How to launch SFC programatically on Windows Vista/7/8?

Question

I\'ve been trying to solve the problem that Chris Iverson was having in this other Stackoverflow question.

I want to launch SFC (the System File

Answer 1

My experiments suggest that the issue is related to the WOW64 emulator. I have this code in a non-elevated WinForms app:

...
using System.Diagnostics;
...

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/K sfc.exe /scannow");
  startInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
  startInfo.Verb = "runas";
Process.Start(startInfo);

From a 32 bit WOW64 process this fails with this message in the console window:

Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service.

From a 64 bit process, the above code succeeds.

Indeed, I don't think .net or WinForms are relevant here at all. If I run 32 bit cmd.exe from the SysWOW64 folder, and then call sfc, I experience failure. But I am successful with the 64 bit cmd.exe.

And there's not even any need to bring cmd.exe into this at all. From a 64 bit process, running without elevation, the following succeeds:

...
using System.Diagnostics;
...

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("sfc.exe", "/scannow");
startInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
startInfo.Verb = "runas";
Process.Start(startInfo);

So I guess the solution to your problem will involve either switching your main program to 64 bit (probably a little drastic), or splicing a 64 bit process into the chain so that the 64 bit sfc can be run.