Practicing the Black Art (08/01)
Running System File Checker
by Vinny La Bash, vlabash@home.com
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
If your system starts to act quirky and you suspect that something is wrong with your copy of Windows 98, but you're not sure what, one of your first steps should be to run the System File Checker. Do this if you feel any uneasiness at all about your system. This program examines your system files and notifies you if it finds something that may be corrupted.
The checker is built into Windows and you activate it by clicking your mouse on Start. From there, move your mouse pointer to Programs, Accessories, System, and System Information. Finally, choose Tools, and System File Checker. (Figure 1)
To run the program, select Scan For Altered Files and click OK. If something isn't right, File Checker gives you a range of options. You can:
- Restore the file from your system installation disk..
- Update all verification information.
- Ignore it and pretend everything is OK. This should be called the "Head In The Sand Option".
Keep in mind that if you choose either 2 or 3, you are telling the System File Checker that the file is OK, and it won't be flagged again on any future system checks. Perhaps a better name would be the "Time Bomb" option.
Track Changes to Your System Files after Installing Software
This is the real strength of the tool. You can use System File Checker in combination with Notepad to track any system changes that programs make during their installation.
System File Checker creates a log after each scan, which is then appended to the previous file by default. A better option is to overwrite the log on each scan. Then print out the list of changes each program installation makes to your operating system files. Every time you install a program, follow by running System File Checker, open the log in Notepad, enter the name of the program at the top of the log, then print and save it for future reference.
Here's how to do it:
- Get System File Checker open as noted above.
- Click Start to run System File Checker.
- When the scan is finished, click OK and you will return to its main screen.
- Click the Settings button.
- Click the Settings tab and then click the View Log button to view the log in Notepad. (On the Settings tab, you will also see three options in the Log file section. These let you append to the existing log, overwrite the existing log, or create no log at all.)
6. Type the name of the program you just installed at the top of the log and then click File and Print.
Notes: A shortcut to starting System File Checker is to type SFC in the Run command on the Start menu. :
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Copyright 2001. This article is from the August 2001 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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