WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.
This report presents the forensic synthetic code analysis of WinMerge/winmerge, a C++ project with 8,973 GitHub stars. SynthScan v2.0 examined 1,190,891 lines of code across 5351 source files, recording 11822 pattern matches distributed across 14 syntactic categories. The overall adjusted score of 8.3 places this repository in the Low AI signal band.
The scanner applied 160+ deterministic lexical heuristics, multi-line block detectors, abstract syntax tree depth profilers, and a cross-file Jaccard similarity matrix to construct a statistically normalised synthetic code estimate. All matches are individually weighted by severity coefficient and contextual multiplier before summation, and the resulting headline score is temporally discounted to account for the repository's development history relative to the commercial emergence of large language model coding tooling (November 2022 onward).
This chart maps the temporal evolution of the adjusted synthetic code score across successive scan runs. An upward trajectory indicates ongoing incorporation of AI-generated code or expanding LLM-assisted scaffolding; a stable or declining trajectory may reflect active human refactoring, code removal, or the adoption of stricter authorship policies. The dashed secondary line (right axis) independently tracks total raw pattern hit count, which can diverge from the normalised score when codebase size changes significantly between scans.
Classifies detected patterns by their diagnostic confidence and structural impact. CRITICAL patterns (coefficient 10) represent definitive synthetic signatures — hallucinated imports, explicit LLM attribution metadata — virtually never produced by human authors. HIGH (5) indicates strong structural tells such as cross-file repetition or cross-linguistic idioms. MEDIUM (2) covers recognisable conversational padding and AI-specific vocabulary. LOW (1) captures subtle indicators like tautological comments and generic boilerplate that require density to carry independent signal.
This horizontal bar chart decomposes the repository's raw synthetic code score by top-level directory, allowing you to pinpoint precisely which modules or components carry the highest AI authorship density. Directories with disproportionately high scores relative to their size warrant targeted manual review: concentrated AI signatures often trace back to mass-generated configuration layers, auto-ported test suites, LLM-scaffolded boilerplate classes, or entire subsystems authored under heavy copilot assistance. Use this view to prioritise your human code-review effort.
The scanner identified 11822 distinct pattern matches across 14 syntactic categories. Each entry below represents a discrete location in the source code where the engine recorded a statistically significant AI authorship indicator. Expand any category row to inspect the individual file paths, line numbers, code snippets, and the lexical context (CODE, COMMENT, or STRING) in which each match was detected.
Reading the findings table: The Severity column indicates the diagnostic confidence level (CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW). The Context column identifies whether the match occurred inside executable code, an inline comment, or a string literal — comment-context matches receive a ×1.5 weight because LLMs systematically over-annotate. The ⚡ bolt icon marks clustered matches: three or more patterns within a 10-line window, each receiving an additional ×1.5 density multiplier as dense clusters constitute far stronger evidence of synthetic authorship than isolated hits.
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | Version.h | 1 | #define FILEVER 2,16,57,0 | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/ShellExtension/StdAfx.h | 1 | // stdafx.h : include file for standard system include files, | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/ShellExtension/WinMergeShell.cpp | 1 | ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/ShellExtension/WinMergeShell.cpp | 21 | // HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Thingamahoochie\WinMerge\ContextMenuEnabled | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/ShellExtension/WinMergeShell.cpp | 41 | #include "ShellExtension.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/ShellExtension/WinMergeShell.h | 1 | ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/ShellExtension/Resource.h | 1 | //{{NO_DEPENDENCIES}} | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/ShellExtension/Resource.h | 21 | #define _APS_NEXT_RESOURCE_VALUE 210 | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/ShellExtension/StdAfx.cpp | 1 | // stdafx.cpp : source file that includes just the standard includes | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/ShellExtension/ShellExtension.cpp | 1 | ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/WinMergeContextMenu/pch.h | 1 | // pch.h: This is a precompiled header file. | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/WinMergeContextMenu/dllmain.cpp | 1 | // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/WinMergeContextMenu/resource.h | 1 | //{{NO_DEPENDENCIES}} | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/WinMergeContextMenu/resource.h | 21 | #define _APS_NEXT_RESOURCE_VALUE 210 | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/WinMergeContextMenu/framework.h | 1 | #pragma once | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/Common/UnicodeString.cpp | 1 | ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/Common/WinMergeContextMenu.cpp | 1 | #include "WinMergeContextMenu.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/Common/UnicodeString.h | 1 | ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/Common/UnicodeString.h | 21 | * @brief Unicode string based on std::wstring. | COMMENT |
