How It Works

The program takes the data from 2 o more sources and then process them to build a virtual updated folder.
A source is a folder to synchronize.  It can be a local o remote path (UNC).

To create the virtual updated folder, the program merges the sources, it compares their items and then it shows results.
There are just a couple of points to keep in mind about:

• the file comparison.

  Version informations
  If both files have version infos, then they are used in the following way: Product Version is more important than File Version. If they are equal, the Build Type is taken to try to determine the newest candidate. The program recognizes the following build types (more...less important): patched, released, prereleased, debug. If the 2 versions infos are matching, the program tries to use the time-stamps. If one file doesn't have version infos, and its source has NULL version infos handling enabled then the versioned file is considered earlier.
  Last updated time-stamps
  If no version data are available into the files, then the last updated time-stamps are taken to determine the newest candidate. To workaround to a NTFS bug, two timestamps are equal if their difference is less than 2 seconds. This is the common approach for this kind of program.
  File sizes
  If they seem to be equal a test on their size is made. If they are equal, no problem.  The files seems really equal. If they aren't, then the greater is considered newer then the other.

   
• the files' access rights.
  They can be used to limit the analysis and the actions on these files.  If a file cannot be read, it cannot be taken as the newest candidate.

These comparisons will determine the newest candidate, i.e. the file that will be taken to update all other sources.

As you can see, the results are shown in a quite new way.  This is dued by the task that the program has to handle.  Comparing more than 2 folders excludes the common usage of the two file panels.
If you want to see the results details, you have to use the Source Results Viewer.

Once you issue a synchronization the program tries to apply the needed changes to clone the updated items into each sources.  These changes include the updated timestamp and file attributes.

Again if you need a more selective approach for one of your sources, you should alter its access rights.
Using them you can define if:

• it can be read (i.e. an have a 'newest' candidates or not).
• it can write over the existing files (or delete them).
• it can create the missing ones.

Finally you can go on to synchornize files only if you have 2 or more filled sources (see Icons).