Computer Support Articles

Welcome to Fix-It Computer Repair’s Computer Support Articles hub! Our collection of articles is designed to provide you with expert advice, practical solutions, and detailed troubleshooting tips to help you address common and complex computer issues. Whether you’re dealing with hardware problems, software glitches, or networking issues, our resources are here to guide you every step of the way.

Operating System Repair Tools

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The following Operating System Repair tools are run from the command prompt as an administrator.

DISM Repair Commands

The Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) on Windows 10 is a tool that administrators use to prepare, modify, and repair system images, including Windows Recovery Environment, Windows Setup, and Windows PE (WinPE). However, you can also use it with the local recovery image to fix system issues.

Technically, when troubleshooting a specific error, figuring out why the device no longer boots correctly, or resolving performance problems, you can use the System File Checker (SFC) tool to replace missing or corrupted system files using the recovery image. The only caveat with this approach is that if one or more Windows 10 files in the local image are damaged, the SFC command won’t work. In this scenario, you can use the “install.wim” image file with DISM to repair the image and then use the SFC tool to fix the setup without having to reinstall Windows.

This how-to guide will walk you through the steps to use the DISM and SFC tools to bring a computer back from the dead to a healthy working state without reinstallation.

Warning: The commands outlined in this guide are non-destructive, but since you will be making system changes, it is still recommended to create a temporary full backup before proceeding.

DISM command with Check Health option

The “CheckHealth” option with the DISM tool lets you determine any corruptions inside the local Windows 10 image. However, the option does not perform any repairs.

To check the image of Windows 10 for issues with DISM, use these steps:

Open Start.
Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
Type the following command to perform a quick check and press Enter:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

DISM command with Scan Health option

The “ScanHealth” option performs a more advanced scan to determine whether the image has any problems.

To check image problems with the ScanHealth option on Windows 10, use these steps:

Open Start.
Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
Type the following command to perform an advanced DISM scan and press Enter:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

DISM command with Restore Health option

If there are problems with the system image, use DISM with the “RestoreHealth” option to automatically scan and repair common issues.

To repair Windows 10 image problems with the DISM command tool, use these steps:

Open Start.
Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
Type the following command to repair the Windows 10 image and press Enter:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Quick note: If the command appears stuck, this is normal behavior. After a few moments, the process will complete successfully.

System File Checker (SFC)

Computer Support Articles - System File Checker

The above instructions will repair issues with the system image, not the problems with the system installation. After restoring the image to a healthy state, use the System File Checker command tool to repair the current setup.

To use the SFC command tool to repair Windows 10 problems, use these steps:

Open Start.
Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
Type the following command to repair the installation and press Enter:

SFC /scannow