Windows comes with a small command line tool called SFC or System File Checker which can be used to test whether any of the system files have changed. This tool can be used to see if any malware or some other program has modified the system files. In addition, it also gives you option to restore the modified files back to their original versions. This is a very helpful tool if you are experiencing problems in Windows due to corrupt system files. But this SFC tool checks only system files, that is, the files located inside C:\Windows folder. What if you want to check the integrity of files in any other folder?
The free and open-source Whirlpool File Checker can be used to test the integrity of files located anywhere on your hard drive. It uses the alternatte data streams which is a unique feature of the NTFS file system. What it does is that it creates the file hashes for all the files that you select and store these hashes in the alternate data streams of these files. As you can guess, it uses the Whirlpool hashing algorithm to computer the file hashes. The hashes generated are 64 bytes long and you can view them using tools like Microsoft’s Streams.
In the Whirlpool File Checker, you have to choose a folder by clicking on the button Add Files/Folders button followed by clicking on the List Files button which lists all the files inside this folder. All the files with hashes are shown in the upper list while the files missing any hashes are shown in the lower list box. To compute and add the hashes to files without hashes, you can click on the button Create Hashes. To find if files have been modified, you can click on the Show Altered Files button. But there is no way to restore the files back to their older versions.
Conclusion: Whirlpool File Checker allows you to test the integrity of files or folders even those that are located outside the Windows installation folder. However, it cannot restore the files or their older state in case they are modified.
You can download Whirlpool File Checker from https://sourceforge.net/projects/whirlpoolfilech/.