| LOW | ShellExtension/Common/UnicodeString.h | 41 | # ifdef _UNICODE | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 1 | //{{NO_DEPENDENCIES}} | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 21 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_MENU_CAPTION6 44216 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 41 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_MENU_CAPTION26 44236 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 61 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_DESCRIPTION6 44356 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 81 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_DESCRIPTION26 44376 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 101 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_DESCRIPTION46 44396 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 121 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_COMPAREMSEXCELFILES_STR6 44425 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 141 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_COMPAREMSWORDFILES_STR6 44445 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 161 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_COMPAREMSPOWERPOINTFILES_STR6 44465 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 181 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_COMPAREMSVISIOFILES_STR6 44485 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 201 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_PREDIFFLINEFILTER_STR6 44505 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 221 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_IGNORE_STR6 44525 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 241 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_APPLYPATCH_STR6 44545 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 261 | #define IDS_PLUGIN_EDITORADDIN_STR6 44565 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/resource.h | 281 | #define _APS_NO_MFC 1 | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/src_VCPP/DisplayXMLFiles/StdAfx.h | 1 | // stdafx.h : include file for standard system include files, | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/src_VCPP/DisplayXMLFiles/WinMergeScript.cpp | 1 | ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/src_VCPP/DisplayXMLFiles/typeinfoex.h | 1 | #ifndef _NEWOBJECTS_ATL_TYPEINFOEX_H_ | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/src_VCPP/DisplayXMLFiles/Resource.h | 1 | //{{NO_DEPENDENCIES}} | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/src_VCPP/DisplayXMLFiles/StdAfx.cpp | 1 | // stdafx.cpp : source file that includes just the standard includes | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ns/src_VCPP/DisplayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/expat_maps.cpp | 1 | ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ns/src_VCPP/DisplayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/expat_maps.cpp | 21 | ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ns/src_VCPP/DisplayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/expat_maps.cpp | 41 | #include "map_data_8859_11.h" | COMMENT |
| LOW | Plugins/src_VCPP/DisplayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/StdAfx.h | 1 | // stdafx.h : include file for standard system include files, | COMMENT |
| LOW | …gins/src_VCPP/DisplayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/expat_maps.h | 1 | ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ExpatMapLib/mappings/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1252.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ExpatMapLib/mappings/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1253.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ExpatMapLib/mappings/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1251.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ExpatMapLib/mappings/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1250.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ExpatMapLib/mappings/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1254.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ExpatMapLib/mappings/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1255.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ExpatMapLib/mappings/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1257.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ExpatMapLib/mappings/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1256.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …ExpatMapLib/mappings/VENDORS/MICSFT/WINDOWS/CP1258.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …splayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/mappings/ISO8859/8859-10.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …splayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/mappings/ISO8859/8859-10.TXT | 21 | # Unicode Standard, and to make copies of this file in any form for | COMMENT |
| LOW | …isplayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/mappings/ISO8859/8859-9.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …isplayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/mappings/ISO8859/8859-9.TXT | 21 | # Unicode Standard, and to make copies of this file in any form for | COMMENT |
| LOW | …isplayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/mappings/ISO8859/8859-8.TXT | 1 | # | COMMENT |
| LOW | …isplayXMLFiles/ExpatMapLib/mappings/ISO8859/8859-8.TXT | 21 | # Unicode Standard, and to make copies of this file in any form for | COMMENT |
| 11681 more matches not shown… | ||||
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM⚡ | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1149 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1151 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1161 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM⚡ | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1163 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 13 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 15 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 291 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 293 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 506 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 508 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 557 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 559 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 673 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 675 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 728 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 730 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 751 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 753 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 968 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 970 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1044 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1046 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1086 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1088 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1114 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1116 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1194 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1196 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1260 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1262 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1303 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1305 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1497 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 1499 | #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIGH | Externals/poco/XML/include/Poco/DOM/DOMImplementation.h | 38 | /// In this implementation, DOMImplementation is implemented as a singleton. | COMMENT |
