When you send files such as downloading, data may change. The data may be corrupt or edited during transmission. To check if data has changed you can check the hash.
Some software developers provide the original “checksum” of their file for verification. MD5 checksum is an algorithm used to check the integrity of data. It is a 128-bit hash value created by running the input data through an MD5 algorithm. This means that it is a way to check whether a file or data is the same as the original data.
MD5 checksums are often used to verify the authenticity of files, such as software downloads, before they are installed. They are also used to check the integrity of data after it has been transmitted or stored on a disk. This is important to ensure that no unauthorized changes have been made to the data.
You can check the checksum of a file in Windows without any tools. It can be checked with “certutil” via a Command Prompt or Windows Terminal.
How to verify MD5, SHA256 or other hash in Windows 11 or 10
To get started, open Command Prompt or Terminal. In the Command Prompt, type the following command followed by a path to the file and the hash type. Here is an example with an MD5 checksum.
certutil -hashfile "<pad-naar-bestand>" MD5
You will then see an MD5 checksum. You can then check this checksum with the checksum that the developer or anyone else has made available. If the checksum is different, the data has been changed, this is not immediately a sign that there is a problem. However, if you expect the original data then something is wrong.
Besides MD5 you can use other hash types. These are SHA1, SHA256, SHA384, SHA512, MD2, MD4, and MD5.
I hope to have informed you with this. Thank you for reading!