WCopyfind is an open source windows-based program that compares documents and reports similarities in their words and phrases. It is free and available to anyone. It is licensed under the Gnu Public License, which basically means that you can do whatever you like with it except to try to sell it to someone else.
Download WCopyfind 4.1.1 Executable
Download WCopyfind.4.1.1 64-Bit Executable
Unlike most modern software packages, WCopyfind is a single executable file. You don’t install it, you just run it. Simply click on the link to download the executable file. If you’re running a 64-bit version of Windows, you can select the 64-bit executable, which runs about 10-20% faster than the 32-bit version. Place that file in a convenient location and double-click on it to execute it. It stores its setting settings in the windows registry, but otherwise it doesn’t have any lasting effect on your computer.
View WCopyfind Instructions
WCopyfind is pretty simple to use, but some of the settings need explanations.
Download WCopyfind 4.1.1 Source
As open source software, you’re welcome to tinker with WCopyfind to add features or make it behave differently.
How WCopyfind and Copyfind Work
I have been asked many times to explain how these comparison programs work and how they manage to complete their work so quickly. At long last, I have written an explanation of those programs. For more information, you’ll simply have to read the source code, which is now much clearer than it used to be.
The Archives
Older Executables:
Older Sources:
Older Instructions:
I downloaded this but got a strange Chinese warning when I ran it and did not get any comparison stats even though the application keeps saying it’s comparing documents. Tried several different docs and formats. This doesn’t seem to work.
The “Chinese warning” that you saw is probably an internal error message that’s not displaying properly. Did you create a reporting folder? If not, you will definitely get an error. The error message should be readable, so I must have a bug to fix. I’ll take a look…
Lou Bloomfield
I found and fixed the bug that produced the “Chinese warning” message. Erik had indeed neglected to create a report folder, but the error message that popped up was garbled. I fixed the error message and uploaded WCopyfind 3.0.1 to this web site.
Lou Bloomfield
Hi, I downloded 3.0.1 and it worked for some doc and docx documents. Very big thank .. However, it didn’t work for some other doc and docx documents. Some comparison results also came up with ASCII words. Thanks.
Could you please tell me what the symptoms were for the .docx files that didn’t work? Did they not read in at all or did they read in but not match what they should match?
I am aware that WCopyfind won’t read some .doc files properly. The program doesn’t actually understand the .doc formats, which are diverse and too complicated for me to decode without spending more time than I can afford. If that causes problems for you, the easiest solution is to convert those .doc files to .txt or .docx, using the latest versions of Word.
Lou
Dear Lou,
The symptoms were the software produced report without any results or only five to six comparison while I compared 20 documents. These still occurred even tough I converted those document (both on doc or docx files) to .txt files. I can send you the samples of those document to your email if these can help (would you mind to send me your email address).
Regards,
Nand
I get the following message when trying to open the exe:
The procedure entry point DecodePointer could not be located in the dynamic link librar KERNEL32.dll.
Please advise.
Thanks!
I’m not sure what’s causing this error, but I’ll try to find the problem.
Lou
Hello. I’m a teacher interested in using WCopyFind to detect plagiarism. I opened WCopyFind and got the popup box with “Old Document Files” and “New Document Files”…is this program just for comparing 2 documents? I’m interested in uploading a student paper and WCopyFind searching the internet for possible plagiarism. Can this program do that? Thanks!
WCopyfind can only compare documents that you have on hand, although it can compare far more than just two such documents. It can easily handle hundreds, thousands, or even more documents, limited only by the memory on your computer and your patience.
Scouring the internet for documents is a much more complicated task and one that typically requires a paid service provider. WCopyfind can’t do that sort of work. However, if you can locate the source(s) for a suspicious document, perhaps by Googling specific phrases that don’t sound original, you can download those sources and then feed them to WCopyfind, along with the suspicious document and WCopyfind can then do the matching.
Lou
Hello,I downloaded the source of WCopyFind but I need to know which algorithm is used in comparing documents?? Thanks alot for help!
I have finally written an explanation of the comparison process. You can read it here.
Lou
Hi Professor Bloomfield,
You program is perfect:)
We want to use your program as an automatic plagiarism detection tool for the whole school. I know it is easy but I do not know c++
We save the file links in a text document, and we want copyfind to compare the uploaded file (from browser) with the files written in text file. We can send the information via curl or use shell to send commands with using php. Our server is linux.
In short, we have to use a shell command or web form to send input to the copyfind program instead of windows UI. Is there anybody who compiled source code so that it can work in linux machine with using linux shell?
Kindest regards,
Zulfi
I will post Copyfind.4.1.0 as soon as I have time to write instructions for it. It can read simple commands from standard input or from a file, so it’s probably just what you want. I has almost zero windows-specific code in it and I may be able to edit that code out, so as to produce a machine-independent program. That last step, however, is going to take some time that I don’t have right now. I’m at the “anaerobic” time of the semester, where all I can do is try to keep from collapsing. But these tasks are definitely on my short list of things to do.
Lou
Lou,
sending input and run the program via linux shell command is enough for me.
Thanks a lot for your quick reply and great effort
I just want to say that I introduced your program to my colleagues, and they are so excited
We do not know c++ and we cannot edit source codes. Therefore, we are anxiously waiting for your machine independent program.
Wish you the best,
Zulfi
Lou,
I just figured out that wcopyfind cannot open word documents written with macintosh word program. Program simply crash when there is macintosh word file. I just wanted to report this. Program may show an ignore message and continue, or just pass the document and show ignored documents in log file (the one that is auto created)
regards,
Zulfi
Zulfi,
Thanks for the heads-up. Do the macintosh word files have an extension (e.g., .docx or .doc)? If they don’t, then my program will definitely have trouble with them. In any case, I should make my program handle them gracefully, even if it can’t read them properly.
Lou
Lou,
Macintosh word document’s extension is .doc It is possible to open it in microsoft word. But Wcopyfind cannot open it and crash
Zulfi
Great program. Thanks for taking the time to write it, maintain it, and share it with us. It is exactly what I was looking for.
As for the .doc issue, you might refer people here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericwhite/archive/2008/09/19/bulk-convert-doc-to-docx.aspx This will allow bulk conversion from doc to docx, eliminating the issue of you needing to parse .doc files.
Thanks for the links to .doc conversion ideas. When I get a chance, I’ll take a look.
Lou
Hi and thanks so much for this tool.
I have just a comment,when you say “It is licensed under the Gnu Public License, which basically means that you can do whatever you like with it except to try to sell it to someone else”
I’m afraid this is against the 4 free software freedom you granted users with a GPL license,what is not allowed is to sub licensed your application but a derivative work can be developed and sold under GPL.
That said, obviously nobody would sell something that is proposed for free !
I’ll have to take another look at the GPL. I wrote the original version of this software back when the United States still supported public higher education and I didn’t need the money. Now that the US is abandoning public education and we have gone 5 years without raises, I might rethink this.
Lou