With this option on, a right-click in File Explorer offers Diffoniq directly: two selected files or folders are compared with one click, and two items from different folders are compared by picking the left one first. There is always just one Diffoniq entry, and its text follows what you right-clicked.
Options ▸ Show in Explorer’s Context Menu adds the entries — the menu item then shows a check mark — or removes them again. It takes a few seconds, because Windows registers a small package for it. The choice is yours alone: the setup never adds the entries by itself, and it applies to your Windows user account only. No administrator rights are needed.
The entry appears once Explorer restarts — at your next sign-in, or right away with Task Manager ▸ Windows Explorer ▸ Restart (open folder windows close). An Explorer that is already running does not notice the change; the same goes for turning the option off.
On Windows 11 the entries appear directly in the context menu, not only under Show more options. Windows 10 shows them in its context menu as well (version 2004 or later).
The entries are served by DiffoniqShell.exe, a small program
beside Diffoniq.exe. Nothing of Diffoniq runs inside Explorer.
If you move a portable copy, or after an update, the next start of Diffoniq
with the option on renews the registration. A registration made by another
Diffoniq copy that is still there is left alone. Uninstalling Diffoniq
removes the entries of the user who runs the uninstall.
| Right-click on | Entry |
|---|---|
| Two files, two folders, or a file and a folder | Compare with Diffoniq — compares them by the same rules as Send to: the one first by name lands on the left, a file beside a folder meets the file of the same name in it, and of more than two items the first two are compared after a note. Two folders can then be synchronized from Diffoniq’s Synchronize command. |
| One file or folder | Select Left Side for Diffoniq — Diffoniq remembers it; nothing opens yet. |
| Another file or folder, once a left side is selected | Compare to “name” — compares the selected left side with this item on the right. Afterwards the left side is forgotten. |
| The item selected as the left side | Clear Left Side for Diffoniq — forgets it, so you can select a different one. |
| The empty area of a folder window | The same as for that folder. |
The selected left side is kept until it is used, also across a restart. If it no longer exists, Compare to is not offered.
The right-click menu inside a Diffoniq directory listing shows the same Explorer menu of the file, but without this entry: there you compare already, and it would only open a second Diffoniq window.
The Send to entry is independent of this one; you can have either, both or neither.