checksum
a point-and-click sha1 and md5 hashing application for windows..
After years searching for the perfect Windows file verification utility, I decided to write it!
Welcome to checksum, a blisteringly fast, no-nonsense file hashing application for Windows. checksum is a program that generates and verifies SHA1 and MD5 hashes; aka. "MD5 Sums", or "digital fingerprints"; of a file, a folder, or recursively, even through a whole drive, does it very quickly, intelligently, and without fuss. I think it's the best checksum utility on planet Earth, of course.
Normally I would put a cute image of the application here, but generally speaking, you don't see checksum running, it just gets on with the job. However, checksum does - optionally - pop up a cute progress ToolTip windoid, so I'll show you that instead..
Why?
In the decade before checksum, I must have installed and uninstalled dozens, perhaps hundreds of Windows MD5 hashing utilities, and overwhelmingly they leave me muttering "brain-dead POS!" under my breath, or words to that effect, or not under my breath. I always knew that data verification should be simple, even easy, but it invariably ended up a chore.Either the brain-dead applications don't know how to recurse, or don't even pretend to, or they give the MD5 hash files stupid, generic names, or they can't handle long file names properly, or multiple files, or they run in MS DOS, or are painfully slow, or insist on presenting me with a complex interface, or don't have any decent hashing algorithms, or don't know how to synchronize new files with old, or any combination of these things; I usually end up shouting "FUXAKE! JUST DO IT WILL YA!!!".
No more! Now I have checksum, and it suffers from none of these problems; as well as adding a few tricks of its own..
What is it for, exactly?
Peace of mind! SHA1 and MD5 hashes are used to verify that a file or group of files has not changed. Simple as that. This is useful, even crucial, in all kinds of situations where data integrity is important. For instance, these days, it's not uncommon to find MD5 hashes (and less rarely now, SHA1 hashes) published alongside downloads, even Windows downloads. This hash, when used, ensures that the file you downloaded is exactly the same file the author uploaded, and hasn't been tampered with in any way, trojan added, etc.; even the slightest change in the data produces a wildly different hash.
It's also very useful if you want to compare files and folders/directories; using checksums is far more accurate than simply comparing file sizes, dates or any other property. For quick file compare tasks, there's also checksum's little bother; simple checksum, simply drag & drop for an instant hash readout.
If you burn a lot of data to CD or DVD, you can use a hash checker to accurately verify the integrity of your data right after a burn, and at any time in the future. If you distribute data in any way, maybe torrenteering your favourite things, run a file server of some kind, or just email a few files to your friends; checksums enable the person at the other end to be absolutley sure that the file arrived perfectly, 100% intact.
As well as providing secure verification against tampering, virus infection, file corruption and transfer errors, digital fingerprints can serve as an "early warning" of possible media failures, be they optical or magnetic. It was a checksum failure that recently alerted me to a failing batch of DVD-R disks; I saved my fading data in time, and got a refund on the disks. I'll leave you to consider the million other uses. There's only one reason, though; peace of mind.
Absolutely no-nonsense file verification..
checksum can create (two clicks) or verify (one click) both SHA1 and MD5 hashes of a file, a folder, even a whole disk full of files and folders in one simple, no-nonsense, high-performance operation. Basically; point it at a file or folder, and go! The parameters are controlled by command-line switches, but most folk won't have to worry about that; it all happens invisibly, and is built-in to your Windows® Explorer context (aka "concept", aka "right-click") commands (see above).
Note: while checksum operates with a command-line switches, it is NOT a Windows® console application; there's no messy DOS box, or anything like that! But if you want to run it from a console, that's covered, too.
Though there are a wealth of command-line options, most people find that checksum just works, exactly as they would expect, without any messing about; right-click and go! But, if you are the sort who likes to customize and hack at things, you'll find plenty to keep you occupied.
On-the-fly configuration..
If you want to change any of checksum's options on-the-fly, simply hold down the SHIFT key when you select the Explorer context menu item, and checksum will pop up a dialog for you to tweak the process. If you want to have anything permanently set, checksum comes with standard plain text Windows ini file for you to tweak to your heart's content. I figure that anyone smart enough to use MD5sums, can edit plain text.
