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svchost Viewer - sounds good, not tried it or recommending it, just noting it for possible future investigation.

• http://svchostviewer.codeplex.com
• A program to see what all those svchost.exe are running
• Ever wondered what all those svchost.exe processes are running ?? Well here is an app
  to tell you. It gives you some basic information like the Name and description.
• No installation required.
• Only requirement is that you have .net installed (ver 2.0 or newer).
• Work in Windows XP (sp2) and Vista and Windows 7.
• Coded in C#

md5 Checksumming in Windows:

• There is no in-built checksumming tool I know of in Windows, but they are standard in linux etc.
• The best third-party md5 checksum tool I have discovered for Windows is MD5Summer (V. 1.2.0.11)  [http://www.md5summer.org/download.html].
  • When you run it, it first checks file associations and offers to set it as default for [.md5] files.  In W7 an attempt to do so may be denied (admin status required).
  • You first select a root-folder then files within it (or all, recursively).  To select files, it’s not sufficient to highlight them, you have to double-click them (or click the Add button), so that they appear in the right-hand pane.  Only then will the OK button be enabled.
  • By running it recursively from a root folder, rather than on individual folders, a single [.md5] file is created that does not pollute the subfolders (e.g. BPAV folders as recorded by XDCAM-EX).
  • Had a slight issue once where I manually copied from XP to W7 machines, then generated MD5 on source machine (XP) and verified on target machine (W7).  At first, the verifier immediately returned all mismatches.  So immediately in fact that it seems likely it was not performing any computation.  Later on it worked as expected.  Not known what changed to cause this, maybe simply the act of opening the md5 file in NotePad..

Concepts (to the best of my understanding):

• A check-sum of some data is a “fingerprint” numeric value that is probably-unique to that data.  A fingerprint is useful when it is much smaller than the data it represents yet (virtually) uniquely identifies the content of that data.  A checksum of a file reflects that file’s data-contents but is not affected by the file name etc.
• Various checksum schemes/algorithms exist, one of the most popular being md5.   An md5 fingerprint is extremely unlikely to be the same for any other file and will (for that reason) almost certainly change in value if the contents of a file is changed by even the tiniest degree.
• A typical md5 tool will take one or more specified files and generate their fingerprints as corresponding entries (each entry being a filename and a fingerprint) in a [.md5] file.  Correspondingly it will take a given [.md5] file and report whether or not the stated and (re-) computed fingerprints agree.
• An [.md5] file is a text file with one or more lines consisting of a checksum value (in hexadecimal) then a space then an asterisk then a file name, possibly preceded by a folder path (with respect to the folder containing the [.md5] file).  It can also have comment-lines, each beginning with a hash (#) character.  Example entries:
  • eb574b236133e60c989c6f472f07827b *fred.exe
  • [eb574b236133e60c989c6f472f07827b *tmp/fred.exe].
• Some download sites include [ .md5] files alongside or along with their associated  files.  Some sites just display the fingerprint itself on the webpage.  Typically the purpose is to allow the user to check whether a download was complete or was corrupted.
• The fingerprint computed by a typical checksumming application is not affected by a file’s name or read-only status etc., only by its data contents.  Thus it is not a total basis for consistency-checking of system configuration.

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In Windows XP, wanted a folder right-click menu option to bring up a MSDOS command shell.  This proved very simple to add, and gave the further benefit of the text-based (command-line) user interface (TUI?) retaining customisations (e.g. green text).  The steps were (for Windows XP):

• Windows Explorer: Tools > Folder Options.
• Select the File Types tab.
• Go to NONE / Folder.
• Select the entry labeled Folder
•  Press Advanced button.
• Select New
• In the action block type “Command Prompt” (without the quotes).
• In the app block type “cmd.exe” (without the quotes).
• Save and exit Folder Options.

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Based on [http://www.bresink.com/osx/sha1.html] as of 2010-05-15:

• Apple recommends the use of the so-called SHA1 standard (Secure Hash Algorithm Version 1). Apple is using this method for their own security updates as well. For more information please also refer to Apple Support Article HT1652.
• Perform the following steps:
  • Make sure you have the downloaded file displayed somewhere in the Finder.
  • Open the Terminal application.
  • Enter the command: [/usr/bin/openssl sha1 ] with a space at the end (not a Return).
    • Note the last character of ‘openssl’ is a small ‘L’ not a ‘1′
  • Drag the target file from the Finder window into the Terminal window. A path specification will appear in the Terminal window.
  • Now press the Return key (Enter).
  • You will see output similar to the following example:
    • SHA1(path specification)= 2eb722f340d4e57aa79bb5422b94d556888cbf38.

Some people rave about this free util.  It replicates some Spotlight functionality but is more advanced.

• http://www.viddler.com/explore/michaelwilde/videos/5/

Setup/config tweaks are non-obvious, so it is worth checking out the following tutorial:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EydTYOeqIrk&feature=related

To obtain it:

•  www.blacktree.com