[This blog post was originally published on June 15, 2016 on MSDN.]
System File Checker (SFC) is a built-in command-line utility you can use to find and repair missing and corrupted files. The tool is available on all Windows platforms, including all the supported embedded systems.
There are several options (switches) you can use with SFC, however, this post will only discuss the following:
- /scanfile
- /verifyfile
- /verifyonly
- /scannow
The /scannow option is not recommended because it may return false positives for corruption*. Instead, we recommend that you use sfc /scanfile, sfc /verifyfile, or sfc /verifyonly. With these options, you’ll need to provide the full path to the file you want to check.
*Use of /scannow may also indicate that corrupted files have been fixed. However, subsequent scans will still show these files as corrupted.