How Fixyfier Works

Fixyfier is one window: a rail of screens on the left, a bar across the top, and the selected screen filling the rest. Every task is a card. Nothing on the PC is changed until you press something, and every change shows you its exact command before it happens.

The window

The rail on the left lists every screen, top to bottom:

• Dashboard
• Favorites
• Fix & Repair
• Cleanup & Optimize
• System Tools
• Windows Tools
• Security & Privacy
• Network & Connectivity
• Updates
• Files & Folders
• Installed Apps
• Processes & Services, with Processes and Services on two tabs at the top.
• Scripts
• Answers
• Troubleshooting Guides

Updates

Fixyfier is updated through the Microsoft Store. A minute after it starts, at most once a day, it asks the Store in the background whether a newer version is waiting for you. When one is, a window says so, with what is new in that version only, and Update in the Store opens Fixyfier’s page in the Store, where the update is one click. Later closes it; the same version is not announced again. The window waits while a task runs, while another dialog is open, and while Fixyfier is minimized.

Cards, switches and choices

Every card has a title and a short description, and one of three controls:

• A Run button, for a task: a command, a repair, a report or a window to open.
• A switch, for a setting that is either on or off.
• A row of buttons, for a setting with more than two positions.

Running several tasks together

Select Tasks, at the top right of a screen, puts a tick box on every card that can be a routine step. Tick tasks on as many screens as you like, then choose Run Selected to run them one after another in a single run window, or Cancel to leave without running anything. It works like a routine you do not save: the same steps are offered, they run in the same fixed order, with the same confirmation and restore point, and up to 24 can run together. The run is listed in Your Changes as one entry.

Favorites

Every task card has a star at its right edge, after its Run button, switch or buttons, so the stars form one column down every screen. Click it to add the task to Favorites, the second screen on the rail, and click it again to take it off; the card’s right-click menu has Add to Favorites and Remove from Favorites too. A favorite is the same task in a second place, so it runs exactly as it does in its own category, with the same confirmation, restore point and history entry, and a switch shows the same state in both places. Each favorite carries a chip naming the screen it comes from.

Advanced tasks, restore points and confirmation

Before an advanced task, switch or choice runs, Fixyfier shows a confirmation. It includes the exact command line under Fixyfier will run: (or Fixyfier will empty this folder: for a cleanup, or Fixyfier will start: for a script), so you can read what will happen before you agree to it. When a restore point is about to be taken, the confirmation says so.

The run window

A task that prints output opens a run window titled with the task’s name. It opens the moment the run starts and shows a progress bar and a status line (“Working…”, then “Finished.” or “Stopped.”). A task made of several steps, such as Fix or a routine, uses one window for all of its steps and names the step it is on.

Search

Press Ctrl+K (or Ctrl+F), or just start typing anywhere outside a text box, and the letters go into the search box. The screen is replaced by ranked results titled Results · “your words”, each card carrying a chip with the screen it lives on. Results appear as soon as you pause typing: the best matches at once, the rest added as you scroll down to them, so the window never freezes. Clearing the box returns you to the screen you were on.

Keyboard

Ctrl+A, Ctrl+H and Ctrl+L are ignored while a text box has focus, so Ctrl+A still selects all text there.

Right-click menus

Right-click almost anything you can act on to see its actions. The keyboard’s Menu key and Shift+F10 open the same menu on the focused card. The menus are only shortcuts: everything on them is also a button on the screen, and it runs exactly as that button does, with the same confirmation, restore point and entry in Your Changes. While a task is running, the lines that would change something are greyed out.

Unknown is an answer

When Fixyfier cannot read something, it says so and never shows it as fine. The same rule holds on every screen:

• A switch whose state could not be read shows State unknown and two buttons, not a switch in a guessed position.
• A System Health row that could not be read says Unknown with a gray dot, not a green one.
• A check-up row that could not be measured goes under Could Not Check and is never counted as passed.
• A number that was only partly read is not shown as the whole: folder sizes in the check-up count every file, however long that takes.

