Today marks a very special milestone — 23 years since the beginning of WinCatalog! Over the past 23 years, we have worked hard to make WinCatalog a reliable tool for cataloging your media, and your support has been at the heart of every update and improvement.
From our early days, when cataloging involved Zip disks and floppy drives, to today, where WinCatalog handles massive collections across terabytes of storage, the journey has been incredible. And that journey would not have been possible without your suggestions, feedback, and trust.
We’re excited to share that we’re working on new features and enhancements for upcoming releases, including a revamped user interface with a dark theme, enhanced search capabilities, and improved flexibility. Our goal is to keep WinCatalog at the forefront of technology, providing you with even faster, smarter, and more flexible tools to manage your collections.
On this special day, we want to say thank you for being with us, for your ongoing feedback, and for helping shape WinCatalog into what it is today. Here’s to 23 years of growth and to many more to come!
Happy birthday, WinCatalog!
Best wishes,
The WinCatalog Team
Posted on: October 12, 2024
Hello, we are pleased to announce that a new version of WinCatalog, version 2024.8.1, has been released.
This is a maintenance update that addresses two issues: the generation of thumbnails for Office files previously displayed a ‘trial’ watermark, and the duration of video files was not included in reports.
Please note that when updating a drive, the new version of WinCatalog will not automatically regenerate thumbnails for Office files.
By default, to expedite the update process, WinCatalog skips unmodified files during disk or folder updates. Only files that have been modified since the last scan will be updated.
If you want to update all files, you will need to temporarily disable this option. To do so, click the “Scanning Options” button on the toolbar, select your scanning profile (most likely the “Full file info (default)” profile), and on the “General Scanning” tab, uncheck the option: “While updating a disk or folder, skip unmodified files (speeds up the update process).” Afterward, click Save and proceed with updating your disk(s).
Remember to re-enable this option afterward to ensure faster updates in the future.
Download
To download WinCatalog 2024.8.1 please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog. Just install the latest version over the existing one.
Posted on: October 3, 2024
Hello, we’re excited to announce the release of WinCatalog version 2024.8! This update introduces several new features, including two new command-line options, enhanced file format support, improved stability, and increased performance.
New Command-Line Options: “Update All” and “Update Connected”
With this release, you can now use the -UpdateAll and -UpdateConnected command-line arguments to update all drives in the catalog or just the currently connected drives.
Example commands (please read the details in the User Manual here):
WinCatalog.exe -UpdateConnected -Log "D:\UpdateConnected.log"
WinCatalog.exe -UpdateAll
To make things easier, we’ve also included a UI tool to help you configure the command-line options for these new features. It is included into the installation package.
Separate EXIF and Thumbnail Extraction for RAW Files
You now have the option to extract only EXIF tags from RAW files without retrieving thumbnails. This can be configured in the Scanning Options.
WavPack File Support
WinCatalog now supports WavPack (.wv) files, allowing you to extract media information and tags from this file format.
Out-of-the-Box Adobe Illustrator (.AI) File Support
We’ve added native support for Adobe Illustrator files (.ai) to the image files processing module, so you can easily manage these files within your catalog.
Enhanced Stability and Performance
This update also brings more efficient memory usage when working with catalog files and greater stability in modules that handle external resources, especially when managing a large number of files.
Fast Search Index Generation is Now Faster
The speed of generating the Fast Search Index has been increased. You’ll notice this improvement during full index regeneration or when updating a drive with a large number of files and folders.
Other Improvements
Download
To download WinCatalog 2024.8 please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog. Just install the latest version over the existing one.
Posted on: August 26, 2024
Hello, we’re glad to announce that a new version of WinCatalog has been released. The version number is 2024.7.5, it brings two powerful new features: the “Begin of the Line” search operator and smart hashes calculation when updating drives.
Introducing the “Begin of the Line” Search Operator
Searching your catalog has never been more precise. When you perform a simple search, WinCatalog finds entries containing words that start with the entered search terms, regardless of the word order. For example, a search for “big app” (without quotes) will find both “big apple” and “the apple is big.”
With the new “Begin of the Line” search operator, you can now use the caret character (^) to find entries that start with your specified search term. This enhancement ensures you quickly locate exactly what you need. For example, using the query ^wincat (without quotes) will find “WinCatalog.exe” but not “Help for WinCatalog.chm”. This feature streamlines your search process, saving you valuable time and effort.
More examples of searches.
