Solved Question regarding sfc and dism and System Performance

JamesSmith · Friday at 5:16 PM

Hi.

I recently did a fresh install of Win 11 Pro back in May.
The entire time using Windows 10 I never used sfc /scannow or any dism command and my computer worked well with no issues for the past 10 years.

Now with my new PC and Windows 11 Pro I started to notice that if I don't run sfc and dism commands after a windows update my computer starts to get weird.

The thing that really stood out for me was I ran a Norton full scan it was taking 50 minutes and would just hang. Also hitmanpro was taking 5 minutes to run a quick scan. The last windows update took 50 minutes.

I decided to run sfc /scannow (which had errors) and dism restorehealth (scanhealth found corruption) and amazingly after that Norton full scan took 4 minutes and hitman pro took 50 seconds.

Is it common to run sfc and dism commands every month after a windows update?

Thanks!
James.

antspants · Friday at 5:31 PM

JamesSmith said:
Is it common to run sfc and dism commands every month after a windows update?

Put it this way, it isn’t unhealthy to do so

Here’s some generic info:

Running the DISM and SFC commands in Windows is beneficial for maintaining system health and stability. These tools help repair corrupted or missing system files, which can lead to various issues like crashes, slow performance, or malfunctioning features.

System File Checker (SFC):

SFC is a utility that scans your Windows system files for corruption or modifications.
If it finds any corrupted files, it automatically replaces them with the correct versions from a cached copy.
Running SFC can resolve issues caused by corrupted system files, improving overall system stability and performance.

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM):

DISM is a more advanced tool that can repair the underlying Windows system image.
It can fix problems that SFC might not be able to address, especially when dealing with more serious corruption or issues with the Windows component store.
DISM can also be used to update files and correct problems, especially when SFC is not working effectively.

When to run these commands:

Error messages:
If you're seeing error messages related to system files or Windows features, running SFC and DISM can be a good first step in troubleshooting.
Slow performance:
Corrupted files can contribute to system slowdowns. Running these commands can help optimize performance.
Unstable system:
If your system is frequently crashing or exhibiting other signs of instability, SFC and DISM can help identify and repair the underlying issues.
After Windows updates:
It's a good practice to run these commands after major Windows updates, as updates can sometimes introduce or expose existing corruption.

Running SFC and DISM is a proactive way to maintain the health of your Windows installation. By repairing corrupted system files, these tools can help prevent issues and ensure your system runs smoothly and reliably.

antspants · Friday at 5:35 PM

Also… it’s often recommended that you run SFC /Scannow after DISM‘s

JamesSmith · Friday at 5:39 PM

Thanks for that information.

I am trying to get a sense of how common this is?
I am starting to wonder if my hardware is faulty or maybe I need to do a fresh install of windows again.

Is this a windows 11 thing? never happened on Windows 10.

When I read the monthly patch Tuesday posts everyone seems to show pictures of them doing it.

JamesSmith · Friday at 5:40 PM

antspants said:
Also… it’s often recommended that you run SFC /Scannow after DISM‘s

I do
sfc /scannow
dism check health
dism scan health
dism restore health (if needed)
sfc /scannow

antspants · Friday at 5:42 PM

JamesSmith said:
I do
sfc /scannow
dism check health
dism scan health
dism restore health (if needed)
sfc /scannow

Seems fine. Is it common? I think it’s just healthy, James.

I would expect that if you had never run the commands in Windows 10, you’d never had known that there were corrupted files

JamesSmith · Friday at 5:45 PM

antspants said:
Seems fine. Is it common? I think it’s just healthy, James.

I would expect that if you had never run the commands in Windows 10, you’d never had known that there were corrupted files

Thanks. I Will keep running these commands moving forward after a windows update.

antspants · Friday at 5:48 PM

You could have a batch script to run them all for you, could even have it so it skips restorehealth of scanhealth finds nothing.

antspants · Friday at 6:08 PM

antspants said:
You could have a batch script to run them all for you, could even have it so it skips restorehealth of scanhealth finds nothing.

This batch script will run what you posted, borrowed some code from this ElevenForum post. I checked that it works on my system.

sfc /scannow
dism check health
dism scan health
dism restore health (if needed)
sfc /scannow

Double click on the bat file "SFCDISM.bat"
It will open then reopen for Admin privileges
It will skip restorehealth if checkhealth finds nothing.