The notification area

While Fixyfier is open, its icon sits in the notification area. Clicking it (left, double or middle click) brings the window to the front. Right-click opens a menu with:

• Open Fixyfier
• Create System Restore Point
• Fix, which opens the Fix picker
• Each of your saved routines, one line per routine (only when you have saved some)
• Each of your favorites, one line each with a star (only when you have some).
• Copy My IP Addresses, which puts this PC’s addresses and its router’s on the clipboard and shows them in a notification
• Open MyTools Folder
• Exit

Theme and language

Theme switches between the light and dark theme at once, including the window’s title bar, and is remembered. Fixyfier starts in the light theme.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is the first screen. Four tabs at its top switch between its views:

• Overview, described here.
• System Check-up, every measured check in one list (see System Check-up below).
• What Changed, the last 30 days of this PC and Fixyfier’s own changes (see What Changed and Your Changes below).
• Layouts, your saved desktop icon and window layouts (see Layouts below).

On the Dashboard’s title line, at its right, on every view, are four buttons:

• Restore Point creates a restore point now, the same as Create in System Health.
• Run… opens Windows’ own Run box, as Win+R does (also a card, Open the Run Box, under Windows Tools).
• Open lists Windows’ own tools and opens the one you pick straight away, with no run window: Task Manager, Device Manager, Services, Event Viewer, Task Scheduler, Disk Management, Computer Management, Reliability Monitor, Registry Editor, Network Connections, Sound settings, Notification settings (where Do Not Disturb is, also a card, Open Notification Settings, under Windows Tools), Windows Update, Windows Security, Command Prompt and PowerShell (each in a console window of its own), Control Panel and Windows Settings.
• Power offers Restart, Shut Down, Sign Out, Lock, Restart into Advanced Startup (where Safe Mode, System Restore and the other recovery tools are) and Restart into BIOS/UEFI.

This PC

The first card is headed with the PC’s name, followed by the Windows edition, build and architecture. Below that is a grid of what could be read:

• Processor, with its number of cores and threads
• Memory, the installed RAM
• Graphics
• Signed In As
• Uptime, which counts up live
• Last Boot
• Installed On, the date Windows was installed

The live gauges

Three gauges show Processor load (with the number of logical processors), Memory in use (“X used of Y”) and the system drive (Drive C:, “X free of Y”). They update once a second, and only while the Dashboard is on screen. A gauge stays in the accent color under 75%, turns amber from 75% and red from 90%; a machine at 55% is not colored as if it were in trouble.

System Health

System Health lists eight facts, each with a colored dot (green is fine, amber is worth acting on, gray is unknown or not applicable) and the state in words:

• Windows Activation: Activated or Not Activated.
• Real-time Protection: On, with the name of whatever antivirus provides it, or Off.
• Windows Firewall: On, Partly On (off on some network profiles) or Off.
• System Protection: whether Windows can make restore points on this PC.
• Last Restore Point: the date and description of the newest restore point, or None Yet, always with a Create button that asks Windows for one now.
• Restart Pending: Nothing Waiting, or A Restart Is Waiting (an update or driver needs one).
• Secure Boot: On, Off, Unknown, or N/A on a legacy BIOS.
• VPN: Connected (with the VPN’s name) or Not Connected.

Quick Actions

Six buttons, all the same weight:

• Fix opens the Fix picker: seven repair steps, with the four quick and safe ones ticked (clear your temporary files, clear Windows’ temporary files, flush the DNS cache, open Disk Cleanup) and the three thorough ones unticked (repair the Windows image, repair system files, check the disk).
• Update Apps asks winget which installed apps have an update waiting and shows them in a picker.
• Block Ads & Telemetry turns off, in one pass, every advertising, suggestion and diagnostic-data setting Fixyfier knows: the advertising ID, suggested content and promoted apps, Start menu and File Explorer ads, search highlights and web results, diagnostic data, activity history and typing data, and the telemetry scheduled tasks and services.
• Malware Removal Tool starts Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool (mrt.exe), which opens in its own window.
• IP Configuration shows this PC’s full network settings (ipconfig /all) in a run window, the same as its card in Network & Connectivity.
• Restart Print Spooler restarts the printing service, which clears a stuck print queue, the same as its card in Fix & Repair.

Settings

Below Quick Actions, the Settings card has three buttons:

• Export Settings saves what you choose to one .json file, to take to another PC: Fixyfier’s own settings (theme, language, the Confirmation switch, the automatic restore point switch and the notice thresholds), your routines, your favorites, copies of your MyTools scripts, your saved layouts, and the Windows settings Fixyfier changed on this PC.
• Import Settings opens such a file and lists what it holds.
• Reset to Default Settings puts Fixyfier back to the way it was installed: its settings, saved routines and their schedules, Your Changes, the record of dismissed prompts and the cached Store record are removed, and the app closes.

