History of all released versions of CDWinder and their technical details


As you can see, for more than 7 years, we have been constantly updating and improving CDWinder, and all updates since version 1.0 have been free.

Current Version of CDWinder for Windows:


cdwLogoSm 5.6.1 (July 22, 2009)


This is a free update for users of CDWinder 5.x, and due to the numerous fixes very recommended!


Previous Versions:


5.6 (May 5, 2009)

 5.5.5 (February 11, 2009)
5.5 (January 6, 2009)

 5.1.1 (April 16, 2008)
5.1 (February 26, 2008)

 * QuickUpdate: Updating existing catalogs in CDWinder is now about 50 times faster than before, because CDWinder now keeps the unchanged meta-data around
* QuickFind: a search field in the main toolbar now allows to find any text in all catalogs directly and quickly
* New extended Find context menus: Find files with the same MP3 artist, album, title or composer, or based on IPTC meta-data or date values
* Vastly extended GPS geotag support: CDWinder can now also show the location of a photo in Flickr, Panoramio, Google Maps or MapQuest
* Find photos based on their GPS location and distance relative to another photo
* Cataloging ZIP archive contents is about 20 times faster than before, due to a new and improved algorithm
* Cataloging of MP3 and AAC tags is now fully Unicode compatible as well
* CoverArt in MP3 and AAC is now cataloged as well
* Ringtone audio files are also being cataloged
* CDWinder now optionally generates a FileCheck value for every file, and allows you to verify that at any time. Important for photographers and everyone else who wants to ensure that their data is still alive and unchanged
* CDWinder can now import Broken Cross XML database files or export files and Advanced Disk Catalog (ADC for Windows) XML export files files as catalogs
* And, as always, we fixed several bugs…

5.0.2 (November 11, 2007)

• massively improved performance when scanning thumbnails
(about 10x-20x faster)
• improved the folder-browsing dialogs by preselecting the last used folder as appropriate
• fixed problems with huge catalog files (larger than 2 GB), and improved file handling
• fixed handling of empty catalog files
• fixed inspector display issues (information was vanishing randomly)
• fixed problems with identifying different AudioCD-catalogs
• adressed a number of issues concerning stability and fault tolerance.


5.0.1 July 7, 2007

• integrated "Show In GoogleEarth" for GPS-tagged pictures !
• once an image is geotagged (either in the camera, or by additional software) and cataloged, it can always be located anywhere on the globe !
• added a search for object kind (Folder, Picture, Movie, ...)
• fixed several bugs
• enhanced: cataloging of TIFFs, EXIF & IPTC records, ZIP archives
• fixed: disappearing catalogs after restart
• fixed: undeleteable catalog folders
• fixed: catalogs' Extra Fields were not included in searching
• enhanced: parsing of the command line
• and others

CDWinder 5 22. May 2007

• CDWinder can now catalog thumbnail previews for photo and image files of several types (JPG, TIFF, PSD, PNG, GIF, BMP)
• Enhanced user interface: CDWinder's list windows can be switched between the list and a new icon view mode, to see all those thumbnails in full glory. Navigational controls and history ease your path through your data, and allow better control.
• Full Unicode support: All new catalogs created by CDWinder 5.0 now contain the full Unicode file names, comments, and such
• Date and number outputs are correctly locale formatted
• Date inputs for search criteria use a calendar control
• New additional run time parameters: CDWinder is now able to catalog media or update existing catalogs or folders by specifying parameters at startup. That way you can have CDWinder catalog every disk you burn, or update specific catalogs over night.
• A number of bugs was fixed



CDWinder 2.6.1 18. December 2006

• Some nasty bugs were fixed, e.g.
• Improved the new AutoVerify function
• AutoVerify interrupted normal operations
• In some circumstances, the new AutoVerify would cause CDWinder use up far too much memory, or even crash
• Exporting of different levels of catalog information didn’t work correctly and was rebuilt.

