you can use the Windows fc command in binary mode:

fc.exe /b file1 file2

For details, see the reference for fc

edited Sep 14 '18 at 03:48

Jason

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answered Dec 20 '12 at 15:59

Mike Woinoski

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for the same purpose - only whether files are identical or not - a portable app Duplicate File Finder works good enough. Particularly for big files like .iso files. – RuntimeException Oct 14 '15 at 14:03
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this should be the accepted answer, since this is windows native and not an addition 3rd party app – LilaQ May 09 '17 at 00:31
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this just shows a list of bytecodes - there is also a "comp" tool in the command-line, but that one seems to require files to be of same size – George Birbilis Jan 10 '18 at 10:26

score 133 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 23 '19 at 07:51

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A few possibilities:

VBinDiff (binary diff, designed for large files)
WinDiff
bsdiff
HexCmp

See also: https://web.archive.org/web/20151122151611/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/688504/binary-diff-tool-for-very-large-files

edited Jul 23 '19 at 07:51

mgutt

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answered Nov 17 '11 at 12:00

Polynomial

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I read in the notes of vBinDiff that "unlike diff, it works well with large files (up to 4 GB)." So its suitability for working with large files depends on your definition of "large". Also, I found it would mysteriously not start up under windows 7 x64. – intuited Aug 21 '12 at 19:15
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Bare in mind that VBinDiff is a CLI program, so if you just try to run it on Windows, it will either appear not to start, or will very briefly show a command prompt window, which quickly disappears. Open up a command prompt and run the program from there to see what arguments it accepts, and then use it from the command prompt accordingly. – nonoitall Oct 14 '12 at 00:37
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vBinDiff works fine for me in Windows 7 x64. – plasticinsect Mar 15 '13 at 18:23
When I tried using vBinDiff to compare two 1.4 GB files, it croaked. Neither can WinDiff handle such files. – ThreeBit Apr 25 '13 at 08:17
@intuited I too found this quite humorous, although I found that it does work with files larger than 4 GB -- you just can't see diffs past 4 GB. That was enough for my purposes, although it would be great to have true LFS. – pattivacek Mar 25 '15 at 16:10
Anyone know were we can get WinDiff from? The link is just to the wikipedia page. There's a link to XPsp2 support tools there (which includes it), but that will only install on XP. – UpTheCreek Oct 16 '15 at 11:48
VBinDiff is AWESOME! Thought it is CLI, it is easy to use! Except maybe I had to search what RET key is xD It turns that it is the Enter key. – Ghasan غسان Dec 06 '15 at 02:49
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vBinDiff doesn't seem to deal with inserted bytes at all, so it's really not much better than HxD except that it shows you all the changes in red. – endolith Feb 11 '16 at 21:13
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VBinDiff allows you to freeze one of the two scroll areas and when you make them sync again by scrolling the other one byte at a time it shows the same parts in white and diffs in red. So it is more of a manual tool, but with visual aid – George Birbilis Jan 10 '18 at 10:25

score 25 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 11 '16 at 21:17

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Total Commander also has a binary compare option: go to: File \\Compare by content

ps. I guess some people may alredy be using this tool and may not be aware of the built-in feature.

edited Feb 11 '16 at 21:17

endolith

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answered Sep 09 '13 at 16:39

Dimitry K

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This doesn't understand inserted content like a text diff tool, though, only changes to bytes. – endolith Feb 11 '16 at 21:16
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@endolith and another thing to mention is that `Total Commander` costs $42 USD. – c00000fd Oct 14 '18 at 00:01

Boris Ivanov · Answer 4 · 2021-04-28T14:02:27.213

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My favorite "swiss knife" is Beyond Compare from http://www.scootersoftware.com/

edited Apr 28 '21 at 14:02

answered Feb 21 '14 at 22:06

Boris Ivanov

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Beyond Compare doesn't work for binary files above 500MB... – Pacerier Mar 11 '17 at 10:34
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Try this one https://github.com/Shelwien/cmp/ – Boris Ivanov Mar 14 '17 at 08:21
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@BorisIvanov: It probably helps to mention that `Beyond Compare` is a paid software that will work only for 30 days. After that you'll have to get the license that costs $60. – c00000fd Oct 13 '18 at 23:54
strange things but version I have downloaded from official site always working even after trial period. no hacks. – Boris Ivanov Oct 14 '18 at 12:55
Beyond Compare doesn't appear to have binary diffing capability, which is what the question was about. – Andrew Arnott Sep 03 '22 at 14:45
Check Shelwien tool – Boris Ivanov Sep 04 '22 at 22:01

score 15 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 18 '13 at 15:21

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I prefer to use objcopy to convert to hex, then use diff.

answered Sep 18 '13 at 15:21

BobC

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Useful answer. The output file size is about 3 times as big as the input file. This command will convert a binary file to hex. `objcopy -I binary -O ihex ` – evpo Sep 23 '15 at 00:27

score 12 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 10 '14 at 07:50

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In Cygwin:

$cmp -bl <file1> <file2>

diffs binary offsets and values are in decimal and octal respectively.. Vladi.

answered Jan 10 '14 at 07:50

Vladi

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Tool for comparing 2 binary files in Windows

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