HashTab – determine the checksums of the file

How to find out the hash of a file in Windows will help a small free program HashTab, which is designed to check the hash, the so-called file checksum.

The program is an extension for Windows Explorer. HashTab will allow you to determine the checksum (hash or hash) of the file to verify the authenticity and integrity of the file being checked.

Quite often, users come across files in which the original files are replaced with false copies. Such copies may contain malware.

Why do you need to check files for authenticity

In order to provide the user with the opportunity to verify the authenticity of a file, image or program, manufacturers provide its hash sums next to the links for downloading the file.

You probably met when downloading files from the Internet that after the characteristics and system requirements, there is often an item with file checksums of something like this

A hash is a specific code corresponding to a specific given unit of information, a unique mathematically calculated image of a specific file. At the slightest change in the file, the hash sum of this file also changes immediately. With the help of such a check, a specific file is protected from modification.

Checksums must be checked if you are downloading files not from the official website of the developer or other important files, such as an operating system image. By comparing the checksums of an image or file, you can immediately find out whether this file has been modified or not.

If there is a checksum error, the checksum does not match the required one, then this means that the file has been modified (perhaps a virus has been introduced into it, or some other actions have been taken).

To check the checksum (hash), you can use the free program HashTab.

How to use hash tab

When installed, the HashTab program is integrated into the Explorer properties window. After installing the HashTab program on your computer, you can check the hash sums of files. To do this, right-click on a file.

Select “Properties” from the context menu. After opening the window, in the “Properties” window you will see a new tab “File hash sums”.

When you click on the “File hash sums” tab, a window appears with the values ​​of the checksums of this file.

After clicking on the “Settings” link, the HashTab program settings window will open, where in the “Displayed hash sums” tab, you can select the appropriate items of verification algorithms.

To check files, it will be enough to choose the main verification algorithms: CRC32, MD5, SHA-1. After selecting the verification algorithms, click on the “OK” button.

To compare the hash sums of files, you will need to drag the file into the “Compare hash” field. If the hash values ​​of the files match, a green flag will appear.

You can also check the hash in another way. To do this, click on the “Compare file …” button, and then select the file to compare in the Explorer window.

After that, click on the “Open” button, and then in the window that opens, you will see the result of comparing the checksum of the file.

By right-clicking on the corresponding checksum, you can copy this sum or all checksums, as well as go to the program settings if you select the appropriate item in the context menu.

You can also check two files one by one at the same time and compare the result in two windows. You can see in this image that the checksums of the two files match.

Article Conclusions

The HashTab program is designed to check the checksums (hash) of a file. Using the free HashTab program, you will always know whether changes have been made to the file or not.