When it comes to computer problems, there are nearly infinite possible causes. But today I'm
going to show you how to solve nearly ANY problem with Windows, assuming of course that the problem
is with the operating system itself, and not a hardware failure or just with a specific program.
And I've got just a few super simple steps involving some basic commands that should fix
most issues, and then one final 'last resort', but even that does NOT require wiping and reinstalling
anything, but rather does a complete in-place repair install, keeping everything else. And I'll
put timestamps in the description so you can come back to this video next time you have an issue.
--------------------- Before we continue though,
I do want to thank today's sponsor, Micro Center, to whom I've already been a customer,
and those are the best sponsors. Micro Center has a huge range of electronics from computers,
networking devices, TVs and monitors, and more, with over 30,000 items in stock.
And by the way, in my experience, if you go to one of their physical locations,
they carry things that no other store has, particularly with specialty stuff like
individual computer components. And obviously the people working there are going to be more
knowledgeable than what you'd see at some run-of-the-mill big box store or something.
Whether you're shopping in-store at one of Micro Center's physical locations,
or looking online (at microcenter.com) you'll find the a bunch of great deals. And also
check out their new lineup of business solutions, including workstations from Dell and Supermicro,
as well as their new SuperMicro workstation or server builder at certain locations.
And if you've stuck around until now it's definitely worth it,
because Micro Center is offering new customers a free 240GB SSD in-store.
You can read all the details on their site, but there's no purchase necessary,
and it's not one of those 'chance to win' things, you sign up and get your coupon and can bring
it in to claim it. Again I'll that link in the description so you can read all the details how.
So with all that being said, let's continue. -----------------------
Alright now we can get cracking. For this video I'm assuming you've already tried the usual stuff,
which I'll just list off, like you've restarted, checked for updates,
updated your graphics drivers, have done a full virus scan,
if it's a network issue made sure that only that computer is having issues, and if the
problem does seem to be related to a specific program, you've tried reinstalling it. Phew.
Well in that case, the next course of action is to try running a few commands
created to repair Windows. Now some of you may have heard these a million times already,
but I will be going into more detail, so stick around. And for these commands, you guessed it,
they're the System File Checker - SFC, and Deployment Imaging Servicing and
Managment command, DISM. And these are the exact actual commands shown here.
Really quickly just for context, the SFC command basically checks for corruption within
the current Windows installation and fixes it based on a stored system image. And DISM
checks for issues with that system image, also referred to as the 'component store'
and repairs it too. Many places will just tell you to just run SFC and DISM and be done with it,
some say in the reverse order, but we're going to cut out the uncertainty altogether.
Here's what you do. Search the start menu for the command prompt and run it as administrator.
Then first run the command "sfc /scannow", and let it go. It might take a couple minutes,
then hopefully it will say 'did not find any integrity violations'.
Or, it might say 'found corrupted files and successfully repaired them'. Which
actually might be better news, because that might have solved your problem
right there. And this a real example of a time I did this myself and it said that.
Though another possibility is that it found corrupted files, and was not able to repair them,
or even that SFC won't run at all. For example,
if it says "Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service",
stick around till the end, this is one I had to deal with personally. There is an option
to fix it without reinstalling everything, but you're probably not going to like it.
No matter what it says though, don't worry because we're not done. Oh and as a side note, if you
happen to close command prompt while the scan is running, it keeps running in the background,
so if you try it again it will just seem to hang until the first one is done, it's not frozen.
Now if SFC found anything, whether it repaired it or not, restart your computer. But if it didn't
find anything, it's not necessary to restart. And after you do that, next run this command:
"DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" . And I'll put these in the description so
you can copy and paste them. Again, if it says completed successfully, there weren't any issues,
or if it did find something it would say so and hopefully repaired it. And
again, if it found something, probably restart your computer.
Finally, run the same SFC command again in any case. If it found errors and did repair it the
first time, you want to make sure that there are non left. And if it couldn't repair before, but
DISM repaired something, SFC might work now. As a side note, both commands add to the log file at
C:\Windows\logs\CBS.log . And after running DISM,
in that log file it will even show this, with the exact number of corrupted files and stuff.
Many times, having done all that will fix the problem if the Windows installation
itself is corrupted. If it found corruption and was not able to repair, there are still
other options. But before we get into that, if it did not find corruption
and the problem still persists obviously, sometimes the issue
is your Windows profile being corrupted. I don't actually know how this happens, but sometimes
your individual profile gets corrupted and causes weird stuff. Like one time my start menu layout
kept erasing itself, and it was so annoying and it turns out it was a corrupted profile.