Search query:
^document
Results:
Document.pdf
Documents and Reports 2024.xlsx
The following entry will NOT be found because the filename doesn’t start with the ‘document’:
My Document.pdf
The beginning-of-string operator should be applied to individual terms rather than to a group of terms. For example, if you want to find files with filenames starting with ‘image’ or ‘photo’, the search query should be “^image OR ^photo” (without quotes). For example, to find filenames starting with the letter ‘A’ followed by a space, use the square brackets (the strict match operator, described above) in combination with the beginning-of-string operator. Search query:
[^A ] (notice the space between A and the closing bracket)
Results:
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.pdf
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.epub
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.fb2
The following entry will NOT be found, because the ‘A-space’ part is not located at the beginning:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.epub
In addition to that, don’t forget about the end-of-the-line ($) search operator from one of the previous releases.
Read more: How WinCatalog Understands Search Queries
Smart Hashes Calculation for Enhanced Drive Updates
Updating your drives just got smarter. With the new version, WinCatalog introduces intelligent hashes or checksum calculations. When you change a scanning profile and enable hashes or checksum calculation, WinCatalog will now calculate hashes for files that previously missed these values. This occurs even if the files haven’t been modified since the last update, and it works regardless of whether the ‘Skip Unmodified Files’ option is turned on.
Download
To download WinCatalog 2024.7.5 please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog. Just install the latest version over the existing one.
Posted on: June 12, 2024
Hello, we’re glad to announce that a new version of WinCatalog has been released. The version number is 2024.7 This update includes several enhancements, bug fixes and a new experimental feature. Below is a summary of the changes in this release:
WinCatalog Discography
Thanks to your feedback, WinCatalog now allows you to add audio CDs (and other types of media) without needing to insert them into a drive. Simply enter the artist’s name, the release title, or the barcode, perform an online search, and save all the details in your catalog. This feature is currently experimental and only supports MusicBrainz.org as the data source, but we plan to expand support to include other data sources in the future.
How It Works:
Additional Steps for Artist Searches: If multiple artists match your query, WinCatalog will ask you to select the correct one.
Each release may have several media associated with it. By selecting a release on the left, you can see the different media and tracks. Click “Add” to place the disc in the Basket for later addition to the catalog. Then, click “Save” or “Save & Close” to add the contents of the Basket to your catalog.
Check the screenshot of a search example for “take five” (without quotes). Click on the image to see it in the full resolution.
For more details on the new feature, refer to the user manual here.
Ohter changes
Thumbnail Preview Pane Updates: You now have the option to choose whether you want to stretch images to fill the entire preview pane or display them as is. Additionally, you can copy images to the clipboard. Both options are available through the context menu of the Thumbnail Preview Pane.
When manually adding thumbnails (remember, you can add thumbnails to any item in WinCatalog), you can now choose whether to resize the added image or keep it in its original size.
Bug Fixes and Improvements:
Download
To download WinCatalog 2024.7 please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog. Just install the latest version over the existing one.
Posted on: May 15, 2024
Hello, a new maintenance update of WinCatalog was just released. It fixes the issue when WinCatalog crashes on an attempt to change volume details via the Volume Info tab of item properties.
Download
To download WinCatalog 2024.6.2 please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog. Just install the latest version over the existing one.
Posted on: February 5, 2024
Hello, we’re glad to announce that a new version of WinCatalog has been released. The version number is 2024.6.1 This update includes several enhancements and bug fixes to improve your experience with our software. Below is a summary of the changes in this release:
Thumbnail Display Enhancement: Thumbnails now fill the preview pane for a more visually appealing and informative display.
Search by Hashes and Checksums: Enhanced search capabilities to include hashes and checksums (MD5, SHA256, Blake2, CRC32), making it easier to locate files based on their unique identifiers. Leave the search field blank or type the asterisk (means find all files and folders), them mark the Hashes row on the Main tab of the additional search options, paste the HASH value and hit Search. WinCatalog will find all files matching the criteria. Please note, the calculation of the hashes should be turned on. You can find this option in the Checksums and Hashes section of the General Scanning tab individually for each scanning profile. Please also read the following section in the user manual after changing the processing options: Skip Unmodified Files During Updating a Drive.
Search Tab Options: the New Search Tab command behavior changed in concern of the “Look In” filter. The entire catalog search scope is set by default for the “Look In” filter with the ability to reduce the search scope to the selected folder just in one mouse click. The “New search here” context menu option now accurately limits the search scope to the selected folder.
