Good info for the most part, but the /online option tells it to check the currently running Windows. It doesn’t tell it to go online to check Microsoft.
You are correct, thanks for saying that. I didn't realize that was targeting the current running OS, it was my understanding that it was going out and pulling any corrected files from windows update because you can also run DISM from a windows 10/11 iso as your target, so again, thanks for correcting me. I'll see about updating this video to correct that info. For everyone curious, here is a good thread I found discussing the dism /online option: answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/dism-and-online-check/c6dd3f76-8887-4090-897f-021db0bc0d06
Awwv.... Please give his some slack. We've all been wrong about various things in our lives haven't we? Give him credit for sharing what he knows with the world and for free.
Here are the commands and their functions for each command line: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth [2:15]: This command checks the health of the Windows image and reports any corruption found. It verifies the integrity of the system files without attempting repairs. DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth [3:30]: This command scans the Windows image for corruption and attempts to repair any issues found. It's a more thorough scan compared to CheckHealth. DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth [4:20]: This command repairs any corruption found in the Windows image. It uses the Windows Update servers to download and replace any corrupted files. SFC /scannow [5:50]: This command scans the system for corrupted system files and repairs them if possible. It focuses on critical system files and doesn't necessarily scan everything like DISM.
OK!! so I came across this video a couple of days ago and thought that I should make note of all the useful info. After all, we ARE talking about Windows... Today, I go to boot my Lenovo X1 Yoga (i7 & 32gigs RAM) and Windows pitches an error it can't load the user profile. Note that this computer is less than 6 months old. When I first set up the system, an added two additional accounts, one for my wide and on as Administrator just in case I needed to get in under enemy fire. I would strongly recommend that everyone consider the alter accounts as safety logins. I referred back to your video on another computer (his one) and ran through the commands as you posted. Voila! After the second sfc scan operation and a reboot using my own credentials, my profile magically returned intact and I booted in without any problem. Thank you for a really excellent and valuable video. I'm not sure what I would have done otherwise!
Thanks, James. My Win 11 PC has been having trouble after every MS forced update for the past year (Black screen after boot that required logging off/on just to see desktop icons, lockups during a video, etc). These four tricks seem to have fixed it better than new. Salute from Canada.
Your advice is short and sweet. In fact, I have viewed too, too many windows-tips-and-tricks tutorials and nothing was as quickly helpful as your tutorial. I had to subscribe to ALL your future content and thank you. Regards from Australia.
Thank you. Thats my goal with these. I feel the same way, quit beating around the bush and just get to the stuff I need. So I'm trying to do just that with my videos, keep the explainations short and sweet. Thank you for your sub. My plan is to create a lot more content like this, and hopefully get a lot better at creating videos and editing them. :-D
The only recommendation I would make to you is verbally tell people when you are leaving spaces before your backslashes. It's kind of important as everyone will find out as they attempt to follow your advice. And maybe you should consider removing bad advice from other commenters such as those that suggest running format C: to screw with newbies.
I have an old computer with an old version of Windows. I bought this system refurbished from some online retailer that I've forgotten the name of, and who I'm pretty sure has since gone out of business. I never got a Windows disc with the system, nor does it have a recovery partition, just a straight installation of (old) Windows. When I run SFC, it tells me that files need to be copied to the DLL cache, and asks me to insert my Windows disc, which I don't have. I would download a copy from somewhere on the net, but every edition of Windows seems to have three dozen different versions. The OEM version, the retail version, the student version, the corporate version, the home version, the discount version, the senior version, the leap year version, the one-computer version, the online license version, the only works on Sunday version... And of course if the disc you have isn't a 100% exact match for what's installed, it won't accept it, even though I'm sure it has every file that SFC is looking for.
every windows iso has every windows edition baked into it. home/pro/S/N etc. if windows is way out of date you would be better off downloading the lastest iso, burning that to a usbdrive and doing a clean install. this is also a good idea to eliminate any shady software your defunct online retailer may have installed.
My favorite command, assuming Windows is on the first internal disk, is "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda" and then proceed to insall Linux. Zeroing your drive is unnecessary, but the thought of destroying a Windows install is satisfying, just like running an "rm -rf" on the root file system. I should warn: Do NOT run any of these commands unless you know and fully understand what they do and you are prepared to deal with the consequences. But if you know what they are and have the ability to run those commands to begin with, then you probably know how to "fix" your computer by installing Linux. In that case, have fun!
I'm glad to hear you say, right at the beginning, "we are imperfect and we create imperfect things." Too many people are of the mind computers will someday be perfect. No, imperfection cannot breed perfection. No matter how many generation down the line, of computers creating computers we go, computers will Not be perfect. Why? Because their original creators (man) were imperfect. Computers will never, by Any means, be the savior of the human race. However, some of the reflections we currently see, of our imperfections, in AI, could, very well, be our undoing
Thank you so much, ive had problems with my laptop sice I upgraded to windows 11 and couldnt find any problems, ran the commands you recommended and after the scannow command I received the message corrupt files found and repaired.... So hopefully all will be good once Ive rebooted.
As a computer operator since 1984 I’ve used the SFC /SCANNOW command more times than I even wanna remember. I’ve yet to have it fix ANYTHING …instead I always get a pop up message that’s says “we found errors but cannot fix them…please try again later or seek help somewhere else” or something very close to that (I was paraphrasing). So, I’m sure you know already that between 1984 and 2024 I’ve had ‘several’ PCs and ‘several’ laptops along the way in that 40 year span starting with Windows 3.1…so this problem I’ve explained can’t possibly be related to one device being 40 years old. Microsoft is a joke this day and time, and, now they’re threatening everyone with Windows 10 if you don’t update to Windows 11 (still buggy I might add) or you’ll have to pay until they decide to quit providing all updates to Windows 10. Seems like to me every ‘update’ either screws up your computer or adds a ton of unnecessary bloatware. Really Microsoft? SMH.
