Windows 11 24H2 repair issues

[William Bristow]

Bill.

I'm not a great fan of Windows restore as it has mixed success rates, depending on the integrity of Windows own internal backup at the time of the initial problem, and after such an event I would normally start again with a clean install of Windows, or a restore from an independent disk clone image which I know to be good.

If you don't want to start with a clean install then at least verify that the Windows restore has not created a load of problems by opening an elevated Command Prompt window (type "CMD" in the Windows search box and select Command Prompt - System then choose "Run as administrator").

At the command prompt type (without the quotes): "sfc /scannow" (that is "sfc"<space><forward stroke>"scannow") and hit enter then wait for the system scan to complete, this may take up to an hour depending on the size of the hard drive and the amount of data stored.

Provided that when the scan completes it reports that either no problems or issues were found, or issues were found and were repaired successfully then go to the next step below, if the scan reports that issues or problems were found that could not be repaired then the only solution is a clean install of Windows, unless you can find a Windows administrator who can dig deeper into the Windows system and repair the problems manually.

Hopefully the sfc scan report was favourable in which case at the command prompt type (without the quotes) : "dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth"
(that is "dism.exe”<space<forward stroke>"online"<space><forward stroke>"cleanup-image"<space> <forward stroke>"restorehealth”) and hit enter to start a Wndows OS check and repair.

Provided that the DISM scan reports success then exit the Command window, reboot the PC and then manually trigger a check for Windows updates.

As before, if the DISM scan reports that windows was damaged and could not be repaired then the simplest solution is to start with a clean install of Windows.

If you type in a web browser search box for SFC SCANNOW and DISM you'll find dozens of webpages and videos describing how these built-in Windows tools are used.

If the SFC and DISM scans were both successful and the check for Windows Updates went ok then run the installers for all your astro apps starting with MaxIm and FocusMax and choose the "repair" option or the "re-install" option where offered, then for MaxIm and FocusMax you'll need to start those once by mouse-right-click and choose "Run as administrator". After those apps were opened "As Administrator" and left to run for a minute or two, close them again and then re-run the installer for ACP and Scheduler normally and choose the repair option.

Do the same steps for your other astronomy applications then reboot the PC one last time and test to see if everything is fixed.

If you are successful in resolving the issue then consider backing up your PC to an external hard drive (not an SSD) using a free or paid-for disk cloning app, and when the system is fully working again make a disk clone image to restore from so that you can avoid this the next time that a Windows update breaks the system and simply restore the PC from the clone.

HTH

William.