Posted December 27, 2024
![avatar](http://images.gog.com/a0f1d599036c75b3ab88473edc790dfd3c03559ffaa0f851bd3ebfa2424abf71_avm.jpg)
There are two types of checksums provided by GOG.
There is a checksum for each Offline Installer file - EXE and BIN (and other OS files).
That checksum only tells you if the file downloaded okay, wasn't corrupted during the download process.
So it is possible for a corrupt file at the GOG end, to give a pass at our end.
In other words, GOG created a checksum value for a corrupt EXE or BIN etc file.
The second type, is using InnoExtract to test, and should mostly reveal any source & download corruption, because each EXE and BIN file are packages for many other files, that each have a checksum value for, stored in a manifest in the EXE file. Obviously with potentially many checksum values to test, it takes much longer than just testing the single checksum value for the complete EXE or BIN file. It is kind of the equivalent of testing when installing your game but without installing it, and is much faster than installing. So a much more comprehensive & reliable test, but slower. But it all breaks down at some point, if GOG created a checksum value for a corrupt file inside each EXE and BIN file package (archive).
![avatar](http://images.gog.com/a0f1d599036c75b3ab88473edc790dfd3c03559ffaa0f851bd3ebfa2424abf71_avm.jpg)
By the way, that browser addon worked well, and is quite easy to install, and certainly easier than using any other third party downloader.
Normally, they wouldn't bother to do that, because GOG would be the only source. So if they did provide them, it would be for us to make sure our download from GOG wasn't corrupted.
Post edited December 27, 2024 by Timboli