Solved sfc "Cannot repair member file...Desktop.ini....file is missing"

[maxseven]

sfc "Cannot repair member file...Desktop.ini....file is missing"

No problems with my computer, but in the interest of PM after reading of problems here at 7f I ran sfc /scannow and got a whole lot of errors, every one of them related to the file Desktop.ini. Just one example from the CBS.log:

2014-11-22 11:19:45, Info                  CSI    000001ab [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:22{11}]"Desktop.ini" of Microsoft-Windows-Shell-DesktopIni-AccessoriesUser, Version = 6.1.7600.16385, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64 (9), Culture neutral, VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, file is missing

Doing a search on Desktop.ini files in C:\Windows I find only 85 of them, and it's possible (no, likely) that at some point in the past I may have seeked-and-destroyed all Desktop.ini files based on another problem, having been convinced that they were not important to the OS in any way.

I don't even know from the error how to find WHAT LOCATION THE FILE IS MISSING FROM.

I've run sfc many times but it never fixes these--does anyone know what I might do to get a clean sfc /scannow?

 

[maxseven]

Well I think I figured it out. The missing desktop.ini files are from almost 200 C:\Windows\winsxs directories where no doubt I (or some utility I used) had inadvertantly deleted them.

I can probably fix these by copying the desktop.ini files from another of my identically-OSed PCs, though I do not relish doing this manually almost 200 times.

Oh well, you live and (hopefully) you learn. Too bad the winsxs folder can't be somehow protected from these kinds of inadvertant mistakes...



EDIT: Bah, while Windows apparently let me (or a utility) delete the desktop.ini files from winsxs, it won't now allow me to copy a desktop.ini file from the companion folder on another PC. I tried changing the Security to allow Administrators to have Full Control of the folder, but got a "Access is denied" error. If anyone knows how to solve this problem I'm all ears.

 

[maxseven]

Bah, while Windows apparently let me (or a utility) delete the desktop.ini files from winsxs, it won't now allow me to copy a desktop.ini file from the companion folder on another PC. I tried changing the Security to allow Administrators to have Full Control of the folder, but got a "Access is denied" error. If anyone knows how to solve this problem I'm all ears.

Does no one here know how to deal with this inability to place a file into the winsxs directory.

 

[maxseven]

I seem always to ask the impossible questions.

I did a Windows Repair Install and now my sfc /scannow does finish with the happy result:

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

 

[homeboy]

My sfc/scannow informs me that files within the System32 folder are corrupt and the back up files are corrupt as well. It is of no help whatsoever in determining how to replace the corrupted files. Since I have Win 7 Pro 64bit with SP1 and my CD does not appear to have SP1 on it I am not able to do a repair with it. A complete re-instal is out of the question. I remember years ago that one could copy the compressed files from the instal disc .CAB files without having any difficulty. Now Windows will not allow such a procedure. Seems that as each version of Windows is released it becomes more and more impossible to manipulate. Never had this problem with DOS.

 

[maxseven]

...my CD does not appear to have SP1 on it I am not able to do a repair with it. A complete re-instal is out of the question...

I did not want to do a complete re-install either. But all you have to do is DL the correct .iso file for your OS as described in http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html. Correction: those links are no longer valid...



In my case W7HPx64 it was X17-58997.iso but you have Pro so you will need a different one.

Using the downloaded iso as either USB or DVD will likely work for you, keeping all your programs and data, though be advised that since these isos only take you to SP1, there will subsequently be hundreds of Windows Updates needed, with attendant restarts, re-checks, more updates, etc i.e. this took several hours for me to accomplish.

But it worked without my having to spend days and days (and days) as a fresh install from scratch would require.