The automatic restore point switch

At the bottom of System Health is Create a Restore Point Before Advanced Tasks, on by default. While it is on, Fixyfier asks Windows for a restore point before the first advanced task of each session, as described in How Fixyfier Works. Turning it off skips that step; it does not change the confirmation dialog, which has its own switch in the top bar.

Layouts

The Layouts view on the Dashboard is the one place to save and restore layouts. It shows two cards, one under the other: Desktop Icon Layouts and Window Layouts. Each card has Save Current Layout in its header and a row per saved layout with Restore. Layouts are not tasks, so they are not in a category, in search, in Favorites or in routines.

System Check-up

The System Check-up is the second view on the Dashboard. It is one list of every check Fixyfier can make with evidence. Each row reads something real (a folder’s size, a date, a service’s state, a count from the event log), shows that number, and compares it with a stated limit. What is fine is listed too, with its number, so a clean result is visible rather than implied.

When it runs

The check-up runs the first time you open its view, and its results are kept, so they are there the next time you start Fixyfier. When the last run is three hours old or more, opening the view runs it again, once. It never runs on a timer while you watch. Run Check-up starts a new pass at any time. The line under the buttons says when the last check-up ran (“Last check-up 3 h ago”) and turns amber once the results are three hours old.

How results are shown

The summary line reads “2 need attention · 5 worth knowing · 26 fine”, or “Nothing needs attention. 33 checks passed.” Rows are grouped in cards:

• Needs Attention: something is wrong and has a clear next step.
• Worth Knowing: information you may want to act on, not a fault.
• Fine: the check passed, and its number is shown.
• Could Not Check: the reading failed.

History and sharing

Each run’s numbers are kept, one reading per check per day, for about three months. When a number has moved since a reading between one and 60 days old, the row says so under its evidence, for example “Was 41.2 GB 7 days ago”. Once a month, after a month of history, a line at the top says what moved since about a month ago. Small changes are ignored: sizes must move by more than 5% and 100 MB, percentages by 3 points, startup time by 5 seconds and 10%.

What Changed and Your Changes

What Changed is the third view on the Dashboard. It answers the question “it was fine last week, what changed?” with one dated list of the last 30 days, newest first, grouped by day (Today, Yesterday, then dates). The summary line counts the changes and how many of them Fixyfier made.

What it reads

Every row is a record Windows made, read from its own logs by field name, so a Greek or Japanese Windows gives the same rows as an English one:

• Programs installed and removed through Windows Installer, and programs that installed some other way but recorded their own install date (those rows show only the date and say whose date it is).
• Drivers Windows installed.
• Windows updates installed, and updates that failed, with the error code.
• New services, and services whose start type changed.
• Programs that crashed (one row per program per day, with a count), blue screens with their stop code, and unexpected shutdowns.
• Starts that Windows itself marked as slower than usual.
• Programs newly added to startup.

Filters, actions and Copy

The chips above the list show All, Apps, Drivers, Updates, Startup & Services, Problems or Your Changes.

Your Changes

Your Changes is Fixyfier’s own record of what it changed on this PC, shown beside Windows’ records in What Changed (and alone under the Your Changes chip). It lists every switch flipped, setting changed, startup entry and service start type changed, built-in app removed or put back, app uninstalled, task and routine run, with the date and in plain words, in the language you are using now.

Undo

Changes Windows lets Fixyfier reverse carry an Undo button: switches, startup entries, built-in apps, service start types, programs’ scheduled tasks, what may wake the PC, programs keeping the PC awake, the shut-down settings, Wi-Fi power saving, and DNS set back to automatic.

Put My Changes Back

A Windows update sometimes sets things back the way Windows ships them. Put My Changes Back, at the top of What Changed, reads every switch and built-in app that Your Changes says Fixyfier set, compares each with the PC now, and lists the ones that are no longer as Fixyfier set them, each beside its current value. Tick the ones to put back; the run takes a restore point first and uses the same commands as the settings’ own cards, and Your Changes records each one only once Windows confirms it. If everything is still in place, it says so.

