FileVerifier++ / News: Recent posts

FileVerifier++ v0.6.5.6000 is an experimental x86_64 build of FileVerifier++. While is has the same features as v0.6.3.5830, it is not based on this version and has many internal differences. Much of the commonality between fv.exe and fvc.exe has been placed in a new module fvcore.dll. The binaries are built with GCC 4.6.0 (mingw-w64). As always, this is an experimental build, and has not been well tested.

FileVerifier++ v0.6.3.5830 resolves a few issues present in v0.6.2.5822 including two that caused the program to terminate unexpectedly. See the file CHANGELOG.txt for further details.

FileVerifier++ v0.6.2.5822 is an optimized rebuild of v0.6.2.5821. It was discovered that the v0.6.2.5821 release was not built with optimization enabled, so it performs worse than v0.6.1.5643, not better as it should have. The new build should be significantly faster than the previous. Other than the version number, there are no changes to the source code.

If you're currently using v0.6.2.5821 and would like better performance, it is recommended that one install this new version.... read more

FileVerifier++ v0.6.2.5821 is a small update to v0.6.1.5643 which brings the following changes:

* Increased performance for several hash algorithms, especially for those in the SHA-2 family. SHA-384 and SHA-512 now have optimized implementations supporting MMX and MMX/SSE2 configurations, respectively.
* An option that specifies whether or not hashes should be automatically verified upon opening a hash file.
* An option as to whether or not files with known good sizes and timestamps should be recalculated on demand. The option, when set, causes hash entries that have a timestamp and filesize that matches the file on disk to be skipped during recalculation. This has no effect on verification.... read more

With v0.6.1 is a minor update to v0.6.0 that addresses a few minor issues discovered in v0.6.0. See the CHANGELOG for further details.

An improved installation package for v0.6.0 has been released. The improved package will upgrade prior releases by uninstalling them automatically. During an upgrade or removal of this package, explorer.exe will automatically be restarted if necessary to complete the uninstall of a prior version (if the shell extension is installed).

No new version number has been created. The new package is known as fv-0.6.0.5600bW.msi. There is no need to upgrade to this package if one already has a working installation of v0.6.0.5600.

FileVerifier++ v0.6.0 is now the latest version for general use. Several additions have been made since v0.5.2.5114 in the testing versions.

What's new for v0.6.0, since v0.5.2.5114?

* Configuration settings are now stored in a file on disk as opposed to the
Windows registry.
* Support for BSD CKSUM style hash files.
* Hash file formats can be auto detected to a certain extent (the file extension
still must be correct, but can differentiate between file formats using the
same file extension).
* Support for displaying hashes in encodings other than hexadecimal.
* Columns in main hash list may be customized.
* Preliminary help file included.
* Additional operations for verifying and creating hash files have been added
to the shell extension, and are implemented by means of WinFVC.
* Several bug fixes and miscellaneous tweaks.... read more

The v0.5.8.5562 testing release brings the following additions:

WinFVC: a graphical front end to FVC. WinFVC is not meant to be a standalone program, but is used in conjunction with the shell extension (and isn't very useful without such). WinFVC gives the ability to verify hash files without needing to launch FileVerifier++. WinFVC can verify hashes within multiple files, even recursively down several subdirectories. A means in which to create a hash file using the algorithm, format, and filename of choice (as well as a search pattern) is provided.... read more

Testing release v0.5.7.5491 brings a few significant additions, including a new configuration backend, support for FSUM extended MD5 hash files, configurable algorithm name compatibility remapping, and improved dialogs for processing, recalculating, and verifying files.

The configuration for FileVerifier++ is no longer stored in the Windows Registry, but instead a configuration file residing in either the program directory, or %APPDATA%\FileVerifier++. This allows one to have a truly portable install that does not leave program settings on the computers in which it is run. ... read more

v0.5.6.5404 is a minor update to v0.5.5.5381. Changes to this release include a preliminary CHM help document, a menu item to display this document, and a bug fix for FVC (non-critical, but possibly annoying in some circumstances). A correction has been made to a change that breaks FVC compatibility with non-Windows operating systems. See the Changelog for further details.

The new v0.5.5.5381 testing release brings some exciting new features and enhancements. Remember that this is a testing release, and may contain more bugs than non-testing releases, though it should be very usable as it is.

New features:

Support for multiple hash display encodings: In addition to the traditional hexadecimal encoding, MIME Base 64, UUEncode, and XXEncode are now supported. When using the FVA and FVB file formats, information about the displayed encoding is retained, so that hashes are displayed in the intended encoding upon opening. Currently, the encodings are always stored in Hexadecimal encoding in FVA/FVB files, for backwards compatibility with older program version (though this may change in the future, as the program does currently detect other encodings when properly indicated). All other file formats use Hexadecimal encodings, as those formats are specific to other applications that do not support the format (except for CSV, which does not support the change yet either).... read more

FileVerifier++ v0.5.2.5114:

This is a minor update to 0.5.2.5113. It does not actually introduce any changes (other than bumping the version number), but has been built using a different compiler, which seems to have resolved an issue that caused the previous release to abnormally terminate when canceling an operation.

