An antivirus warning on a small downloaded utility puts you in an awkward spot: ignore a warning you should heed, or lose a tool you legitimately need? For BatteryInfoView — the portable battery viewer by Nir Sofer (NirSoft), current version 1.27 — there is a calm, evidence-based way through it. You do not need to trust anyone’s opinion about the file, including ours. You need to confirm that the file on your disk is byte-for-byte the official file, and that confirmation is something you can do yourself in under a minute. This guide gives you that protocol, and it deliberately contains no bypass instructions.
Step 1: Only trust copies from the official NirSoft link
Provenance comes before everything else. BatteryInfoView’s official home is NirSoft, and the official packages are batteryinfoview.zip (32-bit) and batteryinfoview-x64.zip (64-bit) served from nirsoft.net. This site’s main downloads — /go/batteryinfoview for 64-bit and /go/batteryinfoview-32bit for 32-bit — point to those official files, and the download page lists their verified details. A copy that arrived from a random download portal, a repacked bundle, an email attachment or a file-sharing link is not entitled to the benefit of the doubt, however the scan result reads. Delete unknown-source copies and start from the official link. That single rule removes most of the real risk in this whole topic.
Step 2: Verify the SHA-256 — this is the real check
With an official-source ZIP on your disk, verify it before extracting or running anything. Open a command prompt in the folder containing the ZIP and run certutil -hashfile batteryinfoview-x64.zip SHA256 for the 64-bit package, or the same command with batteryinfoview.zip for the 32-bit package. Compare the output, character for character, with the verified SHA-256 values for version 1.27, which we obtained by downloading the files from NirSoft directly:
| Package | Size | Verified SHA-256 |
|---|---|---|
| 64-bit ZIP | 132,819 bytes | a01a2dfae2b136ade4efe88b36993256b6121db0f797a827c2b8eea16105246f |
| 32-bit ZIP | 118,909 bytes | be98ee432621656ce6041c962964c3e27e998cabd25b535f1102523110538af7 |
A matching hash is strong evidence: SHA-256 is designed so that changing even one byte of a file produces a completely different value, so a match means your copy is identical to the verified official file. The 32-bit ZIP also has independent corroboration — its SHA-1 (c6796781ac54a954c1594f87ab94c81abf1a3bd4) matches the value FileHippo publishes for version 1.27 exactly. Inside the ZIP you should find exactly three files: BatteryInfoView.exe, BatteryInfoView.chm and readme.txt. Extra files, a different file list or a very different ZIP size are all reasons to stop and re-download.
Step 3: Understand the NirSoft false-positive context
Context helps you interpret a flag on a hash-verified file, so here it is, stated carefully. NirSoft’s own FAQ says its utilities are clean and that some antivirus engines produce false positives on its software — mainly on its password-recovery tools, which by their nature behave in ways scanners are wary of. BatteryInfoView is not a password tool. It is a read-only battery information viewer: it displays and logs battery status and information and exports it to files. It does not recover passwords, modify the registry as an install routine, or control charging.
That context explains why a flag on a verified NirSoft utility is a known pattern rather than a shocking one — but note the order of operations in this guide. The context is Step 3, not Step 1, for a reason: it is only meaningful after Steps 1 and 2 have established that your bytes are the official bytes. “NirSoft sometimes gets false positives” is never a reason to trust an unverified copy from an unknown source. And to be explicit about what this page will not do: it publishes no VirusTotal score for BatteryInfoView, because no such figure has been verified for version 1.27 — any site quoting you a precise detection ratio for this release without showing its working should be treated as unreliable on this subject.
Step 4: If the hash does not match, delete and re-download
This step is short because it is absolute. If your SHA-256 does not match the verified value for the package you downloaded, delete the file and download again from the official link, then verify the new copy before running it. Do not run a non-matching copy “just to see”, do not keep it as a spare, and do not troubleshoot it further. A mismatch can result from something as dull as a truncated download — or from the file simply not being the official file. The response is the same either way, and re-downloading costs a minute for a ZIP of about 119–133 KB.
If a fresh, hash-matching official copy is still flagged by your antivirus, the remaining decisions are yours and your security software vendor’s: you can leave the file quarantined, report the detection to your vendor as a suspected false positive with the hash and the official source URL, or simply use a different battery information method — the built-in powercfg /batteryreport described in BatteryInfoView vs powercfg /batteryreport requires no download at all. What you should not do is follow any guide that walks you through silencing your protection to run an unverified file. This page contains no such walkthrough, on purpose.
A quick decision summary
- Downloaded from the official NirSoft link and SHA-256 matches the table above: your copy is the verified official file; interpret any flag in the Step 3 context and decide with your vendor if needed.
- Downloaded from anywhere else, whatever the scan says: delete it and re-download from the official link.
- SHA-256 does not match: delete it, re-download, verify again. Never run a non-matching copy.
- Still unsure after a matching verification: use
powercfg /batteryreportinstead — a legitimate no-download alternative.
The same verify-first habit protects every other download on this site. It is why the download page prints hashes at all, and it is the first diagnostic in BatteryInfoView Won’t Open — a corrupt or substituted copy explains launch failures as well as scanner flags. For the rest of the problem patterns, see the Troubleshooting hub and 32-bit vs 64-bit for picking the correct package to verify.
Frequently asked questions
My antivirus flagged BatteryInfoView. Is the official file dangerous?
Start with verification, not opinion. If your copy came from the official NirSoft link and its SHA-256 matches the verified value above, you hold the genuine file, and NirSoft’s FAQ documents false positives from some engines — mainly around its password tools, which BatteryInfoView is not. If your copy fails either check, treat it as untrusted and replace it.
Why do some sites quote a VirusTotal score for this tool?
We cannot verify any such score for version 1.27, so this site publishes none. A detection ratio is only meaningful tied to an exact file hash and date. The check you can fully control is the SHA-256 comparison in Step 2, against the hashes of the actual official ZIPs.
What should I send my antivirus vendor if I report a false positive?
The exact file name, its SHA-256 as you computed it, the official download URL it came from, the detection name your product showed, and the product version (BatteryInfoView 1.27 by NirSoft). That gives the vendor everything needed to reproduce the case on the genuine file.