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 an entire hard drive, does it very quickly, intelligently, and without fuss. I think it's the best checksum utility on planet Earth, of course.![checksum on my Windows desktop, hashing like crazy.. [desktop wallpaper by Sharonga]](img/checksum_tool-tip-style_progress.jpg "for smaller files you won't be able to read this quickly enough. Weeeeeeh!")
Normally I would put a cute image of the program 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 programs don't know how to recurse, or don't even pretend to, or they give the MD5 hash files daft, generic names, or they can't handle long file names, or foreign file names, or multiple files, or they run in MS DOS, or choke on UTF-8, 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 brother; simple checksum, simply drag & drop Two files for an instant hash-accurate comparison.
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 enables 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 (and backup file) corruption, transfer errors and more, 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 a drag-and-drop) 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, you 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 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.
There are a wealth of command-line options, but 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 will 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 its 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. 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 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 checksum's is pretty good (it's the same as the output from a *NIX sha1sum command in binary mode). 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 (remember those?) or pen-drive, 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 checksum both ways simultaneously, or to run checksum in portable mode on a desktop 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.Note: Regardless of whether you install or run checksum portably, its functionality is identical.
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.
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..
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.
music=*.mp3,*.wav,*.ogg,*.flac,*.ape,*.shn,*.mpc,*.mp2The 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.
As well as regular Windows standard
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
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!
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!
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
The
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:@itemwhich 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!].logThe
@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!].logHTML logging with log append and auto log-rotation
As well as good old plain text, 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 your 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.iniComprehensive 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).mp3Each 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) ..01805fe7528f0d98c595ba97b798717a4988ae20125db807143f84dbe09df9782c3c033aspace delimited hashes (before we figured out the clever asterisk)..
01805fe7528f0d98c595ba97b798717a 01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp34988ae20125db807143f84dbe09df9782c3c033a 01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp3double-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 in 'text' mode, which amazingly; is the default setting. By the way; md5sum's "-b" or "--binary" switch overrides this insanity.
01805fe7528f0d98c595ba97b798717a 01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp34988ae20125db807143f84dbe09df9782c3c033a 01 - Stygian Vista (radio controlled).mp3back-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)= 4988ae20125db807143f84dbe09df9782c3c033achecksum supports verification of all these formats with ease, so feel free to point it at any old folder structure, Linux CD, whatever, or any .md5 or .sha1 files you have lying around, and get results.
And in case the above track names got you googled here, yes, checksum also works great in Microsoft® Vista, and Windows 7 of course. ;o)
simple checksum
Installed along with checksum is checksum's little brother app, "simple checksum", a supremely simple, handy, free, and highly cute drag-and-drop desktop checksumming tool; for all those "wee" hashing tasks..Drop a file onto simple checksum, get an instant MD5 or SHA-1 hash readout.
Drop two files, and get an instant MD5 or SHA-1 file compare.
Drop a file onto simple checksum with a hash in your clipboard, get an instant clipboard hash compare.
And that works from your "SendTo" menu, too (select two files - SendTo simple checksum.. instant file compare), as well as drag and drop onto simple checksum itself, or a shortcut to simple checksum. Packed with intuitive HotKeys and time-saving automatic settings, simple checksum is Very Handy Indeed!
Check it out for free..
checksum download
Feel free to download and use checksum..
LIVE MD5+SHA1 Multi-Hashes..
# made with checksum.. point-and-click hashing for windows. # from corz.org.. http://corz.org/windows/software/checksum/ # 7024ccb56480d868b82127e53bdb7a6e *checksum.zip 52c83b9c396d30f474b6eff6cc625b2311158be1 *checksum.zip
NOTE: If your Anti-Virus software detects anything in this software, I recommend you switch to an Anti-Virus that isn't brain-dead. If you DO discover an actual virus, malware, trojan, or anything of that nature inside this software, please mail me, and I will send you a cheque for a Million Pounds, as a reward. In other words, this software is clean.
nice tool, odd site--thanks for both!
eaters
Bloody good!
Great...my only question is how to execute as part of an SSIS package - I need to generate a file and send it AND the checksum.hash to a vendor's FTP site...any ideas?
