Windows 10 and 11 tune up - fixing PC issues

If you've experienced unreliable operation of your PC, it may be time to do some maintenance.

Here are 5 things that you should know how to do "BUCSD":
1) Backup
2) Update
3) Check Disk
4) System File Check
5) Deployment Image Servicing and Management

Do your homework on these things, read up on how they work, and implement them with due care.
We're not responsible for anything that goes wrong - this article is merely some guidance to help you.

1) Backup
At a minimum, you should backup your Documents folder. This will save your MaxIm Settings.
Copy it onto an external drive.

It is probably best to do a proper back of your machine.
Here's an article from Microsoft on how to use Windows 10 backup:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...ndows-10-352091d2-bb9d-3ea3-ed18-52ef2b88cbef

2) Update:
1. Run Windows Update a few times.
If it does any updates, or offers you an update, I suggested you proceed with it.
Windows 10 20H2 has been very stable to date.
After it is done, reboot the PC.
Repeat this step a couple times - sometimes Windows waits a bit before offering additional updates.
The reboot will usually complete this cycle and get ready for the next.

3) Check Disk
This will scan the entire hard disk, fix any errors, and try to recover any bad sectors on the disk. It will take quite a few minutes.

1. Open a Command Prompt with Run as Administrator. Here's the easy way:
Press the Windows key + X and click on Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows Powershell (Admin) to open the Elevated Command Prompt.
It may ask for permission, so agree.

2. Type:
chkdsk /f /r
and press Enter.
It will likely ask you to reboot the machine in order to do this. Agree.

3. It may give you a message like this:
C:\> chkdsk /f/r
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Press Y and Enter.
Then reboot your machine.
It will run for a while, scanning and fixing the file system on the disk, and trying to fix any disk drive errors.

After it finishes, the system will come up.
You can check the results in Event Viewer.

Application logs - look for Wininit (short for Windows Initialization).
See the green oval - look for the following text:
Checking file system on C:
and scroll down - you should see a message like this if all is well now:
Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

4) Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
This tool will check that the operating system files are in a correct state.

a. Open a Command Prompt with Run as Administrator.
Press the Windows key + X and click on Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows Powershell (Admin) to open the Elevated Command Prompt.
Type:
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
and press the Enter key.

Again, this will take a while.

5) System File Checker
If the Windows operating system is corrupted, there is a utility called SFC that will scan and attempt to repair the errors.

a. Open a Command Prompt with Run as Administrator.
Press the Windows key + X and click on Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows Powershell (Admin) to open the Elevated Command Prompt.
Type:
SFC.exe /scannow
and press the Enter key.

This will take a few minutes, and will try to repair any faults that it finds.
Once it is done, reboot.
It keeps a log usually in here:
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

6) Bonus Round:
Ok, so you made it this far.
Some other tools we've found helpful:

Intel Driver and Support Assistant:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html
This tool will scan your machine, and report on any updates for Intel device drivers, including Intel video card drivers, networking, chipset, and more. Very handy.

AMD Radeon and Ryzen Support:
https://www.amd.com/en/support
The tools here can check for the latest AMD/ATI video card and system drivers.

NVIDIA Support:
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
Graphics / video card driver updates for NVIDIA GeForce and their other cards are here.