10 Tools to Verify File Integrity Using MD5 and SHA1 Hashes
6. HashTab
HashTab is another tool that needs to be installed and you get CRC32, MD5 and SHA1 hash values by default. Another 10 or so can be added including the MD5 family, the SHA family and the RipEmd family amongst others. HashTab is a bit more hidden away than the other tools, because you get to it by right clicking on the file, selecting Properties, and then clicking the File Hashes tab.
The settings choosing the hash values to be displayed are accessed through the settings button, and you can compare an already calculated value in a text file by using the Hash Comparison box. HashTab is free for personal use and works with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7.
There is an alternative tool that is very similar to HashTab called HashCheck, although this tool is very small and light being only an 85K install. It will display a Checksums tab in the Properties window and is able to show CRC32, MD4, MD5 and SHA-1 checksums.
7. MultiHasher
This utility has a number of options such as; opening files, folders (including sub folders), paths, processes and XML/MD5/SFV lists. It can also create a hash value for text strings. CRC32, MD5, RipEmd and the SHA family of hash algorithms are supported.
File association, drag and drop and the right click context menu option is also there, but this tool has something the other tools listed here don’t have. And that is you can upload to, and query files on Virustotal. You need an API key but this can be attained for free by signing up for an account at virustotal.com. Uploading and checking can then be done from within MultiHasher.
MultiHasher is freeware and has a portable version, both 32bit and 64bit versions are in the zip file. An installer is also available if you want to integrate with the context menu. Windows XP SP2+, Vista, Server 2008, and Windows 7 32bit and 64bit are supported.
8. ExactFile
There are quite a few features available in ExactFile, not least the ability to perform multi-threaded checksum calculations, which should help speed things up on modern systems. It also handles Unicode filenames without problems and supports a large number of hashes; Adler32, CRC32, GOST, MD2/4/5, and the SHA, RIPEMD and also TIGER families.
You can also create lists of file checksums from directories (including sub directories), and use what the program calls Digests to setup a before and after list of hashes to check that the files have copied to another drive or optical media successfully. A built-in benchmark function will tell you how quickly checksums can be calculated for predefined file sizes. ExactFile works on Windows 2000 and above.
9. Hasher
Hasher is a nice and simple tool to get CRC32, MD5, SHA-1 and ELF checksums by either clicking the Add File button or dropping files and folders onto the program window. You only get a single hash value displayed at any one time (switchable from the drop down menu), but multiple values can be written to the log file at once if the tick box is enabled.
Two different file checksums can be compared by copying the second hash value into the clipboard, or enabling the “Compare the next file” option. There are portable and installer versions of Hasher available, it works on Windows 98 and above.
10. HaoZip
Although not a dedicated hash calculator, I thought the excellent HaoZip is worth a mention because archiving is something nearly everybody needs. HaoZip has an MD5 checksum tool included within the package (HaoZipMd5.exe).
The checksum tool can display file version, modified date, and MD5, SHA1 and CRC32 hash values. Simply open the tool through the HaoZip Start menu entry or via its Context menu. You can also copy the data to the clipboard or save to a text file. If you want a free archiver and MD5 tool in one, HaoZip should be the first program you look at.
HaoZip is freeware and works on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and 7 32bit and 64bit.
There are hundreds of these tools about, and you might already have your favorite. Of course, feel free to tell us about the hash program you like best. If you want to try the reverse and actually have a go at finding the file from a hash value, you might like to look at this article.
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What I really want is a tool that will generate a CRC64 for single or multiple files / folder; And then append this checksum to the files “extended attributes” so that it is forever linked to the file. This would allow the file to be tested for corruption easily. (I know it is not perfect but good enough for most of us).
It would also allow another program to quickly find potential duplicate files. This would be very fast as each file already has its own checksum.
This seems a very simple idea – it must have been done – can anyone suggest suitable windows apps?
I know I’m stating the obvious, but one reason this simple idea isn’t realized to the extent you would like is the fact that many, if not most, files change due to legitimate update via patches, and of course data files are frequently edited. And of course any compressed file in a lossy format will change if opened and re-saved.
If you are comfortable with the command prompt, you can use my free utility, CrcCheckCopy.
It compares large sets of files and creates a CRCstamps.txt file where you can see the crc of every file. The verification is done against the CRCstamps.txt.
For Windows and MacOS, you can see it here: starmessagesoftware.com/crccheckcopy
all the files listed here get flagged by Norton as a dangerous file, hummmmm
If Norton is really flagging all the files listed here then it is truly messed up. I tested at least half in VirusTotal and they came up completely clean. In my ESET AV and Malwarebytes as well.