One way to tell if a profile is corrupted is to simply create another extra user account,
and see if it happens in there too. You can go to Settings > Accounts > Family & Other
Users > 'Add Someone Else to PC'. And it will ask for a Microsoft account but no,
just hit 'don't have this person's sign in' or whatever it says.
It'll ask again and again just select 'without Microsoft acount', which means a local account.
Then just go through and finish making it, keeping your old profile of course,
then log out of your main profile, into the new one, and see if the problem keeps happening.
Though if it happened randomly not very often, you might have to
use it until it does. Or long enough where you're confident it won't.
If a new profile does not seem to fix it, or even if it does, there is still one more thing you'll
want to try. Because if a new profile does seem to fix it, it very well could be a corrupt profile.
And if it is, god help you, because almost nothing can fix that. Now the solution is simple, just
annoying: Move to a new user profile, which though is sometimes is just as bad as clean installing,
but I'll show you how to go about doing it a little bit easier later. But we aren't there yet.
There is a method of last resort, besides doing a clean install of Windows, because we obviously
don't want to go there if at all possible. And this option is an in-place repair upgrade. The
quick rundown before I show you how, is basically you download a Windows image
from Microsoft's website, then run it the same way you would when installing a major update.
But instead of upgrading to a new version, it just rewrites your current Windows system files.
And it does not require you to reinstall any programs or lose any files or anything.
Only some minor system stuff might get reset, like you might lose some custom fonts, or downloaded
language packs, and you'll just have to re-run windows update most likely, but that's mostly it.
So here's how to do it in detail. And there's actually a couple ways to go about this,
both involving the media creation tool. So Google 'Windows media creation tool',
or I'll put the link in the description, and hit 'Download Tool Now' on this page, though
it might look different depending on when you watch this. For me, the file name showed the
version of Windows as 21H2, which is important to note. In the start menu, type 'winver',
and look to make sure the tool you downloaded is for either the same or a newer major version
of Windows than what you're using. Then just run the tool and accept all the stuff.
Now here's the two ways. The better way to try first in my opinion is to click 'Create
Installation Media' in order to make an ISO. And if that doesn't work, later you could do
'Upgrade This PC Now' option. So anyway, click Next and on this one, make sure the language,
edition and architecture are correct. If it says 'Both' or something non-specific like
'All Languages' or whatever, just change it to be exactly what you're using now. So we'll change it
to either 64 bit or 32 bit. Which you can see by the way, by searching the start menu for 'system
information'. But it's probably 64 bit these days. Then if there are multiple options for the edition
(in mine there wasn't here), make sure the Windows edition is also right, like Home, Pro, whatever.
Then once it's all right, click Next, and select 'ISO file', and then just save it anywhere,
and let it do it's thing. It will download the proper ISO version and make the file. And it
will ask you at the end if you want to burn it to a DVD but don't. We do NOT want to burn the ISO to
a USB, DVD, or anything. The upgrade MUST be run from within Windows, or from my understanding, you
would only have the option for a clean wipe if you didn't. So we have to run it from within Windows.
Once the file is done, right click it and hit 'Mount' ISO,
which should create a virtual drive, so go into that and click 'setup.exe'. At this point,
if you clicked 'Upgrade This PC Now' you'd be in the same spot as we are here.
The first screen will say it wants to download updates and stuff,
but we don't actually want that, it could complicate things. Just click 'change how
windows gets updates' or however it's worded, and then select 'not right now'.
Go through and accept all the stuff and wait for it go get ready.
Now hold on a second at this next window, this one is critical to pay attention to. Double check
that it's installing the right edition, should be same as your current one. Even more importantly,
make sure it says 'Keep personal files and apps'. If it does NOT say that,
and the only option is 'Keep Nothing', do NOT click next or install. That could mean
that the ISO you're using or downloaded is for an older version than you're running.
And in that case you'd have to go figure out why that is and get the newer one. Anyway,
make sure it's set to 'Keep personal files and apps', and hit 'Install' or 'Next' - which ever
one you see. And keep in mind, before this, that's your last chance to change your mind.
Now just let it run, it will probably restart multiple times.
If you have issues or it fails to install at all, try disabling any third party antivirus
and then try again. And also disconnect any device except your monitor, keyboard, and mouse
basically. Or you could also try the 'Upgrade Now' option we saw before, or just do the ISO again.
In any case, hopefully it should have successfully installed, and will show the whole
'new installation' setup flow, like asking you for privacy settings and stuff, just go through that,
and you'll be able to log into Windows the same as before, with everything still there. And now
it's basically the moment of truth, just use the computer and see if the problem persists. You can
also run SFC and DISM again, and if it wasn't able to repair before, it should be fine now.
