In this guide, we’ll help you step-by-step on how to repair Windows 10 as the OS files often get corrupt or damaged over time.
How To Repair Windows 10
Some times after extensive use Windows starts to show random errors, some systems stop to work, or the OS starts having problems while booting up. This is an indication that either some system files are corrupt or are missing.
Such issues can crop up due to Windows updates, new drivers or applications, and more. These Windows 10 issues can easily be fixed by repairing the operating system and here is how to do fix it.
SFC Command Tool Repair
The first method to repair Windows is by using the SFC command tool. Click on Start menu > type “Command Prompt” and select “Run as administrator”.
Type “sfc /scannow” in the command prompt and press enter.
Once the scan is done, you’ll get one of four results which are as follows.
- Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations
- Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation
- Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
- Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
“Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations” will pop up if Windows 10 has no missing or corrupt files.
“Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation” means that problems were detected in the scan and to fix them you need to run an offline scan.
“Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log” means that the scan has found problems and has also fixed them. If that is the case, it’s recommended that you run the scan 3 times to make sure all issues are resolved.
“Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log” means that you will have to manually repair Windows 10.
SFC Offline Repair
If you got the “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them” message after performing the SFC scan then you need to repair Windows by running an offline scan.
Open Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > click “Restart now” under Advanced startup. Once the system is restarted, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.
Select your account, confirm the password, and click on Continue. Type “diskpart” in the command prompt and press enter. Then type “list volume” and press enter.
This will list down the drive volumes. You need to note down the drive letters for both System Reserved partition and Windows 10 partition. You are gonna have to determine that based on the size of the drive.
In this case, we’ll suppose that the drive letter for System Reserved partition is “D” and “C” for Windows 10 partition. Type “exit” and press enter.
Type the following command and press enter.
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=D:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows
Note: offbootdir in the command above is being used to identify the drives. So you need to input the correct letters based on the “list volume” command.
After that, click the “X” button to close CMD and click on Continue. This will repair any corrupt or missing Windows 10 files.
Manual Repair
To manually repair Windows 10, you first need to perform the steps detailed under the “SFC Command Tool Repair” above. Then type the following command and press enter to determine the corrupted files.
findstr /c:”[SR]” %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >”%userprofile%\Desktop\sfclogs.txt”
Go to the Desktop and you’ll find “sfclogs.txt” file there, open it. If the file is large then use the find option to find corrupt files using the term: “Cannot repair member file”.
Note: If you don’t know the location of the damaged or corrupt files, then you’re gonna have to do a quick internet search to see where the file is located on your PC. Knowing the path of the corrupt file is very important. Otherwise, the manual repair won’t work. If the damaged file is ActionCenter.dll then its path is “C:\Windows\System32\ActionCenter.dll” and I will use that as a reference in the steps below.
Open command prompt, type the following command, and press enter. Remember to use the correct file path as mentioned above.
takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\ActionCenter.dll
Then type the following command and press enter.
icacls C:\PATH\TO\FILE /Grant Administrators:F
Now, the next step requires you to have the non-corrupt file that you are going to replace. The file can be obtained from another device running the exact version of Windows 10. If you don’t have it, then you will have to download the file from the internet. Also, note down the path to this non-corrupt file. In this case, we’ll suppose it’s “C:\Download\ActionCenter.dll”.
Type the following command and press enter. Remember the path mentioned here are just for reference.
copy C:\Download\ActionCenter.dll C:\Windows\System32\ActionCenter.dll
After that, type “sfc /verifyonly” and press enter. Do this for all the corrupt or damaged files and Windows 10 will be replaced.
Restore To A Previous Build
If the SFC scan has failed to repair or you find it too much of a hassle to do a manual repair, then restoring the OS to the previous build might do the trick. Check our How To Restore Windows 10 guide to see how to do it.
Reset Your PC
Reseting Windows 10 in order to repair the damaged files is the last resort you have. Check our How To Reset Windows Guide to see how to do it.
That is all for our guide on how to repair Windows 10. If you are facing other errors and issues with your PC then also see our hub for commonly occurring PC errors and their fixes.