Have you noticed that very often when we are to download a file is given to us the checksum of the file that is usually md5sum, sha1 or sha256?

The checksum of a file is something akin to fingerprints. It is unique for each file, and the slightest change causes a new checksum. For example, a plain text file with the single word "Hello" has md5sum 09f7e02f1290be211da707a266f153b3 while the same file with the word "hello" has md5sum b1946ac92492d2347c6235b4d2611184.

So we can "sign" our files, in order to be sure that have not been corrupted during download or by someone else deliberately.

We should always verify the checksum especially when it comes to installation files of operating systems or applications.

“Checksums Calculator v2.0” is an application that can run on Microsoft Windows, MacOSX and Linux operating systems on both 32bit and 64bit architectures while is translated into 3 languages. It gives you the ability to calculate and verify checksums of functions: md5, sha1, sha256, sha384 and sha512.

 

Instructions for downloading, installing and running the application can be found here

 

Instructions for downloading, installing and running the application can be found here

 

Instructions for downloading, installing and running the application can be found here