File Scanner (of the 'File Center' tab) can yield some useful informations about one or multiple files by scanning the entire content:
- Scanning for Defects: Scans the content for sequences of NULs. This is usually a sign that data was corrupted. This can be a result of a partial download, file system error, completely filled drives, aborted write operations, signal distortions or media that is failing (DVDs, flash drives, old magnetic drives). Usually the corrupted part will be filled with zeros (NULs) and the size will be a multiple of the block size of the media. If that happens in a video, most players will just show a blank screen for a short time or simply skip the passage. It can be very frustrating if you started to watch and are abruptly stopped somewhere in the middle. It can also give you an insight on how much data was already lost on an old magnetic storage media (see chapter 'Data Refresher'). File Scanner analyzes how many percent of the file are corrupted. If the file is a video or audio it will also show how long the corrupted parts are if you play the media. This will help to know in advance whether it is worth watching/listening. You can set the minimum block size that will be identified as erroneous in the 'Settings'.
- Scanning for BOM: Checks the start of a file whether a Byte Order Mark (BOM) is present and will tell you precisely which kind is there. BOMs are used to mark the encoding of a file's content.
- Calculate checksums: Different kinds of checksums can be calculated on a file (SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, SHA-1, MD5, CRC-32). The result can be chosen to be displayed in lower- or uppercase. Note that if algorithms of the .NET Framework are used they are not able to be continued after a pause and will restart. In contrast CRC-32 is implemented in Mighty Desktop and can be paused and resumed.
- The pane on the right shows the full info that Windows knows about a file in alphabetical order. In addition, if it is an executable (dll, exe, com, cmd, bat ...) Mighty Desktop determines the architecture and displays that too (32-bit, 64-bit, ARM aso.)
- The scan is either done instantaneously or, if the file is huge, added as a process to the Queue. The value in the Settings tab determines the threshold size.
Notes:
- You can activate File Scanner also by right-clicking on some files in File Explorer.
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