The options dialog is most useful when you want to only hash certain files in a folder, like mp3's, or movies. With your file mask groups, you can configure file-type specific hashing with just a couple of clicks.
Common music, video, and archive formats come setup and ready to go, and you can easily edit or add to these at any time.
You can pop up the options by holding down the SHIFT key when you select the explorer menu item, so it's easy to get to the advanced options whenever you need them. Same goes for verification, though generally you won't need it - checksum is smart enough to just get on with the job, verifying whatever checksum files it finds in the path, be they MD5 or SHA1, or both, and you'll probably never need to use anything but the default verify command, nomatter how advanced you are! And because checksum recognizes other formats of MD5 and SHA1 files, it can be used not only to verify and create new checksums, but also verify existing checksum files, even ancient ones, automatically.
I expect there is some weird MD5 file format out there that I don't have an example of, Wang, maybe? but in practice, checksum supports ALL known MD5 verification file formats, that is, known by me. If you find an MD5 file format that checksum doesn't support, send it to me!
There isn't really a standard SHA1 format yet, but mine is pretty good. Shall we?
100% Portable..
checksum usually operates as a regular installed desktop application with Explorer context menus, custom .hash, .md5 and .sha1 desktop icons, Windows start menu entries, and so on; but checksum can also operate in a completely portable state, and happily works from a pen-drive, DVD, or wherever you happen to be; no less than total portability.Even with its little brother, simple checksum tagging along, the whole lot fits easily on a floppy disk, enabling you to create SHA1 and MD5 hashes, wherever you are. To activate portable mode, simply drop a checksum.ini file next to checksum.exe, you're done.
It's no problem to run both it both ways simultaneously, or to run checksum in portable mode where checksum is already installed. Simply put, if there's a checksum.ini next to it, checksum will use it, and if there isn't an ini there, checksum uses the one in your user data folder (aka. "Application Data", aka. "AppData").
If you like applications to run in a portable state, even on your own desktop, no problem; you can skip the installer altogether and simply extract files.zip to wherever you like. It's in the installer's files/ directory. There's also a checksum.ini inside the archive, so you can unzip-and-go.
Introducing.. The Unified Hash Extension™
And Multi-Hashing™..
checksum uses the MD5 and SHA1 hashing algorithms, and creates .md5 and .sha1 files to contain these hashes. But checksum prefers to instead create a single .hash extension for all your hash files, whatever algorithm you use. Welcome to the unified .hash extension..
I feel there are quite enough file extensions to deal with, and with some effort on the part of software developers, this may catch on. I hope it does, anyway, and that you agree. A single, unified hash extension looks like the way forward, to me. All comments welcome, below.
As well as being able to verify both MD5 and SHA1 hashes, even mixed up in the same file, checksum can also create such a file, if you so desire. At any rate, if you start using SHA1 hashes some day, you can keep your old MD5s handy, inside your .hash files..
The single, unified hash extension gives us not only the freedom to effortlessly upgrade algorithms at any time, without having to handle yet-another-file-type, but also the ability to easily store output from multiple hashing algorithms inside a single .hash file. Welcome to multi-hashing, which will doubtless have security benefits, to boot.
Fast, bloody fast..
If you do a lot of SHA1 or MD5 hashing, you'll know that it's an intensive process, and relatively slow. Well, checksum is fast, very fast.
Even on my old desktop (a lowly 1.3GHz, where checksum was initially developed) it would rip through a 100MB file in under one second. Hashing your average album is instantaneous. With right-click convenience, intelligent recursion and synchronization, full automization, and crazy-fast hashing speeds, digital fingerprinting is no longer a chore; it's a joy!
Okay, I'm getting carried away, but seriously, this is how hashing was always meant to be!
WHAT?!? THERE'S MORE?
Yup! checksum has a little brother, called "simple checksum". He's a bit simple, but a well handy, free, and highly cute drag-and-drop desktop checksum tool. Check it out.
Features..
If you like lists, and who doesn't, here's a list of checksum's "features", as compared to your average md5 utility..True point-and-click hash creation and verification.
No-brainer hash creation and verification. In a word; simple.
