Repair Window 10 using SFC and DISM
Windows 10

We’ve covered how to use SFC (System File Checker) to check your Windows PC for missing or corrupted Windows System Files several times before. But today, we’re going to take it one step further. We’re going to show you how to use SFC and DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) together, to repair or replace corrupted, damaged or missing Windows System Files.

We’ll start by running SFC (System File Checker) to check Windows System Files.

**And before you do this…  you should know that if you’re running ;Windows 7 Games, Windows Mail or Outlook Express on Windows 10, SFC will break them. Since those programs were not made for Windows 10,  SFC will identify and remove them as corrupted/damaged Windows System Files. So, if you’re using Windows Mail, Outlook Express, or Windows 7 Games  on your Windows 10 PC, they will not work after you run System File Checker – you’ll need to go through whatever installation process is necessary to get them working again**

Now, with that out of the way, let’s run SFC (System File Checker) to scan and check the integrity of your Windows’ System Files. If it finds any missing, damaged or corrupted system files, SFC will attempt to replace them with the correct files.

You may want to use SFC if you think your computer is not working as it should be. While all of us Windows computers knows that there are many things that could cause or Windows PCs to run poorly or differently than it normally does, missing, corrupted, or damaged system files often problems and therefore we should check them. Good news! The SFC tool makes this easy to do.

How to Run System File Checker (SFC)

Open a Administrator Command Prompt. Press Windows Key + X then click on “Command Prompt (Admin)” .



At the prompt type SFC /SCANNOW and press Enter. Notice there is a space after SFC.

It will take some time to scan your system. In most cases it should take between 10 and 15 minutes.



If SFC does not find any errors or if you get the result that tells you: “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some (or all) of them. You should run DISM and a prudent second step in the process to replace missing Windows System Files and/or to repair corrupted or damaged Windows System Files. DISM can fix damaged files that can prevent the System File Check from working correctly.

Sometimes damaged files can also affect System File Checker, and even if you are able to run SFC, it may not be able to detect problems – or fix problems it finds. And this is when you should use the DISM tool. .

Repair Windows System Files Using DISM Tool

Always run System File Checker (SFC) before running DISM. Many times SFC will find and fix problems. But it’s also quite common that SFC finds problems but cannot fix them or doesn’t find any problems at all when problems do exist.

If you think your computer has problem and SFC tells you that it found no integrity violations, you may want to run DISM to double-check. If you get the message that “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some (or all) of them”, you should use the DISM tool to repair any damaged files that might be preventing SFC from working correctly.

How To Run DISM.

1. Press Windows Key + X

2. Click on Command Prompt(Admin)

3. At the Command Prompt type:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and press the Enter Key



Make sure you type the command exactly as shown with spaces after DISM, Online, and Cleanup-image.

4. DISM will check your PC’s system files for corruption or damage and automatically fix any problems that it finds.

Running the DISM tool generally takes 10 to 20 minutes to complete.

You may notice that at some points DISM may appear to be doing nothing. Sometimes it will appear to be stuck at 20%. This is common. Be patient and let DISM run and finish its work without interruption. If you interrupt it, it won’t repair anything, and you’ll have to start all over.



After DISM has finished running, restart your computer and run SFC (System File Checker) again to replace any remaining missing, damaged or corrupted files.

Do You Have an Android phone or an Apple iPhone? Get some apps from Microsoft
Anyone with an Android phone or iPhone

If you have an Android smartphone or an Apple iPhone, we're pretty sure you never thought of Microsoft as a place to look for interesting apps. Microsoft has a Website called Microsoft Garage where they have dozens of apps in development that you can download free. Most of these apps work on either Android phone or iPhones, but some work on both. And surprisingly, very few work on Windows.

It's an interesting site with some interesting apps including one that allows you to tell the breed of dog from a picture, and one that helps colorblind people see in color.

If you have an iPhone or and Android smartphone, take a trip to the Microsoft Garage. 

If you're using Windows 10, you can find a few apps there that will work for you as well. 

If you live in the USA like we do, you find yourself doing a lot of conversions, because the rest of the world (or most of it) does not measure things like we do here. Now I could be ethnocentric and try to convince the world they’re wrong and we’re right, but that’s getting harder and harder to do. So, I won’t.

But if you’re using Windows 10 and find yourself heading off to Google or some conversion site to convert things, let me tell you that you can convert almost anything you like without leaving Windows 10.

