“Deployment Image System Management? – What?
– OK Idol, you’re talking geek again.
I’m not reading this if I can’t understand what you’re on about.”
Hello dear reader, and welcome to another ephisode of
‘Idol Speeks Geek’.
In today’s ephisode we find out how to repair the Windows repair process; and then we write a batch file to automate the process of repairing the windows repair process, placing a shortcut to it on the desktop for easy one-click-operation.
‘Clearer now? – Let’s do this: –
Before we start, maybe a little further explanation is due: –
Earlier in this blog there was an article tackling writing a batch file and copying a shortcut to it to Desktop in order to be able to run the System File Checker with a single click.
…But what if the System File Checker doesn’t do its job, and reports that it can’t do what it’s supposed to do? (And that does happen. – I’ve had it happen before now.) That’s probably because the files that go to make up the System File Checker have themselves become corrupted. – The mending apparatus has itself broken down, so nothing can be fixed.
What exactly is Deployment Image System Management? In short, Deployment Image System Management finds critical core files – such as the files that run the System File Checker – required to run and gather information, then upgrades or repairs any of those files that are corrupted or out-of-date. You can look at it as a total automated overhaul of the Windows system image. – The next step down from a complete reinstallation of Windows.
To run the Deployment Image System Management tool, you need to give it a set of parameters. This article is not going into all of said parameters. (Use the link in this paragraph to read more on this.) This article is going to show you how to use a specific set of parameters, as a part of a batch file, in order to automate the restoration of the health of your system image from your Desktop with a single click.
With that brief explanation out the way, let’s get to it: –
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to run the Deployment Image System Management tool with a single click, rather than having to remember several multiple sets of parameters?
Indeed, it would – and believe it or not; this can be done. – Let’s look at a shortcut you can create to help keep your computer working nominally.
Here’s how it’s done: –
To set up the one-click-any-time operation, we first need to create an appropriate batch file: –
Open a new .txt (text) document on your Desktop and title it
“DISM-RestoreHealth”
– so that it reads ‘DISM-RestoreHealth.txt’.
Populate the text document with the following: –
@echo off
ECHO Initiating Deployment Image System Management
ECHO Deployment Image Servicing Activated. Restoring Health...
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
pause
exit
(‘Pause’ and ‘exit’ probably aren’t absolutely necessary; but I included them for extra functionality in the batch file that I personally use anyway.)
Now close the text document and right-click the file’s icon on the Desktop and select ‘Rename’.
Click after the .txt in the icon’s name and delete the letters ‘txt’ after the point. Don’t click away.
Replace the letters ‘txt’ with ‘bat’. – Now click away.
Windows will put up a dialog saying: –
“If you change a filename extension. the file might become unusable.
Are you sure you want to change it?”
Click “Yes”.
You’ve just created the batch file you need. – But there’s more: –
Drag the batch file you’ve created to somewhere that’s not on your Desktop.
Now right-click the batch file’s icon and create a shortcut to it.
Drag the shortcut you just created to your desktop and rename it
“DISM-RestoreHealth”.
Right-click on the shortcut and click ‘Properties’.
Click the ‘Shortcut’ tab and click ‘Advanced’.
Put a check in the box marked ‘Run as Administrator’.
Click ‘OK‘.
Click ‘OK‘.
Now, every time you click the shortcut titled “DISM-RestoreHealth”, your computer will open a command window on your screen and run the Deployment Image System Management tool to restore the health of your system image and repair the System File Checker.
(Note: After Deployment Image System Management tool has completed, it’s best to restart the machine immediately following that, in order that any and all corrected registry entries are consolidated.)
– If, at any point, you want to run the Deployment Image System Management tool to restore the health of the system image – without having created the button; just run a command prompt as administrator, type
“
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth”and press return.
– But it’s so much easier to do it with a single click! 🙂
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