I was going to do a complete back to factory reset on my machine but I will give these a go first, my reason for needing this is because my machine is getting so slow now I have to start it up then go for a pee while I wait for the startup to finish.
NO. Finally a geek that claims it's easy but it is not. This is a frustration rant. It wasn't until the end of the video that you mumbled something about windows 11 and 10. It took me awhile to figure out that you were talking about 'command prompt'. That other thing does not exist on my windows 10 machine. THEN my version of DISM does NOT recognize anything about cleanup-image / etc. Finally I tried SFC. That worked. It told me it corrected something. Good enough. I'm not about to step into a pile of something like this again for some time. Good night.
In windows 11 settings recovery then select Fix problems using Windows update will reinstall windows letting you keep all your installed apps setting and files.
Thanks James, I have two questions 1) I run SFC SCANNOW every month as part of my maintenance routine.., but I always use command prompt. Is it better to use terminal? 2) What is the difference?
What's the instructions for Windows 7? I keep 7 on another computer because all the graphic art software won't work past 7. So can you give the instructions for 7?
Is this specific for Win11 only or Win10 users can also do exactly this? That info is missing. I did exact things on my Win10 a couple months ago, just accessed it differently and maybe the code varied a bit, don't remember exactly. No integrity violations found but it kept failing to repair DISM. I was having some issues with the PC, having a full Norton installed, when trying to pause it I couldn't, the option was greyed out. Norton advised to reinstall it. It was a fresh installation from a month beforehand though, new licence, cleared all files associated with the previous one before installing a new licence. To cut a long story short, I uninstalled Norton and never installed it again. Before that I ran a full scan with it, no malware. After uninstalling it I thought I will give the MS defender a try. But it failed to update database, I couldn't run a simple virus scan, some processes kept switching themselves off despite me turning them on again and again. The system was messed up, but still no integrity violations found. I ended up backing up all my data and reinstalling the system afresh, via HP recovery tool. It is running well now. Since then I learned a lot, backed my data on three external drives, one is backing up regularly, ramped up UAC to the max, work from a standard user account, etc.
I always start with a mercurium copy of the main drive and I store it away for safe keeping. Easier to reimage my machine with the actual copy of my working drive.
as far as the last bit you talked about windows installation media. would it remove any files from pc? i keep running into issue with nearly EVERY Microsoft update where nothing will load or open including cmd and task mngr. wont even allow shutdwn or restart. i am beyond frustrated with their BS. ive git a 4mth old and when i finally have ME time i dont wanna spend it troublshooting and reinstalling windows and all my games ect. any advice for this kinda nonsense? sry for grammar baby in on my lap :)
at the 2:32 mark when you said you actually did it on purpose. ..did you really do it to show us ..or did you just forget to do run as admin in the first place
How does "dism /online /cleanup-image /checkhealth" deal with updates? You said it restores corrupt files to their original. What about all the updates that have gone on? Are corrupted files tossed for earlier versions?
OK I have a question, if I have disabled windows telemetry and other windows options like removing One Drive, disabling WiFi Sense is it going to leave those settings alone?
I, personally, have not seen these settings change after running these commands. I have, however, seen these settings change after some windows updates though.
Hi ibe got a question im using windows 10 the sfc scannow never does its job but i did do scanhealth and that one worked so my question is onedrive really worth having on laptop if not how can i take it of my laptop plz
Why do I have to fix it constantly while all I am doing is playing games? An OS allowing itself to be corrupted so easily and frequently is a huge disgrace. I would switch to Linux yesterday if my online games worked on it properly. Game companies must make their games compatible with Linux. I wish there was a way to make them do that.
Just press up arrow. If in powershell you can also use the get-history cmdlet to see what you typed. I made a powershell video receintly that touched on this.
Running windows 10 upon right clicking on the Start menu I don't see anything like your screen. So are these things only portrayed like this in Windows 11 if so F'en SAY THAT in the beginning Boss.
Since it won’t allow me to run some of my programs and games, without re-investing, and most of the rest of my games, Linux fixes nothing. Rather the opposite. So your comment is definitely a no-brainer, and not in the way you pretend.
I was thinking along the lines of diskpart followed by select disk 0 followed by clean. Then boot of off a linux install usb stick. (removes windows, install linux)
It's funny I've been having startup issues lately and I rans the dism /online /Cleanup-Image /Scanhealth and my system completely crashed to blue screen as it ran
great video, but I just had to pause to tell you this: You are wrong about "dism /online" It does NOT check against some Microsoft hosted image over the internet. What they mean by "online" is the image which is actually in use by the windows kernel. Dism can also operate against images which aren't currently running and exist in, for instance, WIM files. (Windows image files)
came here to say the same, also dism does not check for filesystem corruption it checks for file integrity you want chkdsk for filesystem integrity. and one last bit the /checkhealth deos not check any files it simply reports if corruption has already been flagged
And I must add...why do computer techs waffle on and beat around the proverbial bush instead of getting to the point. Just a rhetorical question about which I am certain there is no answer. 😂
Sir: You need to update yout video as per date of Command prompt commands updates. The present Video does not work in 2024 for windows 10 command prompt. Hoping for Prompt update cycle.
Actually, you can use this as far back as windows 7. I just showed the steps in 11 because thats what I have. Steps in older versions of windows are mostly identical, again just open up either command line or powershell with admin and run the commands as I show in the video.
