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Guide - How to fix corrupted files on Windows

If your PC has corrupt Windows system files, here is how you can fix them without re-installing Windows.

1) Open up an elevated command prompt (cmd with admin rights)
2) Type in "sfc /scannow" without quotes, and hit enter. Windows will check for and attempt to repair any corrupt files.

If SFC /scannow is unable to fix some of the corrupted files (EDIT: This command only seems to work on Windows 8 or later):
1) Open up an elevated command prompt (cmd with admin rights)
2) Type in "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" without quotes, and hit enter. Windows will now download and replace any corrupt files.

If you re-run SFC /scannow after you perform these steps, you will notice that it won't find any integrity violations, which means that all corrupt Windows files are fixed.

So why use this method instead of simply re-installing (or upgrading) Windows? Well, first off, you keep all of your files, applications, and settings. And secondly, you won't have to re-install all the Windows Updates after re-installing Windows.

I hope this helps!
Have a nice day!

Sounds like good advice.

One question from a discussion a while back on file replacement.
Does the dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth download the latest version of the corrupt file, in other words does using an online CRL check or something similar to know what is required? Checksum or something else?

There was discussion whereby using the DVD, CD of the O/S as a source would not give the latest version of a file and hence if a security vulnerability or exploit path was available in an old file version, it would create a security hole, as well as possible conflicting issues with not having all the correct file or direct library link or executable and creating possible issues or conflicting paths going forward from the process of using system file checker.

Just curious; since you have been so kind to post this for reference for forum users; if you don't mind this discussion or question in reply to your post?

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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke

I can not find how this is possible though, it must use local .cab files, nothing in the documentation would suggest it worked.

Also for Win 8 only?
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke

I just tried your solution for corrupt files and windows (win 7) found some it could not restore. The dism/online/cleanup-image/restorehealth returned an error message. It said "the restorehealth option is not recognized in this context" error 87.

Does that mean the command will not work with win 7?

It means some of the switches he provided are Windows 8 only. sfc has been around for ages and is not a new command, they've just added new functionality in Windows 8 that did not exist before.

Anyway to fix corrupted files in Windows 7 short of a re install? The command in the op's post doesn't work for me either.

Hi, here is a screenshot of the utility being run on Windows 8:

Hi, I think this is a functionality that is only available on Windows 8 or later. I tested this on a Windows 8.1 machine, and it was able to successfully repair all corrupt files in a matter of minutes, really.

Has anyone notice any significant improvement after running this command? It looks like a great alternative to a reformat but I'm not sure how this would help the registry, which is the main reason why I do a reformat.
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Good judgement comes with experience...Experience comes after bad judgements