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ExplainerYahoo closes GeoCities: how the web lost millions of home pagesYahoo bought GeoCities for billions in 1999 and switched it off a decade later. The closure became a turning point for web preservation.ExplainerThe Storm worm: the botnet that started with a weather headlineIn January 2007 an email about deadly storms in Europe spread a Trojan that built one of the largest peer-to-peer botnets of its time.ExplainerGPLv3: how the free software licence was rewrittenAfter 18 months of public drafting, the Free Software Foundation published version 3 of the GNU General Public License in June 2007.ExplainerThe UK identity card scheme: from Act of Parliament to shredded registerBritain legislated for national ID cards backed by a central biometric register, then abolished the whole scheme within five years.ExplainerThe netbook era: small, cheap laptops that briefly drove PC growthThe Asus Eee PC started a boom in low-cost mini laptops that propped up PC sales, until tablets and thinner laptops took their place.

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File hash checker

Check that a download hasn’t been corrupted or tampered with. Choose a file, pick the algorithm the publisher used and paste their checksum to compare. Files are processed locally and never uploaded.

Choose a file to calculate its hash.

Why check a hash?

A cryptographic hash is a fingerprint of a file. If even one byte changes, the hash changes completely. Software publishers often list a SHA-256 checksum next to downloads so you can confirm the file you received is identical to the one they released.

SHA-256 and SHA-512 are the right choice today. SHA-1 is shown only for checking older published values; it is no longer considered secure against deliberate tampering.