Month: October 2010

SFC (System File Checker) is a very useful command to check the integrity of all the protected system files in Windows 7 and Vista and replaces any corrupt, changed or missing system files (including DLL files) to correct versions (undamaged versions), if possible.

Even though there are several switches available under the SFC command, the sfc scannow is the most used command. If SFC can’t fix the corrupted system files, then you need to consider other options like using a recovery, reinstalling  Windows, restoring from backup, or restoring to an earlier system restore point.

Here is the step-by-step guide on using the SFC /scannow command tool in Windows 7 or Windows Vista:

Steps:

1. Click Start button, type “cmd” in the start button, right-click on the “cmd.exe” and select “Run as administrator” to run the command prompt in elevated or administrator mode.

2. Type the following command in the command prompt and hit enter:

sfc /scannow

3. Now the toll will run a verification of integrity of every protected operating system file. Wait until the system scan is finished. This usually takes 5-10 minutes.

4. When the scan is finished, you will “Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations” message when it doesn’t find any corrupted files.

On the other hand, if it does find any corrupt files, it will automatically (if it’s possible) repair them. Restart your computer once the repairing process by the SFC tool gets over (as indicated in the command prompt). Please note that if the System File Checker (SFC) finds any integrity violations and fixes them, you should restart your computer immediately even if you are not prompted to do so.

Run the sfc / scannow command once again (after restarting your PC) to see if all the corrupted system files have been repaired.

The SFC command writes the log to CBS.log file found in C:> Windows > Logs > CBS.

When To Use The SFC Tool ?

When any Windows Resource Protection (WRP) file goes missing or corrupted, your Windows behaves in an odd manner. Windows functions may not work or entire Windows may crash unexpectedly. Run the SFC tool in such situations to repair any missing or corrupted system files.

Windows 7 can show desktop shortcuts for any program (you can add as many as you can), but by default shows the following:

Computer, User file’s folder, Network, Recycle Bin (full), Recycle Bin (empty)

Windows shows some default icons for “My Computer” (Computer in Windows 7) and “Recycle Bin” and other shortcuts on the desktop as shown:

If you want to change these icons and add your own icons, follow these instructions:

Steps:

1. Right-click on empty space and choose “Personalize”:

2. A new Personalization window opens up. Click “Change desktop icons” link in the window.

3. Select the item for which you want to change the desktop icon (example; Computer, Recycle Bin etc., ) and click on “Change Icon”.

4. In the next step, choose an icon from the list of the icons available already or you can even browse for icons in your computer. You can also create your own icon using the many freeware software available on the internet.

You are done! Check the desktop icon back and it should reflect the change as shown:

You can change desktop icons for the any of the five items discussed at the beginning of this post. Mean while if you are facing problems with broken icons on your desktop, read this post to fix the broken icons.

Windows 7 hides the extensions of the files by default to keep t simple. However you can easily know the extension of any file just by looking at its icon. However, it may sometimes can get as bad as it can, suppose an attacker copies an .exe file to your computer and renames it as something catchy like “sensational-pic.jpg.exe”, now as Windows 7 doesn’t show the file extensions, all you will see is “sensational-pic.jpg” (.exe part would be hidden!)which might falsely lead you to think it as a picture and click it all just to run the whatever code the attacker has injected into the program.

And I guess I have convinced to find out a way to show the file extensions in your Windows 7 . That’s why I’m writing a step-by-step tutorial to explain to show the file name extensions that had been set to be hidden by default.

Steps:

1. Open My Computer (Use Alt + E button).

2. Click Organize button, select “Folder and search options from menu”.

3. In the Folder Options window, go to “View” tab.

4. Under the View tab, uncheck “Hide extensions for known file types”.

5. Click Apply to save the settings and then click OK to close the window.

Alright, you have now changed the settings to enable the file extensions. Here is what the change would be like:

Before:

Guess what type of file it is?

After enabling file extensions:

It is an image file! It is evident after changing the settings to show the extensions for file types. The only problem that you might face is during renaming the file, except that you shouldn’t be having too many issues with these settings enabled. To hide the file extensions, just check against “Hide extensions for known file types” in the step 4.