Choice of MD5 or SHA1 hashing algorithms.
Create a regular MD5sum (128-bit), or further increase security by using the SHA1 algorithm (160-bit). checksum recognizes and works with both formats, even mixed up in the same file.
hash single files, or folders/directories full of files.. no problem.
checksum can create hash files for individual files or folders full of files, and importantly, automatically recognizes both kinds during verification, verifying every kind of checksum file it can find. Also, when creating individual hash files, checksum is smart enough to skip any that already exist.
Effortless recursion. (point at a folder/directory or volume and GO!)
Not only fully automatic creation and verification of files, and folders full of files, but hash all the files and folders inside, and all the folders inside them, and so on, and so on, through an entire volume, if you desire.. one click! ... Drive hashing is now officially EASY!
Multiple user-defined file mask groups.
For instance, hash only MP3 files, or only movies, whatever you like, available from a handy drop-down menu. All your favourite file types can be stored in custom groups for easy-peezy file-type-specific hashing. e.g..
music=*.mp3,*.wav,*.ogg,*.flac,*.ape,*.shn,*.mpc,*.mp2
The most common groups are already provided, and it's trivial to create your own. You can also enter custom masks directly into the one-shot options, e.g. reports-*.pdf, to hash all the reports in a folder, create ad-hoc groups, or whatever.
music=*.mp3,*.wav,*.ogg,*.flac,*.ape,*.shn,*.mpc,*.mp2
The most common groups are already provided, and it's trivial to create your own. You can also enter custom masks directly into the one-shot options, e.g. reports-*.pdf, to hash all the reports in a folder, create ad-hoc groups, or whatever.
Automatic music playlist creation!
Another killer feature; checksum can create music playlist files along with your checksums! When creating a folder hash, if checksum encounters any of the music files you have specified in your preferences; mp3's, ogg files, wma, whatever; it can create a playlist for the collection (i.e.. the album). Rather nifty, and a perfect addition to the custom command in the tips and tricks section (below).
As well as regular Windows standard .m3u playlist files (Winamp, etc.), checksum also supports .pls playlists (shoutcast/icecast). Your call.
As well as regular Windows standard .m3u playlist files (Winamp, etc.), checksum also supports .pls playlists (shoutcast/icecast). Your call.
Effortlessly handles all known** legacy md5 files.
If you discover an MD5sum that checksum doesn't support, send me that file!
Create lowercase or UPPERCASE checksums at will.
Like many things, this can also be set permanently, if you so wish.
Automatic synchronization of old and new files
Automatically add new hashes to existing checksum files.
That's right! Automatically add new hashes to existing checksum files!
That's right! Automatically add new hashes to existing checksum files!
Integrated Windows® Explorer context (right-click) operation.
The installer will setup Windows® Explorer context commands for all files and folders, so you can right-click anything and create or verify checksums at will. Very handy. "setup", the rather clever installer, is also available in its own right, as a free, and 100% ini-driven installer engine for your own goodies. Stuffed with features, easy to use, and definitely deserving a page to itself. Soon.
As explained above, you can also bypass the installer altogether, and simply unzip-and-go, for 100% portable checksumming. Or you can have both.
As explained above, you can also bypass the installer altogether, and simply unzip-and-go, for 100% portable checksumming. Or you can have both.
No-fuss intelligent checksum verification.
Cut and paste your own checksum files if you like, rename them, mix and match legacy md5 formats in a single file, even throw in a few sha1 hashes just for fun; worry not; checksum will work it out!
Can be configured to permanently ignore any file types.
Obviously we don't want checksums files of checksum files, for starters, but if you have other file types you'd like on a permanent ignore, desktop.ini files, thumbs.db, whatever; it's easy to setup. The most common annoying file types already are.
Real-time tool-tip style dynamic progress update.
Drag it around the screen - it snaps to the edges, and stays there (checksum also remembers its dialog screen positions, for intuitive, fast operation).
Tool-tip progress can be disabled altogether, if you wish.
Right-click the Tooltip for extra options.