Running: rundll32.exe pnpclean.dll,RunDLL_PnpClean /drivers/maxclean
Running: sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
Running: dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.22621.2792

Image Version: 10.0.22631.5472

No component store corruption detected.
The operation completed successfully.
Press any key to continue . . .

Here is the content of the batch. The batch is also contained in a archive attached to this post.
Copy to your desktop, run when needed. If you like.

Batch:

@ECHO OFF
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion

:: Elevation check
NET FILE 1>NUL 2>NUL
if '%errorlevel%' == '0' ( goto START ) else ( goto getPrivileges )

:getPrivileges
if '%1'=='ELEV' ( goto START )

set "batchPath=%~f0"
set "batchArgs=ELEV"
set "script=%0"
set script=%script:"=%

IF '%0'=='!script!' ( GOTO PathQuotesDone )
    set "batchPath=""%batchPath%"""
:PathQuotesDone

:ArgLoop
IF '%1'=='' ( GOTO EndArgLoop ) else ( GOTO AddArg )
:AddArg
    set "arg=%1"
    set arg=%arg:"=%
    IF '%1'=='!arg!' ( GOTO NoQuotes )
        set "batchArgs=%batchArgs% "%1""
        GOTO QuotesDone
    :NoQuotes
        set "batchArgs=%batchArgs% %1"
:QuotesDone
    shift
    GOTO ArgLoop
:EndArgLoop

:: Create and run VBScript for elevation
ECHO Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs"
ECHO UAC.ShellExecute "cmd", "/c ""!batchPath! !batchArgs!""", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs"
"%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs"
exit /B

:START
:: Remove elevation flag and set working directory
IF '%1'=='ELEV' ( shift /1 )
cd /d %~dp0

:: Begin cleanup script with logging
set "logFile=%temp%\script_log.txt"
echo Cleanup process started: %DATE% %TIME% > "%logFile%"

call :RunCommand "rundll32.exe pnpclean.dll,RunDLL_PnpClean /drivers/maxclean"

:: Run SFC twice, always
call :RunCommand "sfc /scannow"
call :RunCommand "sfc /scannow"

:: Check health before attempting restore
call :RunCommand "dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth"
if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 (
    echo Issues detected in Windows image, running RestoreHealth... >> "%logFile%"
    call :RunCommand "dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth"
) else (
    echo No corruption found, skipping RestoreHealth. >> "%logFile%"
)

echo Cleanup completed successfully: %DATE% %TIME% >> "%logFile%"
pause
exit /B

:RunCommand
echo Running: %~1
%~1
if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 (
    echo Error: %~1 failed with error level %errorlevel% >> "%logFile%"
)
exit /B

Attached: SFCDISM.BAT

JamesSmith · Friday at 6:12 PM

antspants said:

This batch script will run what you posted, borrowed some code from this ElevenForum post. I checked that it works on my system.

sfc /scannow
dism check health
dism scan health
dism restore health (if needed)
sfc /scannow

Double click on the bat file "SFCDISM.bat"
It will open then reopen for Admin privileges
It will skip restorehealth if checkhealth finds nothing.

Here is the content of the batch. The batch is also contained in a archive attached to this post.
Copy to your desktop, run when needed. If you like.

Batch:

@ECHO OFF
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion

:: Elevation check
NET FILE 1>NUL 2>NUL
if '%errorlevel%' == '0' ( goto START ) else ( goto getPrivileges )

:getPrivileges
if '%1'=='ELEV' ( goto START )

set "batchPath=%~f0"
set "batchArgs=ELEV"
set "script=%0"
set script=%script:"=%

IF '%0'=='!script!' ( GOTO PathQuotesDone )
    set "batchPath=""%batchPath%"""
:PathQuotesDone

:ArgLoop
IF '%1'=='' ( GOTO EndArgLoop ) else ( GOTO AddArg )
:AddArg
    set "arg=%1"
    set arg=%arg:"=%
    IF '%1'=='!arg!' ( GOTO NoQuotes )
        set "batchArgs=%batchArgs% "%1""
        GOTO QuotesDone
    :NoQuotes
        set "batchArgs=%batchArgs% %1"
:QuotesDone
    shift
    GOTO ArgLoop
:EndArgLoop

