How to configure Visual Studio to use Beyond Compare

Hands down, my FAVORITE comparison tool is Beyond Compare, by Scooter Software.

Setting up this tool for Visual Studio to use for the Merge and Compare operation is straightforward, yet not completely intuitive.

Follow these simple steps to get up and running with Beyond Compare in Visual Studio (2012 and 2013 as of this post):

In Visual Studio, go to the Tools menu, select Options, expand Source Control, (In a TFS environment, click Visual Studio Team Foundation Server), and click on the Configure User Tools button.

Click the Add button.

Enter/select the following options for Compare:

• Extension: .*
• Operation: Compare
• Command: C:\Program Files (x86)\Beyond Compare 3\BComp.exe
• Arguments: %1 %2 /title1=%6 /title2=%7

Enter/select the following options for Merge:

• Extension: .*
• Operation: Merge
• Command: C:\Program Files (x86)\Beyond Compare 3\BComp.exe
• Arguments: %1 %2 %3 %4 /title1=%6 /title2=%7 /title3=%8 /title4=%9