Are you getting lots of errors when you log into Windows 10? Are you not able to open the Start menu or File Explorer? If so, it may be time to repair Windows 10 with an in-place upgrade.

Sometimes repairing Windows 10 can be a challenging endeavor. I once had a Windows 10 system, and the right-click mouse function would only work in certain situations.

Another time, I had a Windows 10 system that File Explorer and the Start menu would not work. This was one of those times when you think that you are going to have to wipe the drive and do a clean installation of Windows 10.

However, in both cases, I was able to repair Windows 10 while keeping all of the user's documents, settings, and installed programs. I just performed an in-place upgrade of Windows 10.

Remember that if you start the in-place upgrade by booting your computer up on the Windows 10 installation media, you will only get the option of saving your documents. To preserve the installed programs, you need to start the in-place upgrade from inside Windows 10.

Now performing an in-place upgrade is not hard. There are two ways of performing the in-place upgrade: create the Windows 10 installation media using a USB drive or blank DVD disk or create a virtual DVD drive.

All you need to do is either download the Windows 10 installation media as an ISO file or create a USB or DVD with the Windows 10 installation. If you can access the Internet and download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool, great. If not, you will need to use another computer with Internet access to download the Windows 10 ISO file or make an installation USB.

You do not have to be upgrading to a newer version of Windows 10 (22H2 to 23H2) for this to work. You can upgrade to the same version (23H2 to 23H2), which is more of a repair installation.

Now you never want to use an older version of the Windows 10 media, like the one you created a couple of years ago, to do an in-place upgrade. You will always want to download the latest version directly from Microsoft using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool.

To make the media, you will need either a blank DVD or a USB flash drive that is at least 8GB in size. Remember that if you use a USB flash drive, it will be reformatted, and everything on it will be erased. If you have used the USB drive for anything else, you may want to copy the data off of it before using it for the Windows 10 installation media.

Once you get the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool downloaded, all you have to do is double-click the file to run it. It is a stand-alone program, and it does not require any installation.

The first screen that comes up is the legal stuff; just click on Accept. On the next screen, you will have to choose what you want to do.

Select Create installation media for another PC and click on Next.

On the next screen, you will select the language, architecture, and edition.

Since you are creating media that could be used for another computer, make sure the Use the recommended options for this PC checkbox is deselected. The majority of users in the US will select the following settings:

• Language: English (If you use a different language, select it from the pull-down menu)
• Edition: Windows 10
• Architecture: 64-bit (x64)

When you are finished selecting the language, architecture, and edition, click on Next. The next screen will ask you what media you want to use.

If you select the USB flash drive option, make sure you have the USB flash drive inserted into a USB port on the computer.

If you select the ISO file option, you will be prompted for the file name and location. If you want to make a DVD, you will need to choose the ISO file option and then burn it onto a blank DVD. Here is how to go about burning the ISO file to a DVD. If you want to mount the ISO file as a virtual DVD:

1. Open File Explorer by using one of the following:
   • Left-click on the Manila folder icon to the Taskbar.
   or
   • Press the Windows logo key + E at the same time.
   • Navigate to the ISO image you just downloaded..
   • Right-click on it and select Mount on the context menu that appears. Windows 10 will automatically assign the next available drive letter.

Once you have the Windows 10 installation media ready, either Virtual DVD, DVD, or USB drive, you will have to start the installation, if it didn't automatically start when you mounted/inserted the media.

Then, open File Explorer, navigate to the virtual DVD, DVD, or USB flash drive, right-click on the setup.exe program, and select Run as administrator.

The Windows 10 installer will then start.

You will be prompted to download Windows 10 updates, drivers, and optional features. Since you are doing an in-place upgrade, I recommend waiting until the installation is finished before doing any updates.

The next screen you will get is the license agreement. Just click Accept in the lower right-hand corner and continue with the in-place upgrade. Finally, you will get to the screen that asks what you want to keep. Make sure that Keep personal files and apps are selected, and then select Install in the lower right-hand corner.

The in-place upgrade will take some time, and your computer could restart a few times before it is complete. When it is done, your version of Windows 10 should be completely repaired and good as new.

In the examples I talked about earlier, I could not get the right-click function to work or could not get the Start menu or File Explorer to open at all. However, there is another way of starting the in-place upgrade, which is using Task Manager.

How to start the repair installation using Task Manager

Sometimes the only way to run a program is to use Task Manager. It is a simple, down, and dirty way of running a program with administrative privileges. And we want to use admin privileges to run the setup.exe program.

1. Press the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys all at the same time (the 3-finger salute).
   
   You will get a screen that has several selections. Click on Task Manager.
2. The Task Manager program will appear next.
   
   If it says There are no running apps, click on the More details arrow in the bottom left-hand corner. This will bring up all of the running processes.
3. Click on the File drop-down menu in the upper left-hand corner of Task Manager
   
   and select Run new task.
4. The Create a new task dialog box will appear.
   
   Click on the Browse .. button in the lower right-hand corner.
5. Using the Browse dialog box, navigate to the drive with the Windows 10 installation files (either DVD or USB flash drive),
   
   select setup.exe and then click Open.
6. This will bring you back to the Create new task dialog box, and the path to the setup.exe program will be in the Open field.
   
   Make sure that the Create this task with administrative privileges checkbox is selected. Then click on OK.
7. The Windows 10 installer will now start. Just follow the steps outlined previously in this article for the rest of the in-place upgrade.

Nobody likes to have to reinstall Windows. Nobody. Finding or creating the recovery/installation media and finding or reading the product key from the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) has been a significant headache. But with the Windows 10 installation media, things just got a whole lot easier.