During verification, any failures can be seen real-time in a system tray tool-tip, hover your mouse over the tray icon for details. checksum also flashes the progress tooltip red momentarily, and (optionally) beeps your PC speaker, to let you know of any hash failures. If there were errors, the final tooltip is red (by default). Anything to make life a bit easier.
Tool-tip progress can be disabled altogether, if you wish.
Right-click the Tooltip for extra options.
During verification, any failures can be seen real-time in a system tray tool-tip, hover your mouse over the tray icon for details. checksum also flashes the progress tooltip red momentarily, and (optionally) beeps your PC speaker, to let you know of any hash failures. If there were errors, the final tooltip is red (by default). Anything to make life a bit easier.
Verify a mix of multiple (and nested) md5 and sha1 checksum files with a single command.
Does what it says on the can!
Extensionless checksum files.
Traditionally, individual checksum files are named filename.ext.md5. Personally, I find this inelegant, and prefer them to be named filename.md5. I like it so much, I made it the default, but you can change that, if you like. When running extensionless; if checksum encounters multiple files with same name, it simply adds them to the same checksum file, so checksums for foo.txt, foo.htm, and foo.jpg would all go inside foo.md5, or better yet, foo.hash. Highly groovy.
On the verify side of things, checksum has always verified every possible checksum it can find, so these multi-hash file look just like regular folder hash files, and verify perfectly, so long as the data hasn't changed, of course!
On the verify side of things, checksum has always verified every possible checksum it can find, so these multi-hash file look just like regular folder hash files, and verify perfectly, so long as the data hasn't changed, of course!
Smart checksum file naming, with dynamic @tokens.
checksum file names reflect the actual files or folders checked! Automatically.
If you want more, you can specify either static or dynamic checksum file names, with a wide range of automagically transforming tokens. See below for details.
If you want more, you can specify either static or dynamic checksum file names, with a wide range of automagically transforming tokens. See below for details.
Effortless hashing of read-only volumes.
checksum can create sha1 and md5 hashes for the read-only volume, but store the checksum files elsewhere; either with relative paths inside; so you can later copy the checksum file into other copies of the volume, or absolute paths; so you can keep tabs on the originals from anywhere.
checksum currently has three different read-only fallback strategies to choose from; use whichever most suits your needs.
checksum currently has three different read-only fallback strategies to choose from; use whichever most suits your needs.
Extensive logging capabilities, with intelligent log handling and dynamic log naming.
checksum always gives you the option to log failures. But you can log everything if you prefer. hashing times can be included in the logs, and proper css classes ensure you can tell what's-what at a glance.
Relative or absolute log file path locations can be configured in your preferences, as can the checksum log name itself; with dynamic date and time, as well as dynamic location and status tokens, so you can customize the output naming format to your exact requirements.
In other words, as well leaving it to checksum to work out automatically, or typing a regular name into your prefs, such as "checksum.log", you can use cool @tokens to insert the current..
log_name=[@year-@mon-@mday @ @hour.@min.@sec] checksums for @item [@status!].log
The @status strings can also be individually configured in your prefs, if you wish. Roll the whole thing up, and with the settings above, the final log name might look like..
[2007-11-11 @ 16.43.50] checksums for golden boy [100% AOK!].log
Relative or absolute log file path locations can be configured in your preferences, as can the checksum log name itself; with dynamic date and time, as well as dynamic location and status tokens, so you can customize the output naming format to your exact requirements.
In other words, as well leaving it to checksum to work out automatically, or typing a regular name into your prefs, such as "checksum.log", you can use cool @tokens to insert the current..
You can mix these up with regular strings, like so..@sec ... seconds value. from 00 to 59
@min ... minutes value. from 00 to 59
@hour ... hours value, in 24-hour format. from 00 to 23
@mday ... numeric day of month. from 01 to 31
@mon ... numeric month. from 01 to 12
@year ... four-digit year
@wday ... numeric day of week. from 1 to 7 which corresponds to Sunday through Saturday.
@yday ... numeric day of year. from 1 to 366 (or 365 if not a leap year)
There is also a special token: @item which is transformed into the name of the file or folder being checked, and @status, which automatically transforms into the current success/failure status.
log_name=[@year-@mon-@mday @ @hour.@min.@sec] checksums for @item [@status!].log
The @status strings can also be individually configured in your prefs, if you wish. Roll the whole thing up, and with the settings above, the final log name might look like..
