System File Checker (SFC) is a service provided by Windows to check for any defected or corrupted files in your Running Windows OS and then replace or restore them effortlessly if found. This utility is also provided in the previous versions of Windows OS such as Windows Vista and higher versions, but in some Windows, it was known as Windows Resource Checker. This SFC has a command that runs on the Windows command prompt, to scan for the corrupted files like important DLL files that are located in C:WindowsSystem32 folder, these files are then found and restored in your Windows to make things working back to normal. So, in this article, I will guide you on how to run SFC scannow in Windows 10.
Before we start I would like you to know that in this article, we are running Windows 10 version 1803. I will walk you through some useful services of System file checker tool and its other commands that can also be used.
So, let’s start with the stepwise guide.
Step 1: Open Command Prompt
From the Windows taskbar, click on the search icon next to Windows icon to open search.
In the search area, type in Command Prompt and you can see in the search under Best match heading as shown above.
Right-click on the Command Prompt option and select the Run as administrator option from the menu as shown above.
Now a user account message will pop up asking to grant permission, click Yes to allow Command prompt to run as administrator.
Now you can see a Command Prompt windows launch up as shown above.
Step 2: Run SFC scannow command
Next to C:\WINDOWS\system32> carefully type sfc /scannow and hit Enter as highlighted above.
Now, wait until it begins the system scan as highlighted above.
Step 3: Reboot if necessary
If you get the same warning to Restart Windows and run sfc again as shown above then you have to close everything and then restart your Windows. Now go ahead and restart your PC.
After reboot, Open Command prompt and run it as administrator.
Step 4: Verification Process
Now retype the sfc /scannow command and hit Enter. Now, most probably your verification phase will begin as shown above.
You now have to wait until the verification finds any error or corrupt files on your system after verification completion, as shown above. This will take up to an hour or so.
Step 5 : Restart Windows after Verification completion
If the system did not detect any corrupted file after completion, then it will display a message of Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations as highlighted above. If you see a message which says Windows resource protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them, then you should exit all windows and restart your PC.
Other Commands of SFC
Below are the other commands that can be used related to System File checker (SFC).
| Command | Description |
| sfc / verifyonly | You can use this command if you only want to verify about files and not repair them |
| sfc /scanfile= file | You can use this command if you only want to scan and repair the particular file |
| sfc /offbootdir = boot | You can use this command with /offwindir if you want to declare the path of boot directory from outside windows |
| sfc /bootwindir = win | You can use this command with /offbootdir if you want to declare the path of win directory when using it offline |
That’s it! Hope this helped you to run SFC scannow in Windows 10. Enjoy!
