tweaking.com hosed the Windows GUI

[mauricev]

My user reported to me that she was having variable results on searching (this is on Windows 10 x64), so I ran the troubleshooter and it claimed that the search repository directories had incorrect permissions. I tried to fix it manually, but that wouldn't make the error go away. So I ran the latest tweaking.com.

Upon logging in after the repair, I got this screen


As you can see, all the text has been eliminated and windows don't always open to their full size and that includes menus. Indeed, with the exception of the search box, pretty much nothing works. This is true in safe mode.

I was able to run chkdsk, which found no errors. I cannot run sfc /scannow without its complaining of a Windows Resource Protection error. I had to run these checks while the disk was plugged in externally since obviously nothing can be done from within its own Windows.

[mauricev]

image tags don't seem to work. Here's a URL

https://ibb.co/b1ECrK

[Boggin]

Could it not have been something you had done that was compounded by using the repair program ?

Also, are you saying you get the same in Safe Mode ?

Have you tried booting up with install media to try the restore points ?

I've passed this on to my Support.

[mauricev]

The only thing I did to the computer manually was to change the owner of the directory supposedly containing the index repository. It initially had an "unknown owner" and I think I changed it to Administrators.

Safe Mode is the same. There is no text there either.

When I try system restore from the CD, I get the following message:

System Restore could not find the offline boot volume. Please ensure that is currently accessible.

[Boggin]

I think that error relates to the system being locked but as you were able to perform a chkdsk earlier, that may not be the case.

With the HDD in its own machine, boot up with the install media to go to the advanced boot options - select Command Prompt and enter bcdedit |find "osdevice" to see what it reports.

If it sees the volume then using that partition letter instead of the X I have exampled, enter -

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=X:\ /offwindir=X:\Windows

This cmd may or not run but for clarity, that is a Pipe symbol before find and is the uppercase of \ and note the spaces before each /

When you originally did the chkdsk and attempted the sfc /scannow, was the HDD in its own machine ?

If it sees the volume and the offboot sfc doesn't work, then you may have to go for a Reset which will keep personal stuff, but any programs will need to be reinstalled.

[mauricev]

The bcdedit command returned some cryptic UUID-style designation. I just checked C: and it's the drive with Windows, so I re-ran sfc scannow and it threw up the same resource protection error.

I'd figured whatever happened hosed the computer, but it's a bit scary that tweaking tool triggered it when it should be repairing the system. It makes me nervous to run in the future.

We already copied off the data and moved it to another computer, so this one will get reformatted. Thanks for your help.

[Boggin]

The bcdedit cmd should have just given a partition letter but if the volume was screwed then that could have been the reason for that.

It is a puzzler as to why the repair program produced the result it did - were you using the latest version as the Permissions keep changing with updates which is why Shane has to keep updating the program.

I wonder if a repair install would have fixed the original problem as it seems to have stemmed from that corruption.

Thanks for the update anyway.