How to Use Windows MD5 Checker and Delete Identical Files?

/ Removing Duplicates, Solutions / By

If you’re regularly downloading files from the Internet, you might have been advised to check the files with Windows MD5 Checker. The concept of file hashing algorithms, MD5 checksum could be unfamiliar to you, unless you’re a software engineer or a maths student.

Recommended: Scan Your Computer with Clone Files Checker and delete 1000s of duplicate files. 


Before we head on to the actual process, here’s a quick explanation of the concept of checksum and why it holds significance. In the latter part of the article, we’ll discuss how to delete identical files with Windows MD5 Checker. Let’s begin.

 

What is Checksum? How Does it Work?

A checksum is an alphanumeric string produced by cryptographic file comparison algorithms. It is a fixed-character string that helps you identify whether a file is identical in nature to another file. A checksum usually contains a random set of characters with a fixed length.

No matter whether you hash a small file with only 20 characters or a large file with 2000 characters, the resulting checksum would still have the same character length. Hashing the same file over and again will produce the same checksum again without any change. Remember, if you modify the file contents or add just a little single extra space, the entire set of checksum characters would change.

But wait, do not confuse checksums with file encryptions. It is not yet another technology to encode and decode information or to shorten (compress) your text. You cannot encrypt a 2000 character text into a 16 character checksum and then decode it back to its original state. It doesn’t work like that. File checksums are not meant for transferring confidential information or for compressing larger data into smaller texts.

 

Why Does a Checksum Hold Significance in Computing?

There are different circumstances when you will need to compute a file’s checksum. Here are some typical scenarios:

 

Validate your Downloaded Files

Internet connectivity issues are not uncommon. If you’re downloading a large file, constant Internet issues can surely irritate you in many ways. Your download may get worse during peak hours. The increased load on your bandwidth distribution can cause the download to become terribly slower or even stop in the middle for apparently no reason.

Windows MD5 Checker can help you verify the integrity of your downloaded files. If you’ve downloaded a large file (e.g. 5 GB), you may want to validate it to ensure that it is completely downloaded.

File validation is a common practice while sharing large files. The publishers of large Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, often provide a checksum of those files. After downloading your distribution, you can use those checksums to verify if your file has been completely downloaded.

 

Digital Security

Downloading files from untrusted sources can have adverse and disastrous consequences. Unsolicited programs and files could transmit computer malware, viruses, or Trojans. They can perform backdoor activities without your consent. So if you’ve downloaded a file without verifying its legitimacy, you can use Windows MD5 Checker to do it now.

 

Identify Duplicate Files

Computing the file checksum will enable you to identify unique and duplicate files. If your PC has gotten gunked up with too many identical files eating your storage, you can compute the file hashes to find and delete duplicate files. Cleaning duplicates on a regular basis is a good practice to save storage, make room for new files and increase your computer’s performance.

 

How to Use Windows MD5 Checker?

Here are the steps to use Windows MD5 Checker to computer file hashes and identify duplicates:

  1. Download Microsoft File Checksum Integrity Verifier.
  2. After successful download, double-click the Windows-KB841290-x86-ENU.exe file.
  3. Click Yes to accept the License Agreement.
  4. Click on Browse, and select your desired folder (preferably, MS MD5 Checker on your Desktop) to extract the Microsoft File Checksum Integrity Verifier tool.
  5. Click on OK thrice.
  6. Now navigate to the folder where you’ve extracted your files. (MS MD5 Checker in our example).
  7. Copy the file fciv.exe to C:\Windows\System32 directory.
  8. Your computer will prompt you to approve the administrative privileges. Click Yes.
  9. Type Command Prompt in the Search Box on the taskbar.
  10. Right-click on Command Prompt, select Run as administrator.
  11. Use one of the following commands:Generate MD5 hashTo generate the MD5 hash of a file, use the following command:

    FCIV.exe -md5 directory\file.ext

    Example: To generate the MD5 hash of a file Project.pdf stored in the Documents directory, type the following command. Replace the user name example with your actual user name.

    FCIV.exe -md5 C:\Users\Vikas\Documents\Project.pdf

     

    Generate SHA1 hash

    Similarly, to generate the SHA1 hash of a file, use the following command:

    FCIV.exe -sha1 directory\file.ext

    Example:

    FCIV.exe -sha1 C:\Users\Vikas\Documents\Project.pdf

     

    Generate both MD5 and SHA1

    You can also generate both the MD5 and SHA1 hashes together for a file using the command given below:

    FCIV.exe -md5 -sha1 directory\file.ext

    Example:

    FCIV.exe -md5 -sha1 C:\Users\Vikas\Documents\Project.pdf

     

     

  12. Now, going ahead, you’ll need to store these hash values in one place and compare them to distinguish unique and duplicate files. How will you do that?
    There are two ways:

    • Create a database: Using the in-house functionality, you can create a database of all the MD5 or SHA1 checksums you’ve calculated.
    • Manually store in an Excel spreadsheet: You can also store your MD5 or SHA1 checksums into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for reviewing later.
  13. Once you’ve created an automated database or an Excel spreadsheet, review and compare all the hashes. Files with matching hashes are duplicates. Files with unique hashes are originals.
  14. Keep one original file aside in each duplicate pair (group), and move the rest of the files to a separate folder on your hard disk.

 

Drawbacks

Although you can use Windows MD5 Checker to find and compare duplicates, it has some major drawbacks as well. It is the most suited option for hashing a few dozen files rather than a collection of hundreds of files. Manually scanning multiple files using Windows MD5 Checker can be a long, tedious job. You will need to hash each file independently, store the results and then review the hashes yourself. It’s simply not worth your time.

Moreover, Microsoft has officially discontinued the support for Windows MD5 Checker. So, we cannot rule out the possibility of running into compatibility issues or other technical glitches with the usage of this product on newer operating systems. As an unsupported product, you will NOT avail of any technical support or assistance should you run into any issues.

 

A Better Alternative

Thanks to the advancement in technology, there are better alternatives available today. Clone Files Checker is a fully automated duplicate files finder that does the automated hash computing and duplicates cleaning tasks in minutes.

  1. Download and install Clone Files Checker.
  2. First, add the folders that you want to scan for duplicates.
  3. Select a scan type (All Files to search for all file types, or Custom scan to search only specific file types).
  4. Use the optional file size settings if you want to further limit the scope of your scan.
  5. Start the scan and wait for some time.
  6. Once the scan is finished, you can use the Wizard-based appearance to automatically fix duplicates in seconds.
  7. Alternatively, you can review your files and use automated file selection patterns to batch select/ de-select your files.
  8. Finally, use the Select Action menu to choose if you want to permanently delete the duplicates or move them to a folder.
Raza Ali Kazmi
Website

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Raza Ali Kazmi works as an editor and technology content writer at Sorcim Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. He loves to pen down articles on a wide array of technology related topics and has also been diligently testing software solutions on Windows & Mac platforms. If you have any question about the content, you can message me or the company's support team.