Also, is there any way to change the resultant extension to .ctrl instead of .hash?
Thanks...
blah
** POSSIBLE VIRUS / WORM / TROJAN ***
I downloaded checksum tonight from this website and sent the two EXE files to VirusTotal
VirusTotal shows:
simple_checksum.exe contains a worm. 3/43 hits
checksum.exe contains a worm 4/43 hits
Maybe a false positive, as there were no hits from the "top" virus checkers that I consider
to be the best ones, i.e. none from Avira, Avast, AVG, Norton, Kapersky, NOD32, ClamAV, etc.
I think these are just false positives because of EXE packers used by the auther? Am I right?
Perhaps the author should disable EXE packing when he builds the application, there is no real need
to pack the EXE, and it has the potential to cause heuristic anti-virus to detect a false positive.
Does the author read this forum?
-- Cheers!
I third the call for SHA-2 (AKA SHA2 AKA SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512).
And please add SHA-3 as soon as it is done.
MD5 is severely broken, and SHA-1 is now partially compromised as well. SHA-2 is not yet broken, but is seen as under threat, thus the development of SHA-3
Thanks!
Love this one.
Small, Fast, Standalone and it Worked
thanks man
@Kelly Clowers: The reality is that the security of MD5/SHA1 doesn't matter for almost anyone using Checksum, so it doesn't matter how "broken" they are. We're not looking for absolute security, we're looking for a fast, convenient way to know if our files changed due to random corruption. Intentional corruption/manipulation can still be a problem even if a hashing algorithm is used that isn't as prone to collisions as MD5.
Take this as an example: Let's say that Checksum decided to support SHA512 to generate hashes with. If some bad guy comes along and changes a file, then couldn't they also change the value of the SHA512 checksum in the hash file? Sure, you could save the .hash file elsewhere to know that it didn't get changed, but anyone who really needs that level of security would almost certainly not be allowed to use a program like Checksum on their file systems. True security means knowing and approving all programs that can touch the data, and unless the programs were intensely tested and vetted, they shouldn't be used in high-risk environments. Checksum is about file integrity for the common man, not file security for high-risk environments.
In fact, I would argue in the other direction. I'd really like for CRC32 or Adler-32 to be an option since they can be calculated WAY faster than MD5. I don't care that my uninteresting files could be intentionally manipulated by bad guys to match CRC32 or Adler-32 checksums, I care about random corruption. The chances of a file being randomly changed such that it would still match CRC32 or Adler-32 is still extremely remote.
Good job, but I don't see the Explorer context menu add on. Is any fix available?
Great tool thanks Corz
thanks is just what im looking for
When I double-click on "checksum.exe" I get a "command-line error" window that is too big to fit my notebook screen, which is only 800 pixels tall. A window with vertical scrollers and sized to 80% of screen height would do.
Also, could there be options to save the file´s size, creation date and write date?
When you update a hash file, do you add only the newer files, or you recalculate the MD5 of files whose size or date has changed?
Amir, Cor has a solution for that too: http://corz.org/windows/software/accessories/KDE-resizing-moving-for-XP-or-Vista.php
First off, thanks for that awesome tool. It's doing all I've been searching for for years..
..except~ it doesn't seem to support unicode/UTF-8. When I try to hash files that are named with non-latin characters (east Asian e.g.) the tool simply skips the file.
If that functionality could be added I'm sure my new hashing-hobby would follow me in my dreams - in a very good way!
Thanks~ :p
Ok, installed the app after checking the MD5 with my old hash reader but ran into a similar "command line error" window as the other user above when trying to run the full app - all I could use was the widget version. Figured the build might have been bad somehow so I tried to uninstall and the windows thought it was already un-installed. At this point the shortcuts and program files were all deleted. So, although I'm not sure of the reason, this build seems a little sketchy...
I also would like the addition of more hash algorithms like sha256-512 and sha3 when it is available.
Cheers
looking forward
Any chance a command-line switch could be added to "ignore PE Header"? What I'm trying to find is a simple tool to compare all data in a .dll with another .dll - except data in the PE header (for .Net - the file version info and timestamp info).
nice info...and nice site...
Good...I like it..
Thanks
Thanks