CDWinder 2.6 2. December 2006

• Revamnped and enhanced the Find window
• We now allow the combination of several search criteria (up to 16) to find objects in the catalogs
• Existing techniques as “find in found objects”, “add to found objects” or wildcards (with names) still exist and can be combined with the new mechanisms
• Added custom fields and extra information to add to the catalogs
• Automatic serial numbers for catalogs have been added
• Up to 5 custom fields can be defined, that carry additional information for each catalog
• Added Lyrics
• MP3-tags now include Lyrics tag – lyrics are stored full-text in our catalogs and can be searched using Any Text
• Enhanced the media Inspector in visuals and behaviour
• Improved catalog file handling and collaboration with CDFinder
• Several bugs were fixed, e.g.
• MP3- und IPTC catalogging was corrected, existing catalogs are automatically verified and corrected
• Changes in the catalogs are now saved correctly and more frequently
• Labels are now changed and saved correctly
• CDWinder is tested on Windows Vista, but no longer supports Windows 95/98/ME.

CDWinder 2.5 4. October 2005

• cataloging of photo meta data : EXIF and IPTC
• special search functions, to search items with these data tags
• view and browse through the objects and their meta data with the new media Inspector
• the Inspector displays detailed information for the currently selected item
• it will also show a picture preview (only if the file is locally available)
• enhanced the performance in finding and browsing, if only to handle all the additional data
• several bugs were fixed

CDWinder 2.0.1 17. April 2005

• Corrected several bugs, including
• Preferences dialog would not accept a database folder on a network drive
• Objects in CDFinder catalogs with danish or french characters were not displayed correctly


CDWinder 2.0 26. March 2005

• Enhanced the user interface
• Added details columns (comments, modifcation date, kind etc.) for the catalogs and objects
• Enabled the user to choose which columns to display
• Enabled rearranging of columns
• Corrected and enhanced column based sorting
• Made CDWinder remember all those options
• Enhanced Drag'nDrop support
• Folders and volumes can be dragged onto CDWinder to have them cataloged, even directly in specific folders.
• Catalogs and catalog folders can be moved and copied to other catalog folders, several at a time, from the ListView
• Mulitple selected catalogs and catalog folders can serve as a source for search operations, or be exported all together
• Enhanced archive support
• Added RAR archive support
• Added folder support for all archive types
• Added a command line switch
• By using the parameters /db in the command line, the current instance of CDWinder can be forced to use a specific database folder, instead of the one stored in the preferences (for registered users only)
• Usage : cdwinder.exe /db "D:\myData\catalog files"
• Fixed several bugs…

Changes for Version 1.9.1 (22. December 2003)

• CDWinder now optionally comes with a Setup-routine (incl. uninstall) in a self-extracting EXE-File, if you prefer that.
• CDWinder can now export in CSV format, too.
• As a little christmas present we integrated scanning of JPEG image information. It's intended as a preview of the upcoming version 2.0, where we will scan extensive information incl. EXIF and IPTC for several image formats.
• The sporadic problem with the immovable splitbar has been solved.
• Our ZIP-Archive routine can now handle ZIPs created by Mac OS X.
• An error in the MP3-scan, potetnially causing crashes with defective files, was removed.
• Communication with the freedb-database was optimized and is now more fault-tolerant.
• Recognition of existing catalogs was improved ans should be more precise now.

Changes for Version 1.9 (2. November 2003)

• launching CDWinder is much faster now thanks to the new QuickLaunch Cache.
• CDWinder can sync the database folder CDWinder and reflect the changes. That's very handy for network use, sharing a database folder on a server. (This feature requires a CDWinder Business License.)
• The memory management of catalog data was improved. The amount of memory used by CDWinder for this data can be configured in the new database preferences dialog.
• Cataloging of several volumes can now be done simultaneously
• CDWinder allows updating of catalogs - catalogs can be updated to the contents of a volume without losing the input like lables or comments.
• As always we have fixed some bugs and glitches (for example with the recognition of mixed-mode audio-cd's).

Changes for Version 1.8 (22. June 2003)

• Cataloging of folders
• Cataloging of WAV-files
• Cataloging of AAC-files incl. Tags
• Cataloging of Tar Archives
• Improved Cab-Archive cataloging
• Tooltips enabled for display of additional information on catalogs or media files
• Fixed several bugs…

Changes for Version 1.7.1 (3. February 2003)

• bugfix release, e.g.:
• fixed several glitches in the new find functions
• fixed the export-function
• improved AudioCD-recognition in Win9x (MCI)

Changes for Version 1.7 (15. December 2002)