Undo Since

Undo Since…, beside it, undoes everything Fixyfier changed from a day you choose: today, yesterday, a week ago or a month ago. The switches and built-in apps are shown together in one list, each beside its value now, and undone together after one confirmation and one restore point. Each original entry is marked Undone only once its setting really moved back. Changes of other kinds in that time, which each ask their own question, keep their own Undo button in Your Changes, and the list says how many there are.

Fix & Repair

Fix & Repair is ordered from the most automatic thing you can do to the most manual. At the top is the Fix card, which runs a set of repairs in one go. Under it is Your Routines, your own saved lists of tasks. Below both, under the heading All Repairs, are the individual repair cards that Fix and your routines are built from.

Fix

Fix opens a picker with seven repair steps, each with a checkbox and a one-line explanation. They always run in this order, whatever you tick:

1. Clear Your Temporary Files: empties your own temp folder.
2. Clear Windows’ Temporary Files: empties the system temp folder.
3. Flush the DNS Cache: ipconfig /flushdns, which makes Windows look up addresses again.
4. Open Disk Cleanup: opens Windows’ own cleanup tool so you choose what goes.
5. Repair the Windows Image: dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth.
6. Repair System Files: sfc /scannow, which should run after DISM, not before.
7. Check the Disk: chkdsk /scan, which only looks and reports.

Your Routines

A routine is your own named list of tasks that runs in order with one click, for example “Monthly maintenance”. New Routine opens an editor with a name box, a search box and every task that can be a step, grouped by category. Tick the tasks, name the routine and save it. Each saved routine appears as a card with Run, Edit and Delete, and the card shows how many tasks it holds.

What cannot be a step

A task can be a step only if it finishes on its own and it makes sense to run again next month. These are left out on purpose:

• Anything that opens a window and waits for you: Disk Cleanup, System Restore, the command prompts, the Windows tools, the troubleshooters, the Store cache reset and the memory test.
• Fix Windows Apps, which starts its own PowerShell window and returns at once, so the next step would run on top of it.
• The three network resets, which clear static addresses and VPN adapters every time they run.
• Reset Windows Update, which leaves a renamed copy of its folders behind on every run.
• Delete System Restore Points, which would remove the restore point the routine itself just asked for.
• One-time setup that does harm or nothing when repeated.
• Restart Graphics Driver, because a routine runs with nobody watching the screen.
• Schedule Shutdown, which needs a time, and Cancel Scheduled Shutdown, since nothing in a routine schedules one.
• Everything that asks you something first: a file, a drive, an address or a list to tick.

MyTools scripts as steps

Your own scripts from the MyTools folder appear in the routine editor like any other task, whether or not you own the MyTools add-on. Inside a routine, Fixyfier waits for each script to finish before the next step starts. If you do not own the add-on, each script step uses one of the free runs, as launching it from its card would. Once the free runs are used up, the step is skipped, and the log lists it as locked. If you delete a script from the MyTools folder, Fixyfier removes that step from your routines and tells you. A routine left with no steps is removed too.

Save as Script

Right-click a routine and choose Save as Script… to save its steps as a .cmd file, to run on a PC without Fixyfier. The file holds the same commands the routine runs, in the same order, each announced as it starts. It checks that it runs as administrator, shows names in any language correctly, and pauses at the end. Paths of this PC are written as %LOCALAPPDATA%, %USERPROFILE% and the like, so the file holds no user name and works on another PC.

Routines in the notification area

While Fixyfier is open, its icon sits in the notification area. Clicking it brings the window forward. Right-clicking opens a menu with Open Fixyfier, Create Restore Point, Fix, one line for each of your routines, Open MyTools Folder and Exit. Any action that shows something opens the window first, so the run window is always visible.

Routines and tasks that run by themselves

Any routine, or any single task that can be a routine step, can run by itself on a schedule. It is your choice what runs and when; nothing is scheduled for you.

DISM, SFC and CHKDSK

Repair the Windows Image, Repair System Files and Check the Disk for Errors are advanced cards. Each opens in its own terminal window so you can watch the tool’s own progress. Run them in that order. DISM repairs the component store that SFC repairs everything else from, so SFC run on a damaged store has nothing good to copy from. The disk check (chkdsk /scan) is read-only: it reports problems and does not lock the drive or repair anything. The Fix picker runs the three in the same order.