There may come a day when you may need to repair or reinstall Windows 10. In previous versions of Windows, you had to create the manufacturer's branded recovery disks or use the hidden recovery partition to reinstall Windows. Or maybe you were one of the lucky ones that got an OEM disk. Either way, you had to have the original operating system installation media from the manufacturer to perform a reinstallation.

The huge problem was a lot of people didn't know they needed to make the recovery disks. They only found out after their drives crashed. At that point, they have only two choices: contact the manufacturer to find out if they sell the recovery disks. Some do, some don't. However, the cost for replacement recovery disks will be less than the second option, which is to purchase a new installation disk.

If you're one of the millions who have upgraded from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 online, you now have a digital license. You can use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft to create either a bootable USB drive or an ISO file. You can then use the ISO file to create an installation DVD. And the cool thing is that you can make the installation media on another Windows 10 computer, just in case your computer does not boot.

All you need for hardware is a USB drive (8GB or larger) or DVD burner and a blank single-side or double-side DVD. What you need to know about your version of Windows 10 is the language, edition (Home, Pro, etc.), and architecture (32-bit or 64-bit). Most consumers use the Home edition, as the Pro edition does cost more. Unless you specifically order your computer with the Pro edition or your computer is part of a domain, it's probably the Home edition. And most computers nowadays run 64-bit versions of Windows.

The next thing is the product key. In previous Windows versions, when you installed the operating system, the product key was stored on the drive. With Windows 10, when installing the operating system, the product key is stored on the cloud. So, if you are doing a clean/repair installation and Windows 10 has already been activated on that specific computer, you will not need to enter a product key when prompted. You can click on the I don't have a product key link, and Windows 10 will automatically activate when it gets online. It's one of the coolest features of Windows 10 that you hope you will never have to use.

For more information on the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft, follow the link below.

Windows 10 Media Creation Tool

I was thinking the other day about what program I use the most when doing computer repair. The one program I use the most on Windows computers would have to be System File Checker (SFC). SFC checks for system files that may have gotten corrupted or replaced with incorrect versions. Here's how to check Windows 10 system files with System File Checker.

SFC has been included inside Windows since Windows XP and is a CLI (Command-Line Interpreter) program, meaning you must use an Administrative Command Prompt / PowerShell to run it.

Open a Command Prompt with Administrator privileges in Windows 10

1. Left-click on the Start button.
2. Scroll down the program list and then left-click on the Windows System folder to expand.
3. Right-click on Command Prompt.
4. On the context menu that appears, hover your cursor over More and then left-click on Run as administrator. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Open PowerShell with Administrator privileges in Windows 10

1. Right-click on the Start button to bring up the Power User menu.
2. Left-click on Windows PowerShell (Admin). If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

When you have an Admin Command Prompt or PowerShell open, you must type SFC and a combination of syntax and switch(s). The most commonly used syntax/switch is SFC /scannow. Here is a complete list of syntax/switches for SFC.

SFC [/SCANNOW] [/VERIFYONLY] [/SCANFILE=<file>] [/VERIFYFILE=<file>] [/OFFWINDIR=<offline windows directory> /OFFBOOTDIR=<offline boot directory>]

/SCANNOW (Scans integrity of all protected system files and repairs files with problems when possible)
/VERIFYONLY (Scans integrity of all protected system files. No repair operation is performed)
/SCANFILE (Scans integrity of the referenced file, repairs file if problems are identified. Specify full path <file>)
/VERIFYFILE (Verifies the file's intergrity with full path <file>. No repair operation is performed)
/OFFBOOTDIR (For offline repair specify the location of the offline boot directory)
/OFFWINDIR (For offline repair specify the location of the offline Windows directory)

Examples

sfc /scannow sfc /verifyfile=c:\windows\filetobereplaced.dll sfc /scanfile=d:\windows\filetobereplaced.dll /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows sfc /verifyonly

Once SFC is done scanning the system files, it will give one of four possible results:

• Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
  All system files are fine, and you're good to go.
• Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.
  There may be another program preventing SFC from running. In this case, boot the system into safe mode and run SFC from there.
• Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
  All system files are now correct, and you're ready to go. If you want to view the repair details, see below.
• Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
  If you get this message, SFC found a file or files it couldn't repair. The next thing you will need to do is find the name of the file(s). Using the Find String utility, you can filter out the SFC results with only the scanned components and create a text file with that information on your Desktop called sfcdetails.txt. Just copy the following code into an Administrative Command Prompt (it will not run using PowerShell) and press Enter.

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"

Manually replacing a corrupt system file in Windows 10

Note: To replace a corrupt system file, you must have a known good copy of the file(s) in question. Another computer or virtual machine running Windows 10 is a good source for files. Since I do computer repair for a living, I have all Windows versions that are still supported by Microsoft running inside of Oracle VirtualBoxes.

The first thing to do is note the location (path) and name of the file(s) that must be replaced from the sfcdetails.txt file. Once you have another copy of the corrupt file(s), you will need to take administrative ownership of the file(s). To do this, modify the following command with the path\filename of the file you want to replace and then type it into an Administrative Command Prompt:

takeown /f path\filename

Example: takeown /f C:\Windows\FileToBeReplaced.dll

Next, you will have to grant administrators full access to the file(s) being replaced. To do this, modify the following command with the path\filename of the file you want to replace and then type it into an Administrative Command Prompt:

icacls path\filename /grant administrators:F

Example: icacls C:\Windows\FileToBeReplaced.dll /grant administrators:F

The third thing to do is copy over the new file(s) and replace the corrupt one(s).To do this, modify the following command with the path\filename of the file you want to replace and then type it into an Administrative Command Prompt:

copy path\filename path\filename

Example: copy C:\Temp\FileToBeReplaced.dll C:\Windows\FileToBeReplaced.dll