:: Create and run VBScript for elevation
ECHO Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs"
ECHO UAC.ShellExecute "cmd", "/c ""!batchPath! !batchArgs!""", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs"
"%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs"
exit /B

:START
:: Remove elevation flag and set working directory
IF '%1'=='ELEV' ( shift /1 )
cd /d %~dp0

:: Begin cleanup script with logging
set "logFile=%temp%\script_log.txt"
echo Cleanup process started: %DATE% %TIME% > "%logFile%"

call :RunCommand "rundll32.exe pnpclean.dll,RunDLL_PnpClean /drivers/maxclean"
call :RunCommand "sfc /scannow"
if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 (
    echo First SFC scan found issues, running again... >> "%logFile%"
    call :RunCommand "sfc /scannow"
)

call :RunCommand "dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth"
if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 (
    echo Issues detected in Windows image, running RestoreHealth... >> "%logFile%"
    call :RunCommand "dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth"
) else (
    echo No corruption found, skipping RestoreHealth. >> "%logFile%"
)

echo Cleanup completed successfully: %DATE% %TIME% >> "%logFile%"
pause
exit /B

:RunCommand
echo Running: %~1
%~1
if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 (
    echo Error: %~1 failed with error level %errorlevel% >> "%logFile%"
)
exit /B

Attached: SFCDISM.BAT

Thanks for the help and script. I will definitely use this.
James.

antspants · Friday at 6:15 PM

I just tweaked it. It wasn't running SFC /Scannow at the end because it found no corruption at the beginning. So it will now force the batch to run SFC again at the end.
I don't think there is anything wrong with running it twice for piece of mind.

KevTech · Friday at 6:17 PM

I would never run SFC first before running check health and if needed restore health so script is in error IMO.
SFC just uses files from the image and even if those files are corrupt will still use them for repair.
You want to make sure image is not corrupt before running SFC.

glasskuter · Friday at 7:03 PM

Is it common to have to do this? I would say , if a system is clean going into an update that NO, it's not common to have to do it every month. I occasionally will run SFC off the cuff but it's definitely not run before each update. I have run DISM only once on this 4 year old system, when I was unable to upgrade to 24h2. I ended up clean installing. Other than that, I have never run into a situation that I felt warranted having to run DISM.

gunrunnerjohn · Friday at 8:22 PM

KevTech said:
I would never run SFC first before running check health and if needed restore health so script is in error IMO.
SFC just uses files from the image and even if those files are corrupt will still use them for repair.
You want to make sure image is not corrupt before running SFC.

I was told right here that SFC will recognize the system image is corrupted and not use corrupted files. If you run SFC and it doesn't display an error, you're done. If it spits out an error, then you should run DISM to repair the system image and then run SFC.

On a search, I see both orders suggested, so I suspect you can't really get into big trouble running them in either order.

Here's a good discussion on the matter.

DISM Scan - "The Component Store is Repairable" Problem

KevTech · Friday at 10:26 PM

Correct order or steps is documented by Microsoft.

Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files - Microsoft Support

Describes how to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files in Windows.

support.microsoft.com

XxXxX · Friday at 10:39 PM

if you believe that there is a problem with some system hardware it maybe worthwhile checking
control panel > security and maintenance > maintenance > reliability monitor

and
start > system tools > system information > components > problem devices

these may give you a better indication of events happening on your system.
best of luck, Steve ..

TairikuOkami · Saturday at 3:29 AM

JamesSmith said:
Is it common to run sfc and dism commands every month after a windows update?

Windows update replaces some system files with new versions, but it might fail to do so, SFC fixes that.
I also run it as a routine cleanup and backup batch after a successful windows update, just to make sure.

gunrunnerjohn · Saturday at 10:03 AM

KevTech said:
Correct order or steps is documented by Microsoft.

Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files - Microsoft Support

Describes how to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files in Windows.

support.microsoft.com

Interesting, that's what I was always doing until someone here talked me out of it.

JamesSmith · Saturday at 5:14 PM

So which command is first? sfc of dism?

I know Microsoft is saying to run dism first but no one can seem to agree on this. I did a google search and it's split 50/50 on what goes first.
Do we really believe Microsoft?

antspants · Saturday at 5:17 PM

JamesSmith said:
So which command is first? sfc of dism?

I mentioned in the beginning of the thread, SFC should really be used last.
If you’re still interested in a batch file, I can remove SFC from the beginning and leave it for last

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