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How to repair your Windows 10 image with DISM

How to repair your Windows 10 image with DISM

Want to scan and repair your Windows 10 image using DISM but don’t know how to do it? Read this article and you’ll be able to do it easily!

If you notice that your PC begins to be more and more buggy on Windows 10, or if you often bump into some annoying errors or crashes when using your PC, maybe it’s time to scan and repair your Windows 10 image. With DISM, the command line tool in Windows 10, you can fix these issues easily!

What is DISM?

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) is a command line tool built into Windows 8 and later versions of Windows system. It’s available from Windows Powershell or the Command Prompt. It is often used to service and prepare Windows images. As a nifty tool, it can also be used to scan and repair the Windows image.

To scan and repair your Windows 10 image with DISM

Scanning and repairing your windows 10 image with DISM can bring you lots of benefits. It will check if your system files are modified or corrupted. What’s more, DISM will try to repair those corruptions to maintain the health of your Windows system. So, you will reduce and even avoid lots of error messages and crashes.

1) On your keyboard, press the Windows Logo Key and R at the same time to open the Run dialog. Type cmd and then press Ctrl, Shift, and Enter on your keyboard at the same time to run the Command Prompt as administrator. You will be prompted for permission. Click Yes to run the Command Prompt.

2) On your keyboard, type the command lines below one by one and press Enter.

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
When you run the command mentioned above, DISM will scan all the system files and compare them with official system files. The function of this command line is to see if the system file on your PC is consistent with its official source or not. This command line doesn’t fix the corruption.

Note:
It may take several minutes for this command operation to be completed.

3) On your keyboard, type the command lines below one by one and press Enter.

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
When you run the command line “Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth”, DISM will check whether your Windows 10 image exists corruptions or not. This command line also doesn’t repair the corrupted files.

Note:
It may take several minutes for this command operation to be completed.

4) On your keyboard, type the command lines below one by one and press Enter.

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
The command line “Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth” tells DISM to try to repair the corrupted files detected. It will replace the corrupted files with the files from official source online.

Note: It may take several minutes for this command operation to be completed.

If you want to repair an online image using some of your own sources, you can also type the command line below and press Enter to repair your windows 10 image.

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:c:\test\mount\windows /LimitAccess

Note: It may take several minutes for this command operation to be completed.

5) Close the Command Prompt when the restore operation completed.

Other useful tips for DISM in Windows 10

As a powerful tool, the use of DISM in windows 10 is far beyond these mentioned above. For example, you can use DISM to back up and restore your drivers.

To back up your drivers:

1) Create a new folder to save your drivers backup later. In this example, we’ll create a folder on the D drive and name it as DriversBackup.

2) On your keyboard, press the Windows Logo Key and R at the same time to open the Run dialog. Type cmd and then press Ctrl, Shift, and Enter on your keyboard at the same time to run the Command Prompt as administrator. You will be prompted for permission. Click Yes to run the Command Prompt.

3) Type the command line below and press Enter.

dism /online /export-driver /destination:D:\DriversBackup

Note: Remember to replace “D: \DriversBackup” for the path to the backup folder you created on your PC if you didn’t create the folder on the D drive. For example, if you created the backup folder in E drive and named it as BackupDrivers, you should type the command line dism /online /export-driver /destination:E: \BackupDrivers instead.

Note: It may take several minutes for this command operation to be completed.

To restore your drivers:

1) On your keyboard, press the Windows Logo Key and R at the same time to open the Run dialog. Type cmd and then press Ctrl, Shift, and Enter on your keyboard at the same time to run the Command Prompt as administrator. You will be prompted for permission. Click Yes to run the Command Prompt.

2) Type the command line below and press Enter.

dism /online /Add-Driver /Driver:D:\DriversBackup /Recurse

Note: Remember to replace “D: \DriversBackup” for the path to the backup folder you created on your PC if you didn’t create the folder on the D drive. For example, if you created the backup folder in E drive and named it as BackupDrivers, you should type the command line dism /online /Add-Driver /Driver:E:\BackupDrivers /Recurseinstead.

Note: It may take several minutes for this command operation to be completed.

For more information

If you want to view all the DISM options and their arguments, you can follow the instructions below:

1) On your keyboard, press the Windows Logo Key and R at the same time to open the Run dialog. Type cmd and then press Ctrl, Shift, and Enter on your keyboard at the same time to run the Command Prompt as administrator. You will be prompted for permission. Click Yes to run the Command Prompt.

2) Type the command line dism /? and press Enter.

If you want to know more about DISM command-line options in Windows 10, you can view Windows 10 DISM Command-Line Options in Hardware Dev Center to learn some other useful DISM command-line options on your own! If you have any questions about DISM in Windows 10, please leave us a comment below.

By Justin Zeng

Justin is a technical writer. As a Microsoft 365 Certified: Modern Desktop Administrator Associate, he loves exploring new technologies and writing technical how-to tips to help people fix their computer / phone issues. When he's not writing, there's a 99 percent chance he's reading, playing video games or listening to music.

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