System File Checker and Utilities

Chris Pirillo — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:43:40 +0000

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – It’s awesome when you guys send me your computer tips and tricks. One I just received recently talks about using your Windows System File Checker to make sure all of your critical system files are intact.

System File Checker is built into Windows to scan your critical system files for errors. If it finds a problem, it will attempt to replace the problematic files from the DLL Cache. If the file is not in the DLL Cache or the DLL Cache is corrupted, the user will be prompted to insert the Windows installation media or provide the network installation path.

You can access this tool by going to Start>Run on your computer, and then type in sfc /scannow.

Another application the email brought up is Advance Window Care. This is purportedly a free program that helps keep your Windows computer “clean”.

I don’t really advocate using programs like this. They usually tend to do more harm than good. I know a case where a woman had to reformat her work computer, losing a TON of critical files, after using a registry cleaning program. The person who told her to use it gave her incomplete instructions, and the system was damaged beyond repair. This happens more often than you realize. Average users think they should just click a button on a powerful program like this, and let it do the work for them. Unfortunately, disater can and does happen.

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System File Checker and Utilities