I have looked for an answer to this on several tech help sites.
Every one of these sites fail in the same way.
How do you automate the testing of the new hash against the developer’s official hash?
These things can be quite long, making it easy to make mistakes.
Some of the tools here have a verify option where you can paste in the official hash and see if it matches the hash from the file.
Isn’t that exactly what you are looking for??
James And HAL9000
When manually checking only matching a few digits is enough ….
Bcuz as far as i know A checksum is a extremely unique Sequence of characters …
Even if the two files differ by just a few bytes of data they will have entirely different checksums …
P.S. this is from my personal experience.
It’s not so likely but entirely possible to have two vastly different files and the first few characters of the checksum match, so that simply isn’t enough if you want to be totally sure the file is a 100% copy.
HAshGenerator website downloaded file, gets flagged by Norton as a dangeorus file and quarantined. Just FYI
is that possible to know a application name using Hash value (MD5)
How can ı found original hash values of windows 10?
Also note that 7-Zip has hash checking built-in.
7-zip.org
Hashcheck reworked: github.com/gurnec/HashCheck/releases/
There is a new Universal tool called Amazing Hash Utility built for Windows 10, available in the store for free
Very useful info about hash value, thanks!
hello
thanks alot
Still a great post after a few years. Thanks for making and creating it. Cheers~
—
Sam Smith
I found this article very useful, Thanks!
Thanks for mentioning ExactFile. Their console utility does a decent job when you need to process files within a large folders tree. Unfortunately it misses few advanced features such as including/excluding files by wildcards and it stores checksum of the whole tree into one file.
Similar to HashTab by ImplBits is the program by Kai Liu named HashCheck. It, too, installs as a shell extension for Windows Explorer, and works on both x86 as well as x64. See code.kliu.org/hashcheck/
Even though it has not been updated in a very long time (over 6 years!) it works well in XP through 10. Although it shows only CRC-32, MD4/5, and SHA-1, it also has the ability to *save* the MD5 check file for future verification.
Another advantage over HashTab is that you can select multiple files and hash them all at once, and again, save the MD5 of all selected files together in a single file.
+1 for HashCheck. Just grabbed it and it’s comprehensive and super-lightweight. Ability to handle multiple files and shell integration are musts.
hey , i have a question , i want to know if i am givan a md5 signture as this :
e9bf1dd6bfe8ec57f6a41b3cab428b28
can i know if the file is melicios just by looking at the md5 signture ?
if not , what is the best way to figure it out?
You can’t tell just by looking at the signature, the only way to find out is to identify what the file is that matches that MD5, and then check if the file is malicious.
For example, Googling your MD5 tells me that the file is gcBar.dll and it’s classed as “Adware” by some antivirus.
If a search engine can’t tell you, then you can try to decrypt the MD5, here is an article on the subject:
raymond.cc/blog/ask-raymond-how-to-decrypt-md5-hashed-strings/
I totally agree with taco, HashCheck is the best file integrity verifier you can get, despite it hasn’t been updated since 2009. Highly recommended.
Just spent an hour trying to download latest version (5.0) of Download Hash Verifier. There are way, way, too many links labelled “Download” or something similar to determine the actual, magic link that will download the software. After the third return to the same Web page I finally gave up. I have the 4.5 version which seems to work fine. Or I may try one of the other alternatives listed here.
If you are talking about the the SecurityXploded tool, I would agree it has quite a few download buttons to go through, although I managed to get the file downloaded in under 30 seconds.
On the final page it will say “Here is your direct download link”, click on download link and the file will come down.
Great tool HashCheck. Thank you taco!
The best one is not on the list: HashCheck
Check it out here: code.kliu.org/hashcheck/
It’s the easiest to use and very fast and the best is that it seamlessly integrates into the windows explorer.
Thanks for this man. Great resource. cheers
MD5 & SHA-1 Checksum Utility for me. Lite and easy to use!
This is a great post, but you missed the huge one. Microsoft’s File Checksum Identify Verifier. I ran across it while looking for a command line tool to quickly check some hashes and once I installed it to my Windows directory (to put it in the PATH), I can use it from anywhere on the system. It “only” does SHA1 and MD5, but that’s plenty for my uses.
IgorWare Hasher is brilliant! Thanks Ray
Excelent post, Hal 9000.
It’s a tutorial on how to use Hashes to check file integrity.