That's precisely the primary uses of hashes: ensure that a download is not corrupted. That's why developers publish MD5 and other hashes of their products.
A secondary reason is to check to see if a file downloaded from any place other than the developer site is the exactly the same as the one available from the developer.
HashTab 3 is excellent for this: right click on the file, select "Properties", click "File Hashes" and after the hashes have been calculated, paste the published hash into the "Hash Comparison" box.
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