• revamped and improved find functionality
• added wildcard search
Name, Comment and Any Text "contains" now allows for wildcards!
• added source selection
all catalogs, selected catalog or folder, found objects or catalog infos only and items with different labels can be chosen as search sources
• items can be added to already found ones
• added support for cataloging CAB-archives
• added support for the MP3-composer-tag
scanning, display and find functionality.
• added a toolbar !
• added support for long(er) comments
Catalogs and items can carry virtually unlimited comments (was limited to 255 chars up to now)

Changes for Version 1.6 (31. March 2002)

• support for labelling the different objects
• we sport 15 different labels, configurable in the Preferences
• labels are assignable to the different objects in the dialogs
• we have label- columns and you can search for labels
• support for CDFinder labels, and CDFinderFolderInfo
• support for AudioCD’s, Extended-AudioCD’s through ASPI
• improved recognition of (Extended-)AudioCD’s
• added cataloging of ExtendedAudioCD’s (NT4+ only for now!)
• freedb-support for Windows NT4
• revamped and improved catalog export
• new output-format
• new export-dialog
• selectable columns
• definable output

Changes for Version 1.5.1 (19. December 2001)

• The catalog view can now be sorted alphabetically, by using a new preference setting.
• Media info is now included when exporting found items and catalog data.
• CDWinder now detects duplicates before cataloging them and prompts the user for action.
• Changes in catalogs names are now saved right away.
• Slight imperfections in the freedb protocol were corrected.
• The Batch Catalog function was improved for some glitches in Win9x.

Changes for Version 1.5 (25. November 2001)

• The Audio Edition
• CDWinder now supports cataloging AudioCDs ! The title and track infos are gathered by utilizing the internet CD-database freedb.org.
• CDWinder now reads the tag info of MP3 files!! The artist, album, title, year, genre, comment, track, and encoding info is processed (any version of the tag!). Also the duration and the compression of every MP3 file is read. Of course, the Find parameters have been extended by adequate new values. The MP3 info is displayed in the new Media-Info column, or in the extended Properties window.
• I have added a Batch Cataloging function, to simplify cataloging those piles of AudioCDs (and other media, of course)
• The new Find parameter "Any Text" finds text in any of the fields name, comment, version, and MP3 info.
• The new Find parameter "Duration" finds the duration of audio files (MP3 and CD audio tracks, later more...).
• The preferences-dialog was adapted based on the new possibilites, of course.
• Cataloging in Windows 9x (95/98/SE/Me) should be more stable now - resource-issues were eliminated and the handling of version information was improved.
• A problem with cataloging in Virtual PC on Mac OS was fixed - CDWinder used to loop indefinitely on a special directory link...

Changes for Version 1.2 (29. July 2001)

• enhanced system integration
• added opening of files and displaying them in the explorer
• we show the nicer and more detailed icons in the ListView, too...
• enhanced media-handling
• improved and faster cataloging
• added driveEngine to identify accesible volumes
• enhanced find-routine
• added support to find the catalogs (names and comments)
• added support for deleting catalog folders
• added some minor enhancements
• improved the navigation and display in the TreeView
• we now have some general information in a status bar
• coordinates of windows and columns are preserved

Changes for Version 1.1.1 (29. April 2001)

• fixed some bugs in the findEngine
• findings with extended characters (e.g. german Umlauts) didn't work properly
• findings with dates didn't show any results
• added some minor enhancements
• we now have some progress-information during startup and find operations
• we show nicer and more detailed icons in the item property dialogs

Changes for Version 1.1 (24. March 2001)

• added catalog support for Zip-Files
zip-files are scanned and their contents is added to the catalog
• added support for version information
version of exe, dll, ... files is gathered and stored in the catalogs
• added a preferences dialog for these new capabilities
• added search functions
for comments and version information.
• added catalog folder support
- create catalog folders to organize your catalogs
- move catalogs between them (drag'n drop)
- rename catalog folders
- extensive information dialogs with statistics
- display of CDFinder catalog folder comments
• added rename and comment capability for catalog-objects
• added export-functionality
catalogs and found items can be exported to tab-separated text files.
• added menu-shortcuts for the most important functions
• added sorting capablities for catalogs in the list view

Changes for Version 1.0.1 (14. January 2001)

• fixed: Problem with incorrect size recognition of large harddisks in Win9x
• fixed: Problem with Volumenames containing characters invalid for filenames
• added: usability of the find-dialog
• Lookup for found items in the main window.
• Min/Max-buttons.
• key navigation (tab, return) in the find-dialog.
• added: Splitbar between the main window elements...