The calculator in Windows 10 can do a myriad of conversions with a minimum of effort, I tells ya. However, you’ll be glad to know that I’m not going to go through the entire range of conversions that Windows 10 calculator can do – it can do many. But I am going to give you a few examples, so I’m pretty sure you’ll be heading for the calculator if you have things you want to convert.

Please note: Before you drive yourself insane trying to convert U.S. Dollars (USD) to Euros (EUR), you can’t. One thing Windows 10 calculator does not do is – monetary conversion. I don’t have any to covert so it’s not a big deal. If you need to convert money, open Google and type in USD to GBP (British Pounds), or  USD to AUD (Australian dollars) or AUD to USD or NZD to USD or USD to JPY (Japanese Yen)- you get the idea.

Now that you know what the calculator can’t do, let’s see what it can do.

First you’ll need to open the Calculator. There are a lot of different ways to do just that. If you don’t see in on your Start Menu, no problem.  You can type Calculator in the search to open it. You can press Windows Key + X, click on “Run”. Then type CALC in the run box and press Enter.  You can create a shortcut to the Calculator on your desktop. Right-click on your desktop, choose “New” “Shortcut”. Copy & paste or type the following into the location dialog C:\ Windows\ System32\ calc.exe (without the spaces) . Click “Next” then give it a name. Calculator would be a nice name. You can press Windows Key + R and type CALC and press Enter. There are other ways too. And don’t worry if you type CALC, calc, or Calc – it’s not case sensitive in this case. That should be enough ways to open Calculator… I hope

If you click on the menu icon (4 horizontal bars ) you’ll see the “Converter” header with the types of conversions you can do with it. Like Volume, Length, Temperature, Distance, etc. See?

Here’s some conversions I did while playing around with the calculator this morning:

Below: 34 Kilometers equals 21.13 miles (rounded off). That’s 18.36 nautical miles, 34,000 meters or 447.4 jumbo jets.

Below: Temperature. 74 degrees F equals 23.3 C. That’s 296.5 Kelvin. 0 Kelvin is absolute zero.

Here’s an interesting one. If go to www.speedtest.net and test your speed, it’s going to be in megabits per second. So if you see you are downloading at 50 mbps that does not mean you’re downloading at 50 megabytes per second, it’s means you’re downloading at 6.25 megabytes per second. 8 megabits – 1 megabyte. The small b indicates "bits" a capital B indicates Bytes, or at least that's what EB tells me :)

Now you know how to use your Windows 10 calculator to do a lot of different conversions.

If you want to see more examples and learn why my calculator has a black background, visit this page. 

Thunderbird Themes
Everyone who uses the Thunderbird email program

If you're using Thunderbird for your email program, that's great. But did you know that Thunderbird offers a lot of great themes you can install and customize the way your Thunderbird program looks? You can and it's very to easy to install and change themes in Thunderbird.

From the menu bar in Thunderbird, click on Tools then Add-ons:

When after you click add-ons, look to lower right side of the add-ons page. You'll find "Featured Themes".

Click "See all" to  see all the available themes.

When you find a theme you like, install it and it will immediately be your Thunderbird theme. Don't worry, you can change themes quickly and easily any time you like.

To view your installed themes, or to change or remove themes, just click "Tools" "Add-ons" then click "Appearance". See?

There are dozens and dozens of themes to choose from including holiday and seasonal themes. See?

Here are some other themes I installed to try some them out. I am using the spring theme right now - I'm tired of winter! 

Above: Two Birds theme

Above: Fresh Green With Luck

Above: Airmail theme

Above: Mimosa Spring Theme

So, if you're using Thunderbird and you really want to make it yours, take at look at all the free themes for Thunderbird. You're sure to find some you like.

Don't forget! We offer Thunderbird installation and setup (maximum 3 accounts) for a very reasonable price. Visit this page for details.

Donations help us continue our mission to keep you informed, separate the truth from the hyperbole, and help you stay safer online. We provide support to thousands of people. Every week we help dozens of people via email at no charge. Thanks to donations, we do a lot more than provide this free newsletter. We help you recognize online threats, fight for your online privacy, and provide you with the knowledge you need to navigate the Web safely, and help you get more out of your PC. Help us keep up the good fight with a small donation.

It's the beginning of a new year, and we really need your support.  We hope you'll take a few minutes today and help us with a small donation. 

