How can I compare text files in Windows?

Some Windows machines come with a basic comparison tool from Microsoft named windiff.exe. If your machine doesn’t already have WinDiff, it can be found in the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools.

A more robust alternative is the Open Source WinMerge.

“WinMerge is an Open Source visual text file differencing and merging tool for Win32 platforms. It is highly useful for determing what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions.”

You can find WinMerge at http://winmerge.org/.