Rescue Windows System Files - SFC Utility

One of the thing that I dislike Windows as compared to Linux is the stability issues. Windows loves to crash especially if you do not restart your PC for a long period of time. It happens to me many times already. Most of the cases, what I do is to re-install my windows. I have been doing this once a year in average.

What the heck yesterday, it happened to me again. 2 of my main applications (i.e. MS office, Citrix Client) cannot run at all after I restarted my PC. It has some kind of "dynamic dll link error". I try the system restore point, it didn't help at all. Ok, never mind, I re-installed one by one to fix the problems.

However, I'm happy too fast. I got the following RUNDLL error message when I run the system properties from control panel:

"An exception occurred while trying to run "C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL "C:\WINDOWS\system32\sysdm.cpl", System"



It seems like the sysdm.cpl is corrupted and I have no choice to reinstall the OS. I hate windows! I almost give up until I find a utility called "SFC" - System File Checker I guess. It is the utility that comes together with Windows. It able to rescue all the protected system files. What you need to do is to run the following command in your command prompt:

• sfc /scannow

You need to put your original Windows OS CD into the drive and the SFC will do the rest. After running the SFC utility, the problem above doesn't occur anymore. Oh, thanks I learn one new thing today that I no need to reinstall the whole OS for system files corruption (which I used to do) to save my little baby. It saves me a lot of time too (i.e. time to install the OS and all the applications). Hope this is something helpful to you, perhaps not now but in future.

Few tips and trick:

1. Restart your PC at least once a week
2. Run "chkdsk" at least once a week
   
3. If windows system files corrupted, try use system restore point.
4. If it doesn't work, try the SFC utility.

This is assuming your PC is not attacked by virus or hackers. This is assuming your PC is attacked by himself (Windows OS) - self destructive mode. I'm just kidding. Good luck!

100 Reasons to Use Vista

Microsoft posted a web page with 100 reasons why everyone's so speechless. It basically give 100 reasons why Vista is so amazing and why people should upgrade to Vista? This is so amazing that they can come up with 100 reasons. For me, I only able find 2 reasons as stated in my previous post on whether we should upgrade to Vista or not.

First reason is Windows Aero. It is a very cool UI feature, it gives the feel of Macintosh. But remember it eats performance and your battery life (if you're using laptop). Based on some reviews on Windows Aero's performance, it consume 4-5% more power than XP. So if power and performance is not a top priority concern, Windows Aero is cool.

Second reason is the security. I feel better with the User Account Control and it gives me peace of mind from hackers or intruders.

Oppss... that's all I can come up with. Are those 100 reasons crap? Are these 100 reasons the key feature? Do we really need them? or it is just something not essential? I don't know, you tell me. Feel free to let me know if you have any "real" reason to upgrade to Vista in your personal opinion.