With the release of FileVerifier++ v0.5.2.5113, many changes have come. Here are some of the major highlights for this release:

* Support for custom comments. It is now possible to change the comment written to hash files by FV++. One now has the option of choosing a custom default comment, as well as having the program prompt for a custom comment with each file save, as well as a preference for preserving comments in existing files, or overwriting them with a user-defined comment.... read more

FileVerifier++ v0.5.1.5014 Release Notes:

v0.5.1 is a minor update to v0.5.0, which fixes a pattern matching issue with the Advanced Processing dialog.
Patterns used in the Advanced Processing dialog are now treated more like Unix patterns, in the sense that a *
will match a period (.). Most patterns should be the same, but if one wants to match all files, one should use *,
instead of *.*, as *.* doesn't match files without extensions.... read more

The latest stable release v0.5.0.5002 includes all of the features added with the testing releases v0.4.5-0.4.8. To summarize some of the added features since the last stable release:

New for v0.5.0:
* Rich-text message log (an upgrade from v0.4.5). The message log entries are formatted according to category (errors, messages, important messages, etc.).
* Added more file extensions to the load/save/import dialogs. These are based on the MD5SUM format, so it's not a major addition.
* The aforementioned extensions are registered with the MSI installer now as well (plus the *.SHA* ones).... read more

Details for testing release 0.4.8.4943:

Advanced processing via. searching multiple directories using wildcards and regular expressions is now available in the FV++ GUI. The "Advanced Processing..." operation allows one to search for files, filtering them with either a semi-colon delimited list of standard wildcards (supporting * and ?), or overall filename filtering using regular expressions. The search by pattern matching and regular expressions can be used in an include or exclude mode.... read more

New for 0.4.7.4812 (testing release):
FVC - a preliminary command line hash calculator/verifier. When installing 0.4.7.4812 via. MSI package, FVC's location will be automatically added to one's PATH variable for invocation. Some usage examples:

To hash all files within a certain directory and save the output in MD5SUM format:
cd \some\directory
fvc -a MD5 -f MD5SUM -r -c *.* -o CHECKSUMS.MD5

To verify the hashes in that file against the file system:
fvc -x CHECKSUMS.MD5... read more

Continuing the trend of the 0.4.5 release, this version adds a sidebar for file information that replaces the old file information dialog.

ED2K and the latest revision of WHIRLPOOL (plus the older WHIRLPOOL-T) are included with the latest FV++ release.

This new release includes many minor usability changes, as well as a bug fix and compilation for most processors.

Changes with v0.4.0.4488:
* Progress dialogs for verification and calculation now display the number
of files being processed, how many have been processed, as well as the percentage
complete in numeric form.
* Progress dialogs also show the percent complete in the title bar, allowing for
one to monitor progress without having to have the window visible.
* Fixed an issue that causes the program to crash when tagging entries by status.
* Initial directories for load and save common dialogs are now set with reference
to entries added to the buffer. It may be desireable to do some more work in this
area, but this should be a big improvement over the old behavior (where this aspect
was ignored completely).
* When one cancels the Processing Files dialog, the user is prompted as to whether or not
to save the partially obtained results, as opposed to simply discarding it.
* In the previous release, the default algorithm behavior for SFV and MD5 files was lost.
It has been restored again with this release.
* There are now options that allow one to preserve the line ending modes and path seperator
characters for existing files. This means that if one's program is configured to write
Windows-style line endings, any file opened with Unix-style line endings will be rewritten
with Unix-style line endings, provided that this option is selected.
* About dialog has been revamped and contains more information about the build.
* The previous build was accidentally compiled for athlon-xp processors (i.e. using the
-march option).... read more

New for this release:
* Clipboard operations cut, copy, and paste are now available for tranfering entries from
one instance of the program to another.
* An import operation has been added, which allows one to add the contents of a file containing
hashes to the current working buffer (as opposed to loading it exclusively).
* Various other internal changes have been made.

Also, when upgrading from a previous release, rebooting your system after uninstalling the old version is highly recommended if one installed FileVerifier with the shell extension enabled. If the installer is unable to replace the existing hash modules with the ones in this version, FileVerifier will not load, terminating with an Access Violation (the hash module API has changed).

Changes for v0.3.0.4225:

This release contains a small update to the shell extension. An issue with the shell extension executing the application even when there are no context menu items in a context menu has been fixed. The issue was discovered in the Windows XP start menu context menus (on menu folders).

Here's a new release with some added features. State colors for each hash entry are now customizable through the new preferences dialog. A list of most recently used files has been added as well. There have been some other minor improvements, as well as a couple of bug fixes. See the CHANGELOG.txt for further details.

This release contains a few new features:

Changes with v0.2.1.3885:
* Support for SFV file format.
* Can automatically strip pathnames down to relative paths,
being relative to the location of the checksum/hash result file.
* Delayed calculation. Normally when files and directories are
added to the buffer, their hashes are computed immediately. With
delayed calculation, one can add files to the buffer, and compute
their hashes in two distinct steps. This allows one to manipulate
the list before actually calculating, allowing one to pick and choose
exactly what files should be processed.
* Internal support for Structured Exception Handling. Faulty hash
modules should not crash the application (not that this was ever
an issue, but something that I've been wanting to support).
* Improved CSV file parser.
* Various other miscellaneous modifications.

FileVerifier 0.2.0.3656 has been released. This is a bug fix release. An issue where result files are written initially with the read-only file attribute has been fixed. The occurrence of the issue was not consistent, so some may not have noticed it. See the CHANGELOG for further details.