Unknown corruption issue with windows 10? Cannot run CMD

amorley · 19 May 2017

I'm not really sure where to start here, but I'm trying to fix a computer which I'm pretty sure has parts of windows corrupted. For example, the network (my college network) I am trying to get it onto has a proxy and a pc scan needs to be run before you are able to make it onto the network, but windows will crash completely when I try to run the .exe file (or any .exe file at that).

The start menu doesn't work, nor does any of the taskbar (the clock is frozen too), but programs like chrome and file explorer will open. I also cannot open task manager or command prompt to run sfc /scannow but I did manage to navigate to a directory with powershell in it using file explorer, and was able to run it but need to run it as admin in order to run the sfc /scannow command on it, which thought was a solution, but the right click doesn't work, and windows crashes again when I try to use right click (or just file explorer crashes and I cannot close it before I restart windows)..

I'm completely baffled as to what this could be, as things making windows crash is slowly ruling out any solutions I can think up.. Ideally, I don't want to reinstall windows because there are things that would be quite hard to recover and I do not have an external volume to back up to at the moment. I'm just not sure what to do atm..

NavyLCDR · 19 May 2017

There are a couple of things you can try, but I don't know if you have enough of your system left operable to be able to make them work.

You can try an in-place upgrade repair install:
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

It might be just your user profile that is corrupt. You can try enabling the built-in administrator account:
Enable or Disable Elevated Administrator account in Windows 10 Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials

Log in to the built-in administrator account and then create a new user account, and change it to administrator, then log into it;
Add User Account in Windows 10 Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials
Change Account Type in Windows 10 Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials

If all else fails, see my quote in the middle of the OP in this thread, create a combination Windows 10 installation USB flash drive and Kyhi's Recovery Tools:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Boot the computer from that, use the partition tools on his recovery (AEOMI or MiniTool) to shrink your current Windows partition to as small as it will go. Then install a new Windows 10 to the empty space. Once you get everything copied out of the old Windows partition that you want to keep, then you can delete it and expand the new Windows partition into the space the old Windows occupied.

zbook · 19 May 2017

See if one of these ten approaches can get to administrative command prompt:

10 Ways to Open the Command Prompt in Windows 10

For command line click the following keyboard keys:
1) win + x (simultaneously)
2) a
3) alt + y (simultaneously)

amorley · 19 May 2017

NavyLCDR said:

There are a couple of things you can try, but I don't know if you have enough of your system left operable to be able to make them work.

You can try an in-place upgrade repair install:
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

It might be just your user profile that is corrupt. You can try enabling the built-in administrator account:
Enable or Disable Elevated Administrator account in Windows 10 Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials

Log in to the built-in administrator account and then create a new user account, and change it to administrator, then log into it;
Add User Account in Windows 10 Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials
Change Account Type in Windows 10 Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials

If all else fails, see my quote in the middle of the OP in this thread, create a combination Windows 10 installation USB flash drive and Kyhi's Recovery Tools:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Boot the computer from that, use the partition tools on his recovery (AEOMI or MiniTool) to shrink your current Windows partition to as small as it will go. Then install a new Windows 10 to the empty space. Once you get everything copied out of the old Windows partition that you want to keep, then you can delete it and expand the new Windows partition into the space the old Windows occupied.

Thank you very much for these options- Looks like the system is pretty corrupted because even UAC is non existent and even though I found how to run powershell or CMD as admin in the navigation panel of file explorer, it still crashed when I selected run as admin. I think either the second option or last option might work, as it looks like the first two aren't going to happen.. Thanks very much for your time.

amorley · 19 May 2017

zbook said:

See if one of these ten approaches can get to administrative command prompt:

10 Ways to Open the Command Prompt in Windows 10

For command line click the following keyboard keys:
1) win + x (simultaneously)
2) a
3) alt + y (simultaneously)

Thanks for the suggestion, but it turns out UAC is corrupted too, so I can't run anything as admin..

zbook · 20 May 2017

Obtain a flash drive that you can format to create a bootable windows 10 iso:

Download Windows 10

What is the make and model of your computer?

Each computer manufacture has a F key to choose the boot device.

Once you know the F key you will then be able to boot to the Windows 10 iso and attempt repair of your computer's operating system.

Choices may include:
Restore choosing a date when it was last functioning well
Reset with save files
Startup repair
In place upgrade

Missing from the Windows 10 iso are startup options such as safe mode with command prompt or safe mode with networking. But if you need these we may be able to open these as well.

With the windows 10 iso open the Windows troubleshooting options and navigate to command prompt.
The title bar will display: Administrator:X:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
When there run: sfc /scannow

Let us know the result.

If you want to try to get to the windows advanced troubleshooting menu without a bootable windows 10 iso you can try the following method:
Power on your computer and as soon as you see the windows icon power off.
Repeat this step once or twice more.
The next boot should slowly boot to the windows troubleshooting menu.
When there navigate to startup options (not startup repair)
Then choose option number 6, safe mode with command prompt.
Then run: sfc /scannow
If you need to use the computer then you can reboot and choose safe mode with networking.

NavyLCDR · 20 May 2017

zbook said:

Once you know the F key you will then be able to boot to the Windows 10 iso and attempt repair of your computer's operating system.

Choices may include:
Restore choosing a date when it was last functioning well
Reset with save files
Startup repair
In place upgrade

You can't do a repair install by booting from the installation media. A repair install must be started by running setup.exe from within the Windows needing repair.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

zbook · 21 May 2017

The windows 10 iso has:
system restore
system image recovery
startup repair
command prompt
UEFI firmware settings
Go back to previous edition

Choosing UEFI firmware settings requires a restart to change.
For a HP computer the F11 key opens HP recovery then reset with save files, reset with remove files, and startup options.
It's a round about way to get to the windows needing repair. It did require a reboot to the windows needing repair.

amorley · 23 May 2017

zbook said:

The windows 10 iso has:
system restore
system image recovery
startup repair
command prompt
UEFI firmware settings
Go back to previous edition

Choosing UEFI firmware settings requires a restart to change.
For a HP computer the F11 key opens HP recovery then reset with save files, reset with remove files, and startup options.
It's a round about way to get to the windows needing repair. It did require a reboot to the windows needing repair.

Thank you very much, I'm going to try some of the things both of you have told me- sorry for the delay- I'm sitting exams at college and this isn't top of my priorities. The PC is not a specific make or model, as its a self built. It has an MSI motherboard, and I know that the hotkey for the bios is [delete]. I did manage to get to the startup repair screen and get into the windows recovery screen, which appears to still be working, and discovered that they had got rid of the 'refresh your PC' option that i've used before on previous computers with similar issues.. I think my best bet is to recover the files I can and then do a clean install of windows 10 pro.

amorley · 23 May 2017

NavyLCDR said:

You can't do a repair install by booting from the installation media. A repair install must be started by running setup.exe from within the Windows needing repair.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

This would be a good option, but the facility to run .exe files (probably UAC too) is corrupted, meaning I would be unable to run setup.exe..