The are two preferences panes in Checksum Validator the first pane, titled "General" is for the general preferences settings. The two settings on this pane are:

1. What you want Checksum Validator to do when it is opened without a file (you didn't launch Checksum Validator by dragging a file onto its application icon). You can either have Checksum Validator do nothing or automatically show the "Open A File" dialog.
   
2. The digest you want to be the default. This is the digest that will be used to initially calculate checksums when a file is opened.
   
   You can always change the setting on a per window basis. This is merely the initial calculation. Set it to the one that you seem to use or need the most often.

The second pane, titled "Software Updates", is the preferences for Kingdom Era's Automatic Software Updater module that is built into all our software.