[2007-11-11 @ 16.43.50] checksums for golden boy [100% AOK!].log
HTML logging with log append and auto log-rotation
checksum can output logs in lovely XHTML, with CSS used for all style and positional elements. With the ability to append new logs to old, and auto-transforming tokens, you setup automatic daily/monthly/whatever log rotation by doing no more than choosing the correct name. You can even have logs organized by section and date, all automatically; via the free-energy from your @tokens.
Click here to see a sample of checksum's log output, amongst other things.
Total cross-platform and legacy md5 file format support
MD5 and SHA1 hash files from UNIX, Linux, Mac and Solaris, as well as a myriad of legacy Windows and DOS MD5 formats, in fact, every hash file I've ever come across, is supported. Throw any old MD5sum at checksum, and you'll get results. And if you don't (*gasp*), Send Me That FILE!
Work with hidden checksums.
If you don't like to see those checksum files, no problem; checksum can create and verify hidden checksum files as easily as visible ones. Like most options, as well as on-the-fly configuration via the options dialog (hold down SHIFT when you launch checksum), you can set this permanently by altering checksum.ini.
To create hidden checksums (same as attrib +h), use "h" on the command-line, or choose that option from the options dialog.
Don't worry about creating music playlists with the invisible option enabled, the playlists will be perfectly visible, only the checksums get hidden! (well, someone asked! ;o)
To create hidden checksums (same as attrib +h), use "h" on the command-line, or choose that option from the options dialog.
Don't worry about creating music playlists with the invisible option enabled, the playlists will be perfectly visible, only the checksums get hidden! (well, someone asked! ;o)
"Quiet" operation.
Handy if you are making scheduled items, etc, and want to disable all the dialogs. Simply add a 'q'.
You can also set checksum to only pop up dialogs for "long operations". Just how long constitutes a long operation, is of course, up to you. The default is 0, so you get "SUCCESS!", even if it only took a millisecond. Check your ini for more wee tricks like this.
You can also set checksum to only pop up dialogs for "long operations". Just how long constitutes a long operation, is of course, up to you. The default is 0, so you get "SUCCESS!", even if it only took a millisecond. Check your ini for more wee tricks like this.
Audio alerts.
Unrelated to the "quiet" option (above), checksum can thoughtfully invoke your peecee speaker to notify you of any verification failures as they happen, as well as shorter double-pips on completion. You can even specify the exact KHz value for the beeps, whatever suits you best.
You can also assign WAV files for the success and failure sounds, if you prefer.
You can also assign WAV files for the success and failure sounds, if you prefer.
Drag-and-drop files, folders and drives onto checksum.
If you prefer to drag and drop things, you can keep checksum (or a shortcut to it) handy on your desktop/toolbars/sendto menu, and drag files or folders onto it for instant checksum creation. This works for verification, too; if you drag a hash file onto checksum, its hashes are instantly verified.
Note: like regular menu activation, you can use the SHIFT key to pop-up the options dialog at launch-time. You can also drag and drop files and folders onto the one-shot options dialogs, to have their paths automatically inserted for you.
Note: like regular menu activation, you can use the SHIFT key to pop-up the options dialog at launch-time. You can also drag and drop files and folders onto the one-shot options dialogs, to have their paths automatically inserted for you.
User preferences are stored in a plain text Windows® ini file.
You can look at it, edit it, back it up, script with it, and handle it. Lots of things can be tweaked and set from here, though 99.36% of people will probably find the defaults are just fine, and the one-shot option dialogs handle everything else they could ever need. But if you are a more advanced user, with special requirements, chances are checksum has a setting just for you. Click here to find out more about checksum.ini
Comprehensive set of command-line switches.
Normally with checksum, you simply click-and-go; but checksum also accepts a large number of command-line switches. If you are creating a custom front-end, modifying your explorer context menu commands, or creating a custom scheduled task, take a look at checksum's many switches. For lots more details, see here.
If you simply have some special task to perform, it can probably be achieved via the one-shot options dialog.
