Admin Tips
- Windows Server 2008/2003/2000/XP/NT Administrator Knowledge Base
  - Windows Vista
    - Admin Tips
      - Troubleshooting
        Resolving Problems After Applying an Update

Section(s): Troubleshooting
Published on Sep 30, 2008.
Last Modified on Jul 03, 2008.
Last Modified by Mitch Tulloch.
Rating: Not Rated

You can use System File Checker to try and resolve problems that occur after an update has been applied.

I’ve heard a few stories if people applying SP1 to Vista or some other update to Vista and suddenly something stops working. For example, one user I heard about suddenly found that his system wouldn’t detect USB flash drives after applying SP1. What can you do if this happens?

You can try running System File Checker (SFC.exe) on the affected computer. SFC is a command-line tool used with Windows File Protection (WFP) that can scan protected operating system files and verify their versions. To use SFC, open an elevated command prompt and type sfc scannow at the command prompt. This scans your protected operating system files and replaces any incorrect versions found with the correct versions of the files. And if any files can’t be replaced by SFC, you can follow the instructions in this KB article to correct the situation.

About Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch was lead author for the Windows Vista Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, which is the book for IT pros who want to deploy, maintain and support Windows Vista in mid- and large-sized network environments. Mitch was also the author of Introducing Windows Server 2008 and technical project lead for the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit, both books also from Microsoft Press. For more information on these and other books by Mitch, see www.mtit.com .