Hashing

Hash calculators can be useful for a number of things, such as storing passwords securely, comparing items and ensuring downloaded files have not been corrupted or tampered with.

Hashing is a lightweight program designed to help you calculate hashes for large numbers of items quickly. It is very easy to work with, relying on drag and drop, and it enables you to compare files in order to find duplicates.

One of this application’s strengths is just how straightforward it is. You can get started right away, as no installation is required, so it can even be carried on portable storage devices and deployed instantly.

Once you have launched the utility, just drag files or folders inside the main window to calculate their hashes. Any number of items can be processed at once, and you can even add more files later on.

The program calculates each item’s MD5, SHA1, SHA256 and RIPEMD160 hash; these are displayed in the log, which can also be saved locally as a JSON file.

Assuming two or more files have been processed, you can have the application compare their hashes in order to identify duplicates. If any are found, you can see which of the hashes are identical in a new window.

Unfortunately, though, Hashing does not allow you to compare the generated checksums with a hash value obtained from another source. Some software developers publish these hashes in order to help users ensure the files they have downloaded have not been modified or corrupted, so this would have been a helpful feature.

Hashing is, on the whole, a very useful tool for those who frequently need to generate hashes or wish to compare files in order to locate duplicates. However, it would have been great if users had the option of comparing the calculated hashes with provided values.