How to Use SFC SCANNOW Command in Windows 11 - October 2025

1. Go to Windows Desktop

2. Click the Start button

3. In the Start menu, type CMD and wait for the Command Prompt icon to appear.

4. In Start menu, look at the right pane of the menu and search for the Run as administrator sentence. Click on the sentence and wait for Windows UAC prompt to appear.

5. Click the YES button in Windows UAC menu and wait for Command Prompt to load.

6. In the Command Prompt window type: “sfc /scannow” and hit the ENTER key.

7. After hitting the ENTER key a sentence will appear in the row below. The sentence would say: “Beginning system scan. This process will take some time..”

8. A few seconds after the latter sentence appears, a progress indicator should appear as well saying : “Verification 1% complete”.

9. Wait until the percentage reaches 100.

10. After the progress indicator shows 100% a new sentence in the row below will appear saying either:
     a. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations – that means there were no errors in the system.
     b. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them – this means that Some files were damaged but fixed.
     c. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them – this means that Corruption detected but not repaired.
     d. Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation – this means that Scan couldn’t complete (offline repair or file system problem).