If you simply have some special task to perform, it can probably be achieved via the one-shot options dialog.
That's a lot of features! And it's not even them all!
Legacy and cross-platform MD5/SHA1 file formats that checksum can handle..
If you look inside any MD5/SHA1 checksum file - it's plain text - you find all sorts of things.Here's what a regular (MD5) checksum file looks like..
01805fe7528f0d98c595ba97b798717a *01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp3
Each line begins with the MD5/SHA1 digest (hash), followed by a space, then an asterisk, then the filename. It's a clear format, flexible, relatively fool-proof ("*" is not allowed on any file system), and well supported.
Other formats I've come across..
single file single MD5/SHA1 hash types - these necessarily have the same name as the file, with ".md5" or ".sha1" extension added, and are often hand-made by system admins, or else piped from a shell md5/sha command) ..01805fe7528f0d98c595ba97b798717a
4988ae20125db807143f84dbe09df9782c3c033a
space delimited hashes (before we figured out the clever asterisk)..
01805fe7528f0d98c595ba97b798717a 01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp3
4988ae20125db807143f84dbe09df9782c3c033a 01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp3
double-space delimited hashes (just silly, really)..
Believe it or not, this is the de-facto standard for md5 files, mainly because it's the output from the UNIX md5sum/sha1sum command.
01805fe7528f0d98c595ba97b798717a 01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp3
4988ae20125db807143f84dbe09df9782c3c033a 01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp3
back-to-front hashes in parenthesis - this is quite a common format around the UNIX/Solaris archives of the world (it's the output from openssl dgst command) ..
MD5(01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp3)= 01805fe7528f0d98c595ba97b798717a or..
MD5 (01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp3) = 01805fe7528f0d98c595ba97b798717a even..
SHA1(01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp3)= 4988ae20125db807143f84dbe09df9782c3c033a
checksum supports verification of all these formats with ease, so feel free to point it at any old folder structure, Linux CD, whatever, and get results.
And in case the above track names got you googled here, yes, checksum also works great in Microsoft® Vista. ;o)
batch processing..
hashDROP
A batch-processing front-end for checksum..
Because checksum can be controlled by command-line switches, it's possible to create all sorts of interesting front-ends for it. The first of these to come to my attention, is a neat wee application called "hashDROP", which enables you to run big batches of jobs through checksum, using a single set of customizable command-line switches.As developer seVen explains on the hashDROP page..
On seVen's desktop, at least, it looks something like this..
Batch Runner
Run multiple programs in a batch..
I originally designed Batch Runner to run a big batch of tests on checksum before release, but it has since proven useful for other tasks, so I spruced it up a bit, made it available. If you want to run loads of hashing jobs using the same switches, hashDROP is probably more useful to you. But if you want to run lots of checksum jobs with different switches, or as part fo a larger batch of jobs involving other programs, then check out Batch Runner.
Batches can be saved, selected from a drop-down, run from the command-line, even from inside other batches, so it's handy for repetative scheduled tasks, or application test suites, as well as general batch duties. At least on my desktop, it looks like this..
checksum download
Feel free to download and use checksum. If you discover any bugs, please do let me know about them!
download checksum
checksum 1.0.zip hashes..
MD5: 37ce170d8ff170b638bd54df16955c69
SHA1: 63209e48af67c65d51db1294af1e68127a2404a5
download checksum beta
checksum 1.1b.zip hashes..
MD5: f396abec141a50321caa995665db2986
SHA1: b1b456df092db9e2dd752a7ed50b72598451d872
when you going to make a tshirt with your emoticon logo thingy?:
;o)
(or
Great work. Thanks.
notnymous said..
;o)
(or
It has crossed my mind, but my self-indulgence-o-meter is already in the red, so I'll probably at least wait until I get the first three designs ready. Also, it encourages "fans", and that was one of the reasons I got out of the music industry when I did!
I guess digital fans is okay; buying shirts, as opposed to ripping them off your back! It's a cool smiley, but, would YOU buy such a shirt?
;o)
(or
ps. if I could find a manufacturer that could reproduce my site gradient on a T-Shirt; yes, I'd go for it, even just for myself.
