Have you heard about the System File Checker?
– Have you heard of checkdisk?
At times it can happen that the vital Windows system files on your machine’s system drive can become corrupted for what may appear to be no reason. If it appears that your computer isn’t quite functioning properly – but you can’t quite put your finger on why – then it may be due to file system corruption, which can be corrected by running the CHKDSK function, or it may be that it’s time to run System File Checker. (In this article we’ll be concentrating upon the System File Checker, and we’ll be creating a button with which you can run the System File Checker with a single click from your Desktop.)
Running the System File Checker will cause Windows to inspect your machines core operating system files for errors due to corruption, and then fix them by replacing them with a working copy where necessary. It is often necessary to run the system File Checker in order to maintain a healthy and optimally working operating system, whether or not you are aware of that fact.
Now if you want to do this operation the manual way, you have to call up a command prompt and run it as administrator, then you type in a short code and allow the function to complete, following which you should restart if any corruption has been fixed, or type “exit” in the window, return, and get on with whatever you were doing before… What a palaver!
Wouldn’t it be so much nicer to be able to run System File Checker with a single click?
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 “System File Checker” – so that it reads ‘System File Checker.txt’.
Populate the text document with the following: –
@echo off
ECHO Initiating System File Checker
SFC /scannow
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
“System File Checker”.
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 “System File Checker”, your computer will open a command window on your screen and run the System File Checker.
(Note: If the System File Checker tells you that it found corrupt files and repaired them; 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 System File Checker without having created the button; just run a command prompt as administrator, type “
SFC /scannow”, and press return.
– But it’s easier to just do it with a single click. 