Messed up Windows not working fully

[nitsua101]

I was trying to make room on my SSD so I tried delete some stuff from an old username that didn't show up anymore I thought it was just left over. Nope! I don't know what I deleted but my menu bar doesn't work I can't left or right click or click on the windows Icon or access it thru the windows key. I cant Left Click on anything related to windows explorer.

After freaking out I tried to restore the folder from file history most of it worked but some of the files said it was missing. I went into safe mode and restored files from there as well but then i could get out of boot mode the run feature wasn't working. after finally getting back to normal mode I realized it didn't do much other than give me back my background pictures. I don't know what else to do I tried following this Link which game me the ability to left click on my menu bar and windows icon again.

I am pretty lost on what I need to do I have no restore point before I did this which I realized I should of before trying to delete a lot of files. I can use the rest of my computer just fine I can watch youtube but i don't really want to do much that try to figure this out before I try something more demanding.

 

[Colif]

did you do this step?

In this latter case, type (or copy and paste) DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth into the PowerShell window and press the [Return] key. This will download files from Windows Update to replace the corrupt ones and, again, this may take some time.

if not, give it a try and then rerun sfc /scannow

if it didn't help, you could try a reset but it will mean installing all your programs again.

how much access do you have? can you copy files etc? might want to back up anything you can't afford to lose. If you can't access files at all, try http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/

if you have access to settings, choose settings/update & security/recovery/reset this PC
can save files/settings (files = library folders), or wipe it all
aftyer you choose, win 10 will restart and reinstall self

if you can't access settings,
On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB
change boot order so USB is first, hdd second
boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose reset this PC - same choices available as above

 

[nitsua101]

did you do this step?

In this latter case, type (or copy and paste) DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth into the PowerShell window and press the [Return] key. This will download files from Windows Update to replace the corrupt ones and, again, this may take some time.

I did not do this step afterwards powershell cam back with this.

Error: 0x800f081f

The source files could not be found.
Use the "Source" option to specify the location of the files that are required to restore the feature. For more information on specifying a source location, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=243077.

The DISM log file can be found at C:\WINDOWS\Logs\DISM\dism.log
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

I can copy files but i cannot access setting as far as i know i would just press windows key and search for settings. I can right click on windows icon and can access everything on that menu except for search.

I forgot about the repair with a boot device I'll have to try that out

 

[Colif]

Are you on the anniversary edition of win 10? Did you get a update in last 2 months that restarted several times and took at least 40 minutes?

If so, do this:
Download a copy of the win 10 iso from Here - create ISO by telling it you want to make DVD - and then mount that ISO in file explorer (see Here) and then copy paste the below command into powershell

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:WIM:X:\Sources\Install.wim:1 /LimitAccess
Where "X" is the drive letter where the ISO is located. Simply change the "X" to the correct drive letter

once its run, redo an SFC /scannow and restart PC

 

[nitsua101]

No, I upgraded from windows 8.1 maybe 6 months ago.

 

[Colif]

right click start button
choose run...
type winver and press enter

what version is showing here? If its 1607 then you can do the advice above. If its not 1607, then the dism source command won't work as the ISO needs to be same version of windows as you have installed

BTW, reset won't work all that well as DISM cleans the image that Win 10 would use to reset PC and if its corrupted now, your new install would be as well. If that is case, a fresh install is best approach.

 

[nitsua101]

It says version 1511. Which I guess means I would just be better off doing a whole new install then?

or would a repair work too?

 

[Colif]

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB
change boot order so USB is first, hdd second
boot from installer
run the installer and do an inplace upgrade, that will essentially install a brand new version of win 10 over top of your current one and may be all you need to fix it.

 

[Colif]

note: you can use the media creation tool itself to run the update if you want

 

[nitsua101]

It doesn't look like it change anything nothing that I can see. I did redo the

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

no error message came up that time also it now says I am on version 1607.

Since it now says 1607 I tried

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:WIM:X:\Sources\Install.wim:1 /LimitAccess

I got an error

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.14393.0

Image Version: 10.0.14393.0


Error: 1910

The object exporter specified was not found.

The DISM log file can be found at C:\WINDOWS\Logs\DISM\dism.log
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

 

[Colif]

According to Microsoft the answer to the last error is this: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/wiki/insider_wintp-insider_install/how-to-perform-a-repair-upgrade-using-the-windows/35160fbe-9352-4e70-9887-f40096ec3085 which seems odd as its similar to what you have done before.

You might have to bite bullet and do fresh install, after backing everything up first.

 

[nitsua101]

I think I might have to fresh install because now when I start up everything is black. I have do press clt - alt - delete then run powershell and sfc /scannow for my desktop to show up.

Before I do I have a question I moved all of my user folders (desktop, documents, videos) to another hdd when I re install and move those folders again will windows see those there and use them?

 

[Colif]

if the other hdd is always in PC, just leave them where they are and you can redirect the location of the folders using file explorer. I have all my library folders on my 2tb hdd as then if i need to reinstall I don't have to worry about losing them all.

Otherwise, yes you can copy the folders back over and set windows to use them in next install.

I am not sure about desktop though, you can do it with documents, music, videos, etc. Desktop might be special as you still need to reinstall all the programs for them to work. Can also copy any steam folder you may have and reuse it too.

 

[nitsua101]

Cool thanks for all the help. Best part of all of this is I could of deleted the windows.old folder to make room -_-