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Help us keep up the good fight with a small donation. 

We would really appreciate it. 

An Old Man and the Dog

I see an old man walking slowly down the sidewalk; he is walking a small dog on a leash. The old man is hunched and barely able to walk. The small brown and white dog isn't barking. He's trying to walk as slowly as the old man who is tightly holding onto the leash.
They look like good friends.

The old man is stooped and his necked is crooked so his face is pointing down at the sidewalk. He cannot straighten up. He is shuffling more than walking, and it is taking a long time for him to traverse the patch of sidewalk in front of my house. His feet are moving rapidly, but he is moving very slow. His little dog is patient, and he is trying to walk as slowly as the old man.

The air is heavy with moisture and filled with the fuzzy haze of a warm, mid-summer morning. The sun is barely visible through it - it is orange, big and partially obscured by the thin, streaked clouds that hover near the horizon.

The haze is all around.

The old man is having trouble breathing the humid, syrupy air. Every step he takes appears to be an ordeal for him.

I wonder why he is out so early in the morning. I wonder what motivates him to struggle in this warm, thick air. I wonder if he is taking the dog for a walk because he feels he has to, or because he wants to. I wonder if the dog has anything to do with this walk - other than being the old man's. I wonder if it matters at all if I wonder.

I know that this moment will melt into the mass of millions of other vague, ethereal memories that coexist in the cluttered collection - that hive of memories, both meaningless and meaningful, that are stored so miraculously somewhere in the depths of my own aging brain.

In this moment though, I am transfixed and intrigued by the old man walking his dog...

Read the rest of this essay here.

Reg Organizer - A Swiss Army Knife of Windows Utilities and Tools

Reg Organizer works on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. The newest version of Reg Organizer has newly added special tweaks for Windows 10 - including a Windows 10 Start menu fix.

Get more information and or order Reg Organizer today and SAVE!

Phrase.it

First, we're going to give credit where credit is due. This site of the week suggestion was sent to us by Ken. So, thanks to Ken for sending us this site. Those of you who try it are going to waste untold hours of time messing around with this site, so if you want to blame someone, blame Ken.. NO! Just kidding. This is a fun site that some of you are going to have tons of fun with.

What can you do with Phrase.it? You can make pictures into cartoons. For example, the founders of Cloudeight. EB giving TC a hard time. They always say the best comedy has its roots in fact. So true... so true.

You can see the full-size version of our efforts here.

Phrase.it allows you to do this with any picture. You can upload one from your device, import one from Facebook, or use a stock photo. Once you have your photo chosen, all you have to do is add your speech bubble of choice, type in some text, preview, and then save your work of art.

If you're waiting for a long, drawn-out "about us" from the developers, sorry. All you get is this:

"Free Speech Bubble Editor

Create your own comic strips online within minutes. Great looking results guaranteed, no sign-up required. "

That's it. That's all you're going to get from the developers.

Phase.it makes it easy to share your creations. You can download them or share them on social media via links you'll get as soon as you save your creations. You can choose to make yours public or keep it private.

The best way to learn more about Phrase.it is just to go there and start creating your own cartoons with the speech bubble editor. It's 100% free and looks to be 100% safe.

Just visit Phase.it to get started.

Thanks for the suggestion, Ken.

PS: If you're upset by language and / or vulgarity, please don't visit the gallery. We are pretty sure that Phase.it staffers didn't pick the photos there; they look like images created by users who decided to make them public for whatever reason. So, now you know.

Donations help us continue our mission to keep you informed, separate the truth from the hyperbole, and help you stay safer online. We provide support to thousands of people. Every week we help dozens of people via email at no charge. Thanks to donations, we do a lot more than provide this free newsletter. We help you recognize online threats, fight for your online privacy, and provide you with the knowledge you need to navigate the Web safely, and help you get more out of your PC. Help us keep up the good fight with a small donation.

It's the beginning of a new year, and we really need your support.  We hope you'll take a few minutes today and help us with a small donation. 

After you donate, you will receive info on how you can become a Cloudeight Booster.

Help us keep up the good fight with a small donation.

What is the cloud?

Did you ever see the movie "The Perfect Storm"? How about "The Wizard of Oz"? What do both of those movies have in common? Clouds! And THE CLOUD is THE CLOUD that produced the tornado the transported Dorothy to the Land of Oz (which is in the County of Oz) and also brought he cloud that ran amok and wreak havoc upon a ship (boat?) on the sea. If you're interested weather let me tell you:

There are cumulus clouds

There are nimbostratus clouds.