| HIGH | Externals/poco/XML/include/Poco/DOM/DocumentType.h | 51 | /// Note: In this implementation, only the | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 578 | # If the value of the INPUT tag contains directories, you can use the | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 605 | # If the value of the INPUT tag contains directories, you can use the | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 628 | # If the value of the EXAMPLE_PATH tag contains directories, you can use the | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | Docs/Developers/UnitTesting.html | 122 | <p>As mentioned earlier Google Test header files are needed to compile the | CODE |
| LOW | Src/Common/sizecbar.cpp | 36 | // Modify this file only to fix bugs, and don't forget to send me a copy. | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW⚡ | Src/RenameMoveDetection.cpp | 246 | // Step 1: Quick win - group items by same name | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | Src/RenameMoveDetection.cpp | 250 | // Step 2: Collect unmatched items grouped by rename/move detection keys | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | Src/RenameMoveDetection.cpp | 260 | // Step 3: Create groups for items with matching keys | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | Src/RenameMoveDetection.cpp | 264 | // Step 4: Recurse into subdirectories that exist on all sides | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/RenameMoveDetection.cpp | 276 | // Step 5: Recurse into renamed directories | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW⚡ | Src/RenameMoveDetection.cpp | 246 | // Step 1: Quick win - group items by same name | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | Src/RenameMoveDetection.cpp | 250 | // Step 2: Collect unmatched items grouped by rename/move detection keys | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | Src/RenameMoveDetection.cpp | 260 | // Step 3: Create groups for items with matching keys | COMMENT |
| LOW⚡ | Src/RenameMoveDetection.cpp | 264 | // Step 4: Recurse into subdirectories that exist on all sides | COMMENT |
| LOW | Src/RenameMoveDetection.cpp | 276 | // Step 5: Recurse into renamed directories | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | Docs/Manual/Japanese/Filters.xml | 1008 | <listitem><para><literal>regexExtract("user@example.com", "([^@]+)@([^@]+)", 1)</literal> は | CODE |
| LOW | Docs/Manual/Japanese/Filters.xml | 1010 | <listitem><para><literal>regexExtract("user@example.com", "([^@]+)@([^@]+)", 2)</literal> は | CODE |
| LOW | Docs/Manual/English/Filters.xml | 1072 | <listitem><para><literal>regexExtract("user@example.com", "([^@]+)@([^@]+)", 1)</literal> returns <lit | CODE |
| LOW | Docs/Manual/English/Filters.xml | 1073 | <listitem><para><literal>regexExtract("user@example.com", "([^@]+)@([^@]+)", 2)</literal> returns <lit | CODE |
| LOW | Docs/Manual/Hebrew/Filters.xml | 1139 | <listitem><para><literal>regexExtract("user@example.com", "([^@]+)@([^@]+)", 1)</literal> | CODE |
| LOW | Docs/Manual/Hebrew/Filters.xml | 1141 | <listitem><para><literal>regexExtract("user@example.com", "([^@]+)@([^@]+)", 2)</literal> | CODE |
| LOW | Docs/Manual/French/Filters.xml | 1207 | <listitem><para><literal>regexExtract("user@example.com", "([^@]+)@([^@]+)", 1)</literal> | CODE |
| LOW | Docs/Manual/French/Filters.xml | 1209 | <listitem><para><literal>regexExtract("user@example.com", "([^@]+)@([^@]+)", 2)</literal> | CODE |
| LOW | Docs/Manual/Spanish/Filters.xml | 1216 | <listitem><para><literal>regexExtract("user@example.com", "([^@]+)@([^@]+)", 1)</literal> | CODE |
| LOW | Docs/Manual/Spanish/Filters.xml | 1218 | <listitem><para><literal>regexExtract("user@example.com", "([^@]+)@([^@]+)", 2)</literal> | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | Externals/poco/Foundation/include/Poco/LogStream.h | 96 | /// Usage example: | COMMENT |
| LOW | Externals/poco/Foundation/include/Poco/Process.h | 141 | /// Usage example: | COMMENT |
| LOW | Externals/poco/Foundation/include/Poco/Process.h | 176 | /// Usage example: | COMMENT |
| LOW | Externals/poco/Foundation/include/Poco/Dynamic/Var.h | 127 | /// Example usage: | COMMENT |
| LOW | Externals/poco/Foundation/include/Poco/Dynamic/Var.h | 150 | /// Example usage: | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | …googletest/googletest/include/gtest/gtest-death-test.h | 152 | // This implementation is *not* meant to be as highly tuned or robust | COMMENT |
| MEDIUM | …googletest/googletest/include/gtest/gtest-death-test.h | 224 | // In practice, this can be used to test functions that utilize the | COMMENT |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | Translations/GetTranslationsStatus.py | 73 | CODE | |
| LOW | Translations/GetTranslationsStatus.py | 122 | CODE | |
| LOW | Translations/GetTranslationsStatus.py | 249 | CODE | |
| LOW | Translations/GetTranslationsStatus.py | 419 | CODE | |
| LOW | Translations/GetTranslationsStatus.py | 562 | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | Externals/boost/boost/unordered/unordered_printers.hpp | 279 | ".ascii \"def boost_unordered_build_pretty_printer():\\n\"\n" | CODE |
| LOW | Testing/PluginTests/PluginTests.js | 534 | function IgnoreLeadingLineNumbersTest() { | CODE |
| LOW | Testing/PluginTests/PluginTests.js | 730 | function CompareMSPowerPointFilesTest() { | CODE |
| LOW | Testing/PluginTests/PluginTests.js | 743 | function CompareEscapedJavaPropertiesFilesTest() { | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEDIUM | Translations/ShellExtension/CreateMasterPotFile.js | 160 | oPotFile.WriteLine("# This file is from WinMerge <https://winmerge.org/>"); | CODE |
| MEDIUM | Translations/WinMerge/CreateMasterPotFile.js | 267 | oPotFile.Write("# This file is from WinMerge <https://winmerge.org/>\n"); | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | Translations/GetTranslationsStatus.py | 30 | CODE |
| Severity | File | Line | Snippet | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | Docs/Developers/doxygen.cfg | 365 | # Set it to YES to include the internal documentation. | COMMENT |