diff --git a/lib/std/testing.zig b/lib/std/testing.zig
index 5418cc34f096..1bda46ecce69 100644
--- a/lib/std/testing.zig
+++ b/lib/std/testing.zig
@@ -281,8 +281,12 @@ test "expectApproxEqRel" {
 /// equal, prints diagnostics to stderr to show exactly how they are not equal,
 /// then returns a test failure error.
 /// If your inputs are UTF-8 encoded strings, consider calling `expectEqualStrings` instead.
-/// If your inputs are slices of bytes, consider calling `expectEqualBytes` instead.
+/// If your inputs are slices of bytes, consider calling `expectEqualBytes` instead (this
+/// function calls `expectEqualBytes` implicitly when `T` is `u8`).
 pub fn expectEqualSlices(comptime T: type, expected: []const T, actual: []const T) !void {
+    if (T == u8) {
+        return expectEqualBytes(expected, actual);
+    }
     // TODO better printing of the difference
     // If the arrays are small enough we could print the whole thing
     // If the child type is u8 and no weird bytes, we could print it as strings
@@ -556,26 +560,58 @@ test {
 /// then returns a test failure error. The colorized output is optional and controlled
 /// by the return of `std.debug.detectTTYConfig()`.
 pub fn expectEqualBytes(expected: []const u8, actual: []const u8) !void {
-    std.testing.expectEqualSlices(u8, expected, actual) catch |err| {
+    if (std.mem.indexOfDiff(u8, actual, expected)) |diff_index| {
+        std.debug.print("byte slices differ. first difference occurs at offset {d} (0x{X})\n", .{ diff_index, diff_index });
+
+        // TODO: Should this be configurable by the caller?
+        const max_window_size: usize = 256;
+
+        // Print a maximum of max_window_size bytes of each input, starting just before the
+        // first difference.
+        var window_start: usize = 0;
+        if (@max(actual.len, expected.len) > max_window_size) {
+            window_start = std.mem.alignBackward(diff_index - @min(diff_index, 16), 16);
+        }
+        const expected_window = expected[window_start..@min(expected.len, window_start + max_window_size)];
+        const expected_truncated = window_start + expected_window.len < expected.len;
+        const actual_window = actual[window_start..@min(actual.len, window_start + max_window_size)];
+        const actual_truncated = window_start + actual_window.len < actual.len;
+
         var differ = BytesDiffer{
-            .expected = expected,
-            .actual = actual,
+            .expected = expected_window,
+            .actual = actual_window,
             .ttyconf = std.debug.detectTTYConfig(),
         };
         const stderr = std.io.getStdErr();
 
-        std.debug.print("\n============ expected this output: =============\n\n", .{});
+        std.debug.print("\n============ expected this output: =============  len: {} (0x{X})\n\n", .{ expected.len, expected.len });
+        if (window_start > 0) {
+            std.debug.print("... truncated, start offset: 0x{X} ...\n", .{window_start});
+        }
         differ.write(stderr.writer()) catch {};
+        if (expected_truncated) {
+            const end_offset = window_start + expected_window.len;
+            const num_missing_bytes = expected.len - (window_start + expected_window.len);
+            std.debug.print("... truncated, end offset: 0x{X}, remaining bytes: 0x{X} ...\n", .{ end_offset, num_missing_bytes });
+        }
 
         // now reverse expected/actual and print again
-        differ.expected = actual;
-        differ.actual = expected;
-        std.debug.print("\n============= instead found this: ==============\n\n", .{});
+        differ.expected = actual_window;
+        differ.actual = expected_window;
+        std.debug.print("\n============= instead found this: ==============  len: {} (0x{X})\n\n", .{ actual.len, actual.len });
+        if (window_start > 0) {
+            std.debug.print("... truncated, start offset: 0x{X} ...\n", .{window_start});
+        }
         differ.write(stderr.writer()) catch {};
+        if (actual_truncated) {
+            const end_offset = window_start + actual_window.len;
+            const num_missing_bytes = actual.len - (window_start + actual_window.len);
+            std.debug.print("... truncated, end offset: 0x{X}, remaining bytes: 0x{X} ...\n", .{ end_offset, num_missing_bytes });
+        }
         std.debug.print("\n================================================\n\n", .{});
 
-        return err;
-    };
+        return error.TestExpectedEqual;
+    }
 }
 
 const BytesDiffer = struct {