If you're reading this story, there's a good chance you provide tech support to your friends and family. And you may even have a few tired habits when it comes to trying to figure out what's plaguing your Windows machine. But you might want to rewatch them on the advice of Mike Danselio, a guy who knows what he's talking about. He joined Will Smith in PCWorld's latest YouTube video.
Mike did technical support for Microsoft itself back in the 90s and has more certifications than most people have a hot meal. (Not really. But no, No indeed.) And it wants you to stop using some of the required patches, such as System File Check (SFC) and Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM).
“There is no one set of steps to repair a computer,” says Mike. He argues that you should look for a specific problem rather than trying to apply one-size-fits-all remedies, which is a slightly more technical alternative to asking “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” Use symptoms and a little research to get to the root of the problem before using tools that may create more problems.
“Not even [BLEEP]I'll start with the fact that people abuse gpupdate /force”, he says in an entertaining tirade. “There is no one-size-fits-all solution. You have to identify the cause and then fix it.” Mike says DISM is especially bad at troubleshooting because it's designed to prepare a Windows image for deployment, and registry cleaners aren't likely to solve the specific problem you're trying to solve unless you know where to look.
If you're having trouble finding a solution to a problem, perhaps because you can't find the corresponding log or error message, try narrowing it down to the specific set of circumstances that caused the failure. Windows Event Viewer is useful in this context, but only if you really know how to find the relevant crash and figure out what caused it. If there are intermittent problems, you may need to inspect the equipment, replacing parts if possible.
For more tips on how to keep your computer running (and how to fix it if it's not), see subscribe to PCWorld on YouTubeand watch our weekly podcast, Total nerd.
