How do I get the MD5 of a file on Windows?

Question

I need to check the MD5 of a few files on Windows. Any recommendations on either a command line or an explorer-plugin utility?

Answer 1

http://www.fourmilab.ch/md5/

This is I think the same one as is available on most unix systems and couldn't be easier to use from the command line.

Answer 2

For the right-click Explorer shell extension option, I use Nirsoft's HashMyFiles.

Answer 3

I use md5deep as it has several practical usability advantages over most of the others listed.

For one it has SHA1 and SHA256 executables in the same package, it also automatically handles directory recursion and it has a matching mode where it will validate that your files are as you left them. And it's a native Windows package so there is no need to install Cygwin if you don't really need it.

Answer 4

MS also has a tool called File Checksum Integrity Verifier (FCIV).

Answer 5

I install cygwin on all my Windows systems, then I use openssl's built in md5 command.