Is your computer running rough?

Here are some various built-in maintenance/repair tasks for Windows computers that could help get things back up to snuff. These can also just be run as routine maintenance to keep things running smoothly.

Disk cleanup

A disk cleanup scans your drive for unnecessary or temporary system files that can be deleted without hurting anything. To run this:

1. Click the start menu and type disk cleanup.
2. Right click on the Disk Cleanup app and select Run as administrator.
   • Running as an administrator gives the tool access to dig deeper and clean things up that it otherwise wouldn’t.
3. Ensure your C: drive is selected and click OK.
4. Once it finishes scanning the drive (could take a while), you’ll see the options for files that can be deleted.
5. Select all boxes that you want to delete (selecting all of them won’t hurt anything).
6. Click OK.
7. The cleanup process could take a while depending on your hardware and how much is being deleted.

System File Scan

System File Checker (SFC) is a Windows utility that scans the system files for issues and attempts to repair them. To run this:

1. Click the start menu and type cmd.
2. Right-click on the Command Prompt app and select Run as administrator.
3. Enter the following command and then hit enter.
   • sfc /scannow
4. The scan could take some time, depending on what it finds.
5. When it’s finished, it will tell you if it found any issues.

Image Repair

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) is a Windows tool that will scan and attempt to repair your Windows installation/image. There are a lot of different options and commands when running this, but this is the one I find most useful. To run this:

1. Click the start menu and type cmd.
2. Right-click on the Command Prompt app and select Run as administrator.
3. Enter the following command and then hit enter.
   • dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
4. The scan could take some time, depending on what it finds.

Check Disk

Check Disk (CHKDSK) is a Windows tools that scans your hard drive for file system errors and/or bad sectors, and then can attempt to repair them. Like the DISM repair, chkdsk has a lot of different options, but this is the command syntax I find most useful. With the options I have added, this is a boot-time repair which means it will require a reboot and the computer will not be usable through the duration of the scan. Depending on your hardware and what the scan finds, it could take anywhere from 15 minutes to five hours, so make sure you run it when you wont be needing the computer. To run this:

1. Click the start menu and type cmd.
2. Right-click on the Command Prompt app and select Run as administrator.
3. Enter the following command and then hit enter.
   • chkdsk c: /r
4. It will prompt your saying that it cannot run while the volume (your C: drive) is in use, and ask if you want to schedule it to run during the next restart.
5. Type “y” (without the quotes), and hit Enter.
6. You will then get another prompt stating that the volume will be check during the next restart.
7. Reboot the computer to initiate the scan.
8. The scan could take quite some time, so ensure that your computer remains plugged in and open (if it’s a laptop) until it is completed.
9. You will not get any report or notification of what it found. The computer will simply boot up normally when the scan is finished.