DISM restorehealth fails to run after latest CU

zbook: Microsoft's MCT is not working so I used the Edge workaround changing the string to Safari and downloaded .16299.15 as a wim. I could not get an esd copy. I ran the dism / online /cleanup-image /restorehealth with the wim source and limitaccess and got the same error 193 meassage as before. Turned off metered connection and got the same result again. Downloaded KB4016871 but it is not for 1709 and would not install. A clean install may be in the works. Looking and my file structure I have a SAVE folder in the first level of my C drive(OS drive) and it contains 100 GB of files and some folders that are in the first level also. PerfLogs, ProgramFiles, Programfiles(x86). PtrogramData, and Windows. The Windows folder has 38 GB where the windows folder on the first level has 32GB. My laptop is also 1709 latest CU up to date and it does not have the folder. My PC works fine other than the dism cleanup-image failures. Scanhealth and checkhealth yield the same error code. I will be doing a clean install in Jan.

Were you not able to create a bootable windows 10 iso from this website? : Download Windows 10

I found a couple of cases of DISM error 193 problems being resolved at the link below so it may be worth joining and requesting some help. It looks like it's definitely not a simple and straight forward fix and from what I can see the only other alternative is a clean install.

https://www.sysnative.com/forums/windows-update/

I have a bootable usb drive I made from the copy I downloaded using Heidoc to downloads and then used Rufus to create the usb thumb drive. I did download from the same site you referenced with edge/safari option to downloads but did not use Rufus as I was out of usb drives. I mounted that and ran the dism strings with the same error. The bootable usb drive also yielded the same results. I did not look at the dism logs to see if anything was different. I also burned a dvd from the MS 1709 download using image burn and it also yielded the same error message. I can use Rufus to create another usb drive tonight after work using the MS download. Both the Heidoc ISO and the MS ISO were the same size and same version/edition.

zbook said:

Were you not able to create a bootable windows 10 iso from this website? : Download Windows 10

I made a bootable usb thumb drive from the ISO I downloaded from your link and ran the DISM commands using it as the source last night with metered connections on and off and it resulted in the same error 193 messages.

EdTittel said:

According to this answers.microsoft.com forum thread (see the March 25 post from Cybot for details) this problem is demonstrably caused by missing dlls in the DISM runtime environment. The post details the forensics used to fix the problem, but it sounds pretty time consuming. If you decide to go down this road, start with a complete image backup that you know you can restore if things go south.
HTH,
--Ed--

Since this PC is used for a home based business I back it up frequently and also have auto backup for any new files. It is backed up in multiple ways, Macrium reflect, external hard drive, and also to flash thumb drives. I will be doing a clean install next month after I finish my taxes. I had uninstalled the last updates to roll back to 16299.15 to match the current MS and techbench 1709 downloads and to see it that would fix the issue and it did not. Since I also have a SAVE folder in the C: directory that has 4 folders that are in the windows folder I will be doing a clean install to fix the mess that the 1709 update created. Thanks for the link, I had read the thread and had considered updating to 16299.98 and then comparing my laptops downlevel directory to the affected PC's but I think I will re-install windows at a more convenient time. Just curious, is there a way to check and see what my onboard recovery OS is? Is it 1709 or a previous OS. I have never understood why MS does not put mirror OS's in place on separate partitions to auto repair itself. Thanks!

I had this same issue on 1709 just last night. DISM would fail with error 193 when "/Online" was given as an argument.
Even "DISM /Online /?" would fail. Well, you can find the answer in the last post on the first page of this thread: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-f1fe7d311199 ... even though the Microsoft Rep. just told him to make sure dependent services were running and to try using DISM on a new account; and then when that still failed with error 193, their conclusion was.. "unfortunately as you are getting DISM error the only option is to reset Windows 10 and choose keep files when resetting."

The OP fixed it himself after manual comparison of his system files with those of a healthy system, and found that the c:\windows\system32\downlevel directory did not match. Manually copying the .DLLs from the healthy system fixed the issue for him.
However, the .DLLs in the downlevel directory were not my issue, but in the very next post in the thread someone mentioned that after reading how the OP had solved error 193 for himself, they inspected their own downlevel directory and noticed a single icon file that had somehow found its way in there, and that after removing the .ico file from the downlevel directory, they no longer had error 193, and DISM worked as normal.

I thought that was weird.. a one-off, maybe. but lo and behold... in my downlevel directory, there was a single stray .bat file I had put there months ago to reregister those .DLLs; obviously assuming no harm could come from leaving it there. I was wrong! . Deleting the stray file fixed error 193 for me as well.
Apparantly those API-MS-*.DLLs are an exclusive bunch of snobs.. just leave them to themselves :)

Compared my two computers(one dism works one does not) downlevel directories. All of my downlevel dll's have identical file names and sizes. 96 files in each. No oddball file extensons. dism /online /? results in error 193. Attached is the dism log file.

Installing 1803 resolved the issue. DISM is fully functional again.