Context Menu Enhancements: We’ve added a “New search here” menu entry for empty spaces within the interface, and fixed the behavior of the the “New search here” command as it did not function as expected and limited the search scope by the parent folder instead of the selected one.
The Open In Catalog Command: now behave consistently in the search results and in the main UI. Previously the Open In Catalog command executed from search results opened the parent folder instead of the intended folder.
Search History and Folder Selection: Increased the number of entries in the Search History combo, which is set to 20, but can now be configured via the registry. Also, updated the software to not move down to the selected folder after the update process ends, streamlining the update experience.
Editable Volume Info Tab: Some fields on the Volume Info tab are now editable, offering more flexibility in managing volume information directly within the interface.
Search Field Focus: Fixed an issue where the search field would lose focus when switching between WinCatalog and other applications using ALT+TAB.
Interface Adjustments for High DPI: We’ve fixed an issue where the backstage Catalog page and program options did not fit the screen properly on large scaling factors, enhancing visibility and usability on high-resolution displays.
The version 2024.6.1 fixes the issue with stretching square thumbnails.
Download
To download WinCatalog 2024.6.1 please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog. Just install the latest version over the existing one.
Posted on: February 2, 2024
Hello, we’re glad to announce that a new version of WinCatalog has been released. The version number is 2024.5. The highlight of this update is the revamped MediaInfo processing module. It’s now capable of extracting embedded thumbnails from video files, providing Titles for streams, and uncovering detailed information about chapters and other media elements.
Alongside the MediaInfo module upgrade, we’ve implemented numerous minor fixes and improvements for smoother operation and enhanced reliability.
Download
To download WinCatalog 2024.5 please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog. Just install the latest version over the existing one.
Posted on: December 28, 2023
Hello, we’re glad to announce that a new version of WinCatalog has been released. The version number is 2024.4. In this release, we focused on new features, stability, and improvements.
The main new feature of the update is the ability to grab text and thumbnails from Office Document Files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Markdown) in the same way WinCatalog did before for PDF files. This capability transforms how users interact with their digital archives, making content within these files searchable and easily identifiable.
The feature works seamlessly, indexing the content of each document as it is added to the catalog. Users can quickly search for specific phrases, keywords, or data within their extensive collection of Office files. This level of content accessibility is particularly useful for professionals and students who deal with large volumes of documents, enabling them to locate the required information without the need to open and manually search each file. Additionally, the generated thumbnail previews provide a visual representation of each document, making it easier to identify files at a glance.
The option to process files is turned on by default for the Full File Info scanning profile and is limited to grabbing the first 2,000 characters. The thumbnail size is set to 1080x1080 for readability. Find the Office Files section to change these settings.
The MediaInfo engine was rewritten and now works faster, the processing of audio files was switched to the new engine as well. In addition to that, WinCatalog now adds Bit Depth and Codec Info to the list of fields grabbed for Audio files. The ‘Various Artists’ label for multiple artists per composition is now separated when creating and assigning Tags.
In addition to that, the latest version contains a lot of smaller improvements and bug fixes. For example, now if you rename a file, WinCatalog automatically selects the file name base (i.e. without extension) in the editing field. Fixed the issue when WinCatalog crashed on an attempt to search using the Tags row only (when no other search options were selected). When thumbnail generation for images was turned off, WinCatalog didn’t get picture resolution for images not having Exif tags, now it detects dimensions by itself. When adding an archive via the Add File command, an extra entry with the archive name was created. Now WinCatalog creates no unnecessary entries.
WinCatalog now uses the associated scanning profile to identify the thumbnail size, when you assign or update the image via the Thumbnail tab of the Properties window. The Options button overrides this value for the selected entry or for non-file items (virtual folders, custom items - they don’t have a scanning profile associated).
A bunch of smaller improvements.
Download
To download WinCatalog 2024.4 please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog. Just install the latest version over the existing one.
Posted on: November 21, 2023
Hello, a new version of WinCatalog 2024.3.4 was released. This is a maintenance update fixing the issue when WinCatalog crashed on starting with Search Panel (this feature allows automatically open a new search tab on startup). The update also fixes the issue when File Eplorer Tags extraction interrupted by a timeout caused the inability to grab tags from other files.
Spanish (Latin America) translation was updated.
Download
To download WinCatalog 2024.3.4 please click here. You do not need to uninstall a previous version of WinCatalog. Just install the latest version over the existing one.
Posted on: October 23, 2023