# WinMerge 2.16.56.2 Release Notes

- About This Release
- What Is New in 2.16.56.2
- What Is New in 2.16.56
- What Is New in 2.16.55 beta?
- Known issues

May 2026

## About This Release

This is a WinMerge 2.16.56.2 stable release. This release replaces earlier WinMerge stable releases as a recommended release.

Please submit bug reports to our bug-tracker.

## What Is New in 2.16.56.2

### File compare

- BugFix: Fix incorrect copy when selection ends inside a word diff (PR #3358)

- BugFix: Skip invisible lines in search/replace

- BugFix: Fix text misalignment and repaint artifacts when toggling line numbers in word wrap mode

- BugFix: Fix crash in 3-pane diff when move block detection is enabled

### Folder compare

- BugFix: Preserve tree expansion and UI state after refresh (#3366,PR #3369)

- BugFix: Do not convert drive-relative paths like `C:` to `C:\` (PR #3373)

- BugFix: "Right only files" missing when showing left/right only (#3378)

### Image compare

- BugFix: Image compare does not remember the state of the "Blink" toggle between sessions (#3368)

- BugFix: [FEATURE] override option for unrestricted Image Compare (#3382)

### Plugins

- BugFix: Fix missing "Unpacked file extension" value in Edit Plugin dialog

### Archive support

- Update 7-Zip to 26.01

### Installer

- Fixed missing Vietnamese WinMerge translation in installer

### Translations

- Translation updates:

  - French (PR #3347)
  - Korean (PR #3349)
  - Russian (PR #3348)

## What Is New in 2.16.56

### General

- Show error message when entering invalid path in header bar (PR #3322)

- Add recent items and clipboard history to header bar menu (PR #3330)

### Folder compare

- Add Folder comparison mode with archive extraction support (PR #3320)

- Refactor: unify open parameters and move recurse to OpenFolderParams (PR #3326)

- Add codepage filter UI and hasbom field support (PR #3318)

### Archive support

- Use 7-Zip IsArc API for archive detection and refactor format guessing logic (PR #3323)

- Prioritize explicitly selected plugins over archive detection (PR #3324)

### Translations

- Translation updates:
  - Brazilian (PR #3328,#3341)
  - Chinese Simplified (PR #3307,#3331,#3344)
  - French (PR #3312)
  - German (PR #3329)
  - Italian (PR #3335,#3342)
  - Korean (PR #3334)
  - Lithuanian (PR #3308)
  - Russian (PR #3309)
  - Turkish (PR #3333)

### Documentation

- Update Italian documentation (PR #3319)

- Update French manual (PR #3325)

## What Is New in 2.16.55 Beta

### General

- Fix incorrect GetAsyncKeyState usage for modifier key detection (PR #3257)

- Update POCO C++ Libraries to 1.15.1 (PR #3292)

### File compare

- BugFix: Fix keyboard input issue after Alt+mouse operations (PR #3254)

- BugFix: Register self-compare in MRU and refactor command line parameter buil… (PR #3266)

- Refactor save confirmation logic using SaveClosingDlg::ShowAndSave (PR #3256)

- Enable IME text reconversion in editor view (PR #3214)

### Image compare

- BugFix: Fix crash caused by OnClose being called twice in image compare window (PR #3255)

- Speedup image comparision slider during WipeEffect (PR winimerge/#33)

### Folder compare

- BugFix: Fix an issue where skipped items were not properly filtered during folder/file comparison. (PR #3267)

- BugFix: Fix potential hang in DiffWorker shutdown (PR #3300)

- Extend “Merge renamed items” option to support moved items (PR #3181)

- Refactor compare engines to use DiffContext (PR #3197)

- Refactor compare engines to write results into DIFFITEM and add FullQuickCompare (PR #3201)

- Add e:/e!: filter prefixes for files and directories (PR #3205)

- Add replaceWithList and regexReplaceWithList filter functions (PR #3213)

- Add Replace Lists menu for Rename/Move detection keys (PR #3215)

- Make replace and replaceWithList case-insensitive (PR #3222)

- Add directives (@cs, @ci, @name) to filter expressions (PR #3253)

- Add "Filter by This Column" to folder view header context menu (PR #3268)

- Add display filter attributes and UI for filtering by comparison results (PR #3284)

- Add ability to hide empty folders in tree mode (PR #3293)

- Add Unpacker and Prediffer fields to file filter expressions (PR #3295)

- Enable dynamic increase/decrease of compare threads (PR #3304)

### Plugins

- Add PrettifyPO and ValidatePO plugins for .po/.pot files (PR #3190)

- Feature request: In CompareMSExcelFiles do not append a sheet order number to individual tsv, txt or html files (#3212)

- Add CFR Java decompiler plugin for .class file comparison (PR #3242,#3243)

### Translations

- Translation updates:
  - Brazilian (PR #3185,#3194,#3219,#3231,#3245,#3275,#3287,#3303)
  - Chinese Simplified (PR #3183,#3191,#3220,#3228,#3244)
  - Corsican (PR #3259,#3299)
  - French (PR #3239)
  - German (PR #3187,#3196,#3217,#3232,#3237,#3251,#3274,#3288,#3297)
  - Hungarian (PR #3186,#3238,#3252)
  - Italian (PR #3199,#3218,#3229,#3235,#3236,#3246,#3249,#3269,#3272,#3285,#3302)
  - Japanese (PR #3258)
  - Korean (PR #3247,#3279,#3301)
  - Lithuanian (PR #3184,#3192,#3230,#3276,#3290)
  - Polish (PR #3233,#3273)
  - Russian (PR #3226,#3281)
  - Turkish (PR #3204,#3221,#3227,#3250,#3271,#3286,#3298)

### Documentation

- Added: Community standard files (like issue templates, pr template). (PR #3225)

- Add context IDs to PO files & strip comments for releases (PR #3296)

## Known issues

- Pressing OK in the Options window while the INI file specified by /inifile is open for comparison in WinMerge may corrupt the file. (#2685)
- Suggestion to make the result of image comparison more reliable (#1391)
- Crashes when comparing large files (#325)
- Very slow to compare significantly different directories (#322)
- Vertical scrollbar breaks after pasting text (#296)