Windows’ troubleshooters

The Troubleshooter cards (Network & Internet, Audio, Bluetooth, Printer, Camera, Program Compatibility, Video Playback and Windows Media Player) hand over to Windows’ own troubleshooter for that area. Fixyfier does not change anything itself. The quick service fixes next to them, such as Fix Audio & Sound Issues, Fix Bluetooth Issues and Restart Print Spooler, restart the one Windows service involved.

Undo Other Tools’ Damage

Undo Other Tools’ Damage looks for what “debloat” scripts and tweakers switch off and leave that way:

• essential services set to Disabled
• policies that block updates, the Store or protection
• hosts-file lines that send Microsoft’s servers nowhere
• a missing Microsoft Store
• Windows Update paused far beyond the longest pause Settings offers

Logs

Save System Logs, Save Application Logs and Save Security Logs read that Windows event log and save it as a plain text file on your Desktop (system_log.txt, application_log.txt or security_log.txt). Each entry lists its source, event ID, type, category, time and data. These files are made only when you ask for them. Fixyfier keeps no logs of its own.

Cleanup & Optimize

Cleanup & Optimize holds the tasks that free space and the switches that affect performance. The everyday cleaning cards come first. The heavier ones, such as deleting restore points or the previous Windows installation, are advanced and ask for a restore point first.

Dry Run

Tasks that empty a folder always ask before they start, even when the Confirmation switch is off. These are Clear Your Temporary Files, Clear Windows’ Temporary Files, Empty the Recycle Bin, Clear Microsoft Outlook Cache and, on Security & Privacy, Delete Recent Items History. The confirmation shows the folder that will be emptied and offers Dry Run, which lists every file and folder that would be deleted without deleting anything. The run window says it is a dry run, and so does the last line of the log.

Extra Cleaning Rules

Extra Cleaning Rules uses winapp2.ini. That is a large list, maintained by the winapp2 project, of where thousands of programs leave junk. It is used under CC BY-SA 4.0, and the credit is shown in the dialog. The rules can do only two things: name files to delete and name registry values to delete. Fixyfier implements no way for a rule to run anything.

Restore points

Create System Restore Point asks Windows for a restore point now, with the same progress dialog as the Dashboard button. Windows keeps at most one automatic restore point per 24 hours. If one already exists from that period, Fixyfier says so and gives its time rather than claiming a new one. If System Protection is off, Fixyfier says that Windows cannot make one.

Hibernate and SysMain

Hibernate and SysMain are switches that show what the PC is doing now.

Securely Wipe Free Space

Securely Wipe Free Space asks which drive, then runs Windows’ own cipher /w on it in a terminal window, which shows its progress. It overwrites the free space where deleted files used to be, so they cannot be recovered. Files you have not deleted are not touched. It is an advanced task.

System Tools

System Tools has the reports about this PC, the power and startup settings, and the dialogs for moving a setup from one PC to another.

Find Broken Leftovers

Find Broken Leftovers lists startup entries, services and scheduled tasks that still try to start a program that was uninstalled. Each one is shown with the file that is gone. An entry counts as broken only when it is certain the file is missing: its folder (or the nearest folder above it that exists) can be read, and the file is not there.

Create a PC Report

Create a PC Report builds one page with:

• this PC’s specifications
• the check-up, row by row
• what Windows recorded as changed in the last 30 days
• what Fixyfier changed and what was undone
• the startup and disk space comparisons, when there are any

Moving to a New PC

Moving to a New PC lets you choose what goes into one folder for the new PC, saved in Documents\Fixyfier\Moving, and opens the folder when it is ready:

• Saved Wi-Fi networks with their passwords: Windows’ own export, plus an Add Wi-Fi networks.cmd file you double-click on the new PC to add them.
• The list of installed programs: every desktop program and Store app with its publisher and version, to find each one again.
• This PC’s Fixyfier setup, to bring in with Import Settings.
• README.html, which explains the folder and what this PC’s Windows license allows.

Windows Tools

Windows Tools opens Windows’ own consoles and pages with one click each, from Task Manager, Device Manager and the Apps page in Settings to Event Viewer, Registry Editor, Group Policy Editor and Performance Monitor. Fixyfier changes nothing here. Each card starts the Windows tool and leaves the rest to you.

Security & Privacy

Security & Privacy has two sections: Protection (Windows Security, the antivirus scan, the firewall, the Malicious Software Removal Tool, Smart App Control and BitLocker) and Privacy (the privacy switches and the history clean-ups).

Smart App Control