I've been using a command line MD5 utility that does only files. But if a folder matches the filespec it attempts to access it and fails and quits. Inane behavior.
Oh, I've seen a lot crazier behaviour than that in hashing utilities! But let's forget about those, and look to the future: checksum.
;o)
(or
Thanks a lot for writing this! I'd been using a command line md5 tool and was looking forward to point-and-click ease.
I deal with big (1GB - 13GB) video files that are typically moved around or backed up individually, so I always use the "individual checksums" option. I would like this to be the default. Unfortunately every time I right click on a directory and choose "Create checksums" I get one checksum file in the dir. The only way to get the "individual checksums" is to do the shift-key thing every single time, which gets old. Is there any way to have the "individual checksums" choice stick?
Also: Is there any way to be have an audio alert only when there is an error? The pc speaker beep quickly becomes very irritating.
Thanks ...
Hey, Mr. Snout, no problem!
checksum's operation is completely controlled by switches which makes it extremely flexible, so although there's no actual preference for "always create individual checksums" (I hadn't considered someone might want this set permanently, though I'll be sure to add this for a future release - cheers!), it's easy enough to achieve right now, simple add the i switch to your explorer context menu commands.
There are at least two ways to achieve this; probably the quickest is to add the i switch to the directory and/or drive commands in the registry..
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\01.checksum
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\01.checksum
Currently the switches in the command will be cr, so make them cri, and from then on, folder checksum commands will always create individual checksum files. Of course, if you occasionally want the usual per-folder checksums, you can do the SHIFT thing.
You could also create additional commands specifically for creating individual checksum files directly from the explorer menu in much the same way as the custom music file commands I outline in the tricks & tips page, here. You could even make the context menu entry specific to movie files, using crim(movies).
If you don't want to play with the registry, simply edit the installer's setup.ini file, adding the switches in there, instead..
HKCR\Directory\shell\01.|name|\command="|InstalledApp|" cri "%1"
HKCR\Drive\shell\01.|name|\command="|InstalledApp|" cri "%1"
and then reinstall checksum to get your updated Explorer context menu items. Actually, that's probably even quicker than editing the registry!
As for the audio alerts; if you want checksum to not beep on successful completion, yet still beep on any failures, simply set beep_success to a blank WAV file.
checksum will still alert you of failures with either a WAV or beep, depending on your preferences, but all success notifications will be completely silent. I've uploaded a small, blank WAV file for the purpose, here.
Of course, audio alerts can also be disabled completely in checksum.ini, if you wish.
Have fun!
;o)
(or
To those who have read the page, and are now just following the comments..
There is a new section!
Check this out!
;o)
(or
Very good. I also was thinking hashes should be done with point and click.
Thanks!
Hey cor. That's a nice tool - unfortunatelly it isn't what I'm searching for. Though it might be possible to make it such easily.
I'm actually looking for a tool with which I can easily check a file against a hash published on a web site. You too publish the hashes for your file here but to check the downloaded zip against it, I'd have to generate a hash file, open it, compare it against the one on the website, close the file and delete it.
So any way to generate and just display a hash to compare it visually? Or even better compare it automatically if a hash is found in the clipboard.
Thanks, chris
Hey Chris. I anticipated this need, and created "simple checksum", checksum's wee brother, which does exactly what you want. It's also very slim, and designed to sit out of the way somewhere, so you can do visual comparisons easily with your browser open - you can even make simple checksum semi-transparent, and leave it there.
As a bonus, you can also switch easily between MD5 and SHA1 (there's an application menu item and HotKeys for both) and simple checksum will recalculate the other algorithm for you, without the need for a second drag-and-drop. It comes free with checksum, just start it up!
Cheers, Laz3r. In fact, you pre-empted my new checksum slogan, there! Once the new beta goes up, I'll upload all the new pages, and you'll see what I mean.
;o)
(or
Well cor, that surely works. But where to put that app to be invisible when not used but at hand when needed? Holding Ctrl while starting the app from context menu does something else than without but I'm not that sure what it is for. I still think it would be a nice behaviour to tell checksum to only display the result when a modifier key is pressed.
