Best series of built-in Windows tests to run regularly?
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Best series of built-in Windows tests to run regularly?
What would be the best (safest and most effective) series of built-in Windows tests to run regularly (say, weekly or monthly) to ensure that Windows has no corruption or errors?
Would the following series of Command Prompt tasks (in the order listed) be a good series of tests? Or should there be more (or less) tests, or a different order in which to run them?
sfc /scannow
dism /Online /NoRestart /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
dism /Online /NoRestart /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
dism /Online /NoRestart /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
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The sfc (System File Checker) command can be used to verify and replace important corrupted Windows system files.
System File Checker is a very useful tool to use when you suspect issues with protected Windows files, like many DLL files.
You will use dism /Online /NoRestart /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth command when Sfc tool fails to repair corrupted Windows system files.
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The sfc (System File Checker) command can be used to verify and replace important corrupted Windows system files.
System File Checker is a very useful tool to use when you suspect issues with protected Windows files, like many DLL files.
You will use dism /Online /NoRestart /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth command when Sfc tool fails to repair corrupted Windows system files.
So it would be best to run just sfc /scannow on a regular basis, and only use CheckHealth, ScanHealth, or RestoreHealth if that found errors and failed to repair them?
Also (I forgot to ask in the OP), how often (if ever) would it be advisable to run CHKDSK? Would running it weekly or monthly be a good idea, or could it have risks?
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In addition to these 4 commands, which OP has posted, I use regularly also:
cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:6553
Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore
Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
which are more about cleaning up the system.
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If you run disk cleanup it runs the DISM commands to cleanup WinSxS anyway.
You can see it if you look at task manager - the TIWorker job is running.
You could run the /resetbase but considering there is a new version of Windows every 6 months there isn't much point really.
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Good Day All
i'm on a ship so the DISM "online" part would not seem to be effective (no internet) or is it? i have the iso on disk
but that just might put me back, before i made my changes to my custom settings (edwins dark them w/ice baby icons) and such. i am on 1709
is a total wipe out of HD reset custom stuff and then re-image required to have some sort of baseline established? 
DME
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In addition to these 4 commands, which OP has posted, I use regularly also:
cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:6553
Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore
Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
which are more about cleaning up the system.
Do these help with preventing and/or eliminating corruption? Also, does running any of them create a risk of accidentally deleting something that shouldn't be deleted?
If you run disk cleanup it runs the DISM commands to cleanup WinSxS anyway.
You can see it if you look at task manager - the TIWorker job is running.
I never run Disk Cleanup. Would it be advisable to run it every month or so? I'm nervous to run it, because I'm afraid of accidentally deleting something that shouldn't be deleted.
But while it isn't necessary, it also won't harm anything, correct?
Sometimes the restorehealth had malfunctioned.
checkhealth and scanhealth are not needed if you have a working restorehealth.
Does this mean that running RestoreHealth is risky? (You mentioned that it sometimes malfunctions.) Also, I thought that CheckHealth was just to check to see whether anything is wrong, ScanHealth was a more intensive and thorough way to also just scan for problems, and RestoreHealth can actually fix any problems that CheckHealth or ScanHealth find (and only needs to be run if one of them finds a problem). Would it be best to first run CheckHealth, then ScanHealth, then only run RestoreHealth if one of them finds a problem?
sfc /scannow is regularly ran however it is likely not needed if you have a working dism restorehealth
Do you mean that scannow is automatically run by Windows on a regular basis?
Also, I thought that scannow was less intensive than RestoreHealth (ie, it would be a good program to run first, and RestoreHealth is more of a last option.) Is this incorrect?
For chkdsk you can run chkdsk /scan weekly and run chkdsk /x /f /r quarterly.
If I recall right, chkdsk /scan runs CHKDSK without needing to restart or dismount the hard drive (unlike chkdsk /x /r /f). Is this correct?
Also, are there any possible risks to running either command with the type of frequency that you recommended?
So the above commands will check
1) the integrity of the operating system
2) the drive file system
Plan:
1) sfc /scannow or dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
2) chkdsk /scan
3) windows defender updates
I see that you wrote "sfc /scannow or dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth", rather than recommending running both of them. Would it be better to run scannow (to check for problems), and only run RestoreHealth is any were found?
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There are many DISM commands.
The restorehealth has always been a command that works or it does not work to fix the OS.
In the threads I have everyone run both sfc /scannow followed by dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth.
This is done to correct any problems with the OS with scannow and if there were integrity violations to fix with restorehealth.
Running restorehealth on its own does not provide information as to whether it found and fixed OS problems. It always displays the message that it did something or failed.
In addition it is useful to see whether there is an option to use the restorehealth command. If it was not run you would never know about the errors preventing its use.
I've never seen any harm in running scannow or restorehealth. The file sizes for the CBS and DISM logs will grow though and reduce disk space.
Scanhealth is run only if restorehealth fails to troubleshoot its failure.
chkdsk /scan can be run without locking the drive or rebooting. It does not provide the deeper scan. So you can find problems running the deeper scan that were missed running chkdsk /scan. If there were problems found running chkdsk /scan it will prompt you to run chkdsk /spotfix for the next boot. I'll do that and then I'll also do a chkdsk /x /f /r when I have the option to scan for 3 hours. That's the time that it typically takes for my 750 GB HD.
On a SSD drive there is no benefit for the /r switch but I type it anyway.
For the maintenance of the computers I regularly run without worry: sfc /scannow, dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth, chkdsk /scan or chkdsk /x /f /r.
One more thing that makes life a little simpler is that you can paste multiple commands into administrative command prompt at the same time without making a .bat command.
For example you can copy and paste:
sfc /scannow
chkdsk /scan
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
and have it do all 3 scans in sequence.
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I'll do that and then I'll also do a chkdsk /x /f /r when I have the option to scan for 3 hours. That's the time that it typically takes for my 750 GB HD.
Is there any significance to the order of the three letters? I've always run it as chkdsk /f /r /x.
One more thing that makes life a little simpler is that you can paste multiple commands into administrative command prompt at the same time without making a .bat command.
For example you can copy and paste:
sfc /scannow
chkdsk /scan
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
and have it do all 3 scans in sequence.
Would it be a good idea to run that whole sequence (those three commands pasted together) weekly? Also, wouldn't pasting them in the order below (with chkdsk as the last command) be better than the one quoted above?
sfc /scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
chkdsk /scan
Quote