There are cumulonimbus clouds.

There are cumulonimbus mammatas clouds (those are really nasty)

There are stratus clouds.

There are cirrostratus clouds.

Clouds. Clouds. Clouds.

Funny thing, though. We're not talking about any of those kinds of clouds. We talking more or less about the cloud in the picture above that looks like a dollar sign, but it's just an optical illusion. The cloud is nothing more than a temperature-controlled, secure room full of hot, blinking, servers full of the money of the 21st century - information. Data. Google said that every two years we generate as much information as that the amount of information acquired from the beginning of man until 2004. That's a lot of information.

"...I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down and still somehow,
It's clouds illusions I recall,
I really don't know clouds at all..." (Joni Mitchell "Both Sides Now")

Ah but, apologies to Joni Mitchell, I do know clouds and now, and so do you.

So why is everyone all crazy about the cloud? Why were Rockefeller and Carnegie and men of their ilk ruthless and brazen? Money my friends. Back in Mr. Standard and Mr. Oil's day, things like refineries, railroads, coal mines, steel mills, and Woolworth's equaled money. Now those things do not matter. Now it's information. Information is money and power. Want proof? How in the world can a company that owns very little, produces nothing, and manufactures nothing, be the 3rd or 4th most valuable company on Earth? Information. Data. Zuckerberg.

So when you think of the cloud, don't look up, look around. The cloud is nothing but environmentally managed rooms full of servers (computers) full of information. Some of it probably about you and me.

You can use the cloud too. Dropbox, OneDrive, iDrive and many other companies offer cloud storage for personal use. Most offer a limited amount of free space. If you need more storage space you'll have to pay for it.

The cloud is useful because files you store in the cloud are available from any device, running any operating system, from anywhere. So, if you have pictures on your computer and you upload them to the cloud, you'll be able to access them from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection.

The cloud is big because the cloud is $$$. Some think that some versions Windows are going to be completely cloud-based operating systems. We'll see.

Now it looks like it's going to cloud up and snow! Better get my snow shovel ready.

Please visit our Emsisoft order page to see our new prices.

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These products and services are recommended and endorsed by Cloudeight:

Emsisoft Anti-Malware- The best anti-malware you'll find anywhere. Great protection -- both proactive and reactive. Learn more here.

Reg Organizer-- A Swiss Army knife of PC tools. Easy for beginners to use -- with advanced features for experienced users too. Learn more here.

Cloudeight Direct Computer Care - Computer Repair Service-- And for computer repair, you can't beat our remote repair service. You never have to leave your home, take your computer anywhere or leave it with someone you don't know or trust. We can fix most computer problems and all you have to do is sit back and relax. Learn more here.

Thunderbird Email Setup - we'll set up Thunderbird for you - works great with Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. Get the details here.

Windows 10 Customization - Make Windows 10 look and work the way you want it to. Get more info here.

Also.. don't forget:

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Have a great weekend!

Darcy & TC
Cloudeight InfoAve Premium - Issue #697
Volume 14 Number 18
February 17, 2017

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DISCLAIMER ABOUT THE TIPS & SOFTWARE RECOMMENDED IN THIS NEWSLETTER-- PLUS OTHER IMPORTANT INFO:
 
All software recommendations we make in this newsletter are based on our own experience and testing of the programs that we recommend. This does NOT guarantee they will work on YOUR computer. We assume you will read the program documentation and use the program according to the instructions. We make no guarantees about any program recommended in this newsletter or its suitability for any particular purpose. We will not be responsible for any problems you may have. We do not and cannot provide support for any products other than our own Cloudeight products and we will not answer email concerning any product which is not a Cloudeight product. We urge you to use good judgment when downloading and installing software and to use a program only after reading the program's documentation. And, all Tips & Tricks in this newsletter have been tested by us on several different computers and were found to work as indicated. They may not work on yours. We make no guarantees. Anything we recommend you try and use at your own risk. We will not be responsible for any problems caused by any software programs recommended in this newsletter or any of the tips and tricks in this newsletter.. Readers' comments are their own and Cloudeight Internet LLC is not responsible for comments of our readers. All readers' comments, suggestions, questions, and tips and tricks sent to us become the property of Cloudeight Internet LLC. You understand that we may use your comments without your explicit permission.

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