BTW, when a hash files content is verified, checksum tries to start cmd.exe. If I prevent that, everything still works. What ist the aim of this?
Nonono chris, simple checksum is a totally different application! If you ran the checksum installer, it should have been placed beside checksum.exe, in the program folder; it's the one with the green icon. Click this link; it's a page all about simple checksum.
There are no modifier keys for simple checksum. You just run it, and it stays open, displaying hashes for whatever you type into it, or drop onto it. You can toggle it (show/hide) by simply clicking its tray icon.
checksum doesn't display hashes, ever. checksum's job is to create and verify hash files.
But neither checksum or simple checksum attempt to start cmd.exe, at any time, for any reason; I suspect something else is happening on your system. Feel free to mail me more details about this if you like.
However, checksum will attempt to run compact.exe after creating logs, to compress them (more details in the itstory), and though compact.exe is a console application (it's built-in to windows) it should all happen in the background, and shouldn't be seen. If it's not happening in the background on your system, then I definitely want to know more about it; OS details, etc, in my inbox, or here, cheers!
;o)
(or
Hi again!
I've been testing checksum on about 1 TB worth of files and it looks good so far. Easy to use and has several features. There are however a few features I miss which you can consider or just file under /dev/null
- Delete missing files from hash files
I have replaced several files with newer versions but the old files are still listed in the hash files which lists them as missing every time I do a verify. I can delete them manually from the hash files of course but where's the fun in that?
- Rename files to match filename in hash file or vice versa
Let's say a file has been renamed for some reason. Could be an irc server replacing spaces with underscores for instance. Or someone has renamed a file to match their own personal format.
The idea is to calculate the checksums for all files in a dir that isn't listed in the hash file(s) and see if it matches the checksum of any hash entries that are missing it's file and rename it accordingly.
Some considerations: Empty files should be ignored (and very small ones?). Multiple hash files can point to files in the same dir so it's probably a good idea to try to merge as many as possible to find the files that doesn't have a hash.
Another option that's much simpler to implement is to set it to only run on single hash files. It could then look for missing files in that hash file regardless if they're listed anywhere else.
I'm sure I can give you more suggestions if you're interested. :-)
Keep up the good work :-)
Yes, good work! I've just been testing checksum out on my archive, very impressed. It does lots of things I've wanted to do but couldn't until now. Now I just have to acquire a "decent text editor" (as you say!) so I can have a proper fiddle with all the preferences.
No one has mentioned simple checksum I see, it's very handy too. They make a good pair.
Thanks for all your work!
Excellent! Thank you.
I don't see where version 1.1b can be downloaded. Has it been released yet?
Thanks guys!
Cheers for the suggestions, Para Noid (and the other thing!). "Delete missing files from hash files" sounds useful, but highly risky; like you say, it wouldn't be the default! I'll definitely consider a special switch for this, though.
"Rename files to match filename in hash file or vice versa" I'll have to think about. If I did something like this, it would almost certainly work on a line-by-line basis, so the location of changed file names would be whatever scheme the original name was, regardless of relative or absolute paths. You can mix them all up real good in the latest version.
Setting this for only "single hash files" is is doable, so long as we remember, the idea of a single hash file is purely a virtual one, at least in verification (there is no "i" switch for verification, for this reason). A hash file is viewed simply as a container for hashes. Where each individual hash points, is determined on a line-by-line basis. I'll definitely consider all this, though.
notnymous, it's mostly done. Unfortunately, I've been away a lot this last week, and that will be true for a few days, yet, so the list is slow-going. I'm hoping to have 1.1b up this weekend, but that's not a promise!
Meantime, you could play with Batch Runner, a small but useful wee app I put up tonight; something I've been trying to make time for all week. I built it to run batches of tests on checksum before releases, but it's already proving handy for other jobs.
;o)
(or
ps. Randy, also, their icon colour schemes compliment each other beautifully!
Nice. Thanks.
awesome!!
I got an error installing on Vista (SP1) about the zip.dll not getting registered. I got the folder out of the zip, and ran it again and it worked, but I thought you should know.
Great app, it was worth it!
Allthe best.
Bobz