Now, if for whatever reason this didn't fix it,
there could be a couple causes depending on some things. If the update failed to complete at all,
and sfc showed corrupted files, hold on a minute. If the update did complete and problem persists,
but using a new user profile does fix it, it's almost certainly a corrupted user profile.
In which case if it's a corrupted profile, here's what needs to be done.
Go log into that other profile you created, or create one now if you didn't. Go to the
directory C:\Users\ [then whatever the name of your account is of your original account].
Actually though, because of permissions, what you'll probably have to do is: While logged
into the original account, copy everything to the Public user folder. And then log out of it,
log into the new account, and then copy everything from the Public folder into the new one.
Copy everything - don't drag and drop to move, actually right click and hit copy
everything. But do not copy any hidden folders, if you have hidden folders enabled,
such as AppData or any of those. The hidden folders have system files having to do with
the Windows profile, and it would certainly just corrupt the new profile even more.
Now all the files are in the new account, but unfortunately program settings probably are not.
Also, not all programs might be installed for all users, so you might have to reinstall some
stuff. If there's any program settings that you really want to copy, you could just look
up where the settings files are stored for that program and copy them over individually. They
are probably in AppData, but again, don't just copy the entire AppData folder over.
Ok back to what to do if there are still corrupted files, or the update failed altogether. If there
is no corruption, you've done a repair install, and a new user profile doesn't fix it, honestly
I wouldn't know what to tell you at this point. It could be a hardware issue, it could be from
some installed program. And if that's the case, maybe either take it to professional or do a full
backup and a clean wipe. That's what I referred to when I said 'nearly' every Windows problem.
But if it does still show corruption, at least we have something to work with. And
it could mean that the Windows update itself is corrupted. And this is almost just as bad,
because the options are really limited. This exact situation happened to me this year,
where SFC wouldn't even run, and said "Windows Resource Protection could not
start the repair service". I looked at the log files, and it turns out that something called
"servicing stack update" was corrupted. And when I looked that up, I discovered it was a
'key underlying component for several elements of Windows deployment, such as SFC and DISM..." Yes,
literally the repair tools in Windows themselves got corrupted... [Bruh Sound Effect #2]
Now if it is something like that, like I said, you can still try and run
SFC and DISM and then look at that CBS log file I mentioned before. It will probably look like this,
and will actually list out all the corrupted files, and above it will give more details
and probably say 'mismatch', plus some stuff like the exact location of each corrupted file.
The way I fixed this, and yes I was able to completely fix it, was... to painstakingly
copy a good version of each individual file from another computer. Nope, not kidding, there were
like 60 of them. You will have to make sure the other computer is the exact same build, I believe
even the same minor build number. Fortunately, my computer was still installing updates apparently,
and was on the latest version, so I just updated my laptop and then they had the same version.
Then you basically do a search for the good copies. In my case, they all seemed to be in
these folders, so I just copied all these directories in whole onto a thumb drive,
and and then extracted out good copies individually as needed from that. But
I still had to go in and find the individual things, I couldn't just overwrite everything.
Just be prepared for it to find more corrupted files after replacing the first ones. Yes
that happened to me. But after all that SFC actually did run, and it really did succeed
in checking integrity with no corruption. I was legitimately shocked it worked.
Now there might be easier ways to go about that. You will probably, like me, find guides on
using an external source for DISM, stuff like that. But I don't want this video
to be an hour long, and that didn't even work for me, I did try that. But it might be worth
trying if DISM itself is not corrupted like it was in my case. So just look that up yourself.
But after doing everything above, it should have fixed dang near every problem. To be thorough,
I'll mention the 'chkdsk' command, which is also good if your SSD or Hard Drive are acting up,
just look up how to use that. And if you're having a problem where Windows won't boot at all,
it could be a boot record issue, on which I'm not even going to attempt to give advice,
I'm just not familiar enough. Though you can yourself look up the 'bootrec' command,
(that's one that I know), and it's options, that might help.
So at this point, at least you can say that you'll have tried everything I could think of.
Thanks again to Micro Center for sponsoring this video, and I'll put some links to their
stuff in the description so check that out, including that free 240GB SSD.
If you guys want to keep watching, the next video I'd recommend is one where I did go
over what the AppData and all that is about, if you're curious. It really is interesting,
so you can click that right there. If you guys want to subscribe, I only make videos about once
a week, so also be sure to enable the bell for notifications, so they don't get lost in the
rest of your subscriptions. As always be sure to like the video, comment if you enjoyed it, and
let me know what you think. So thanks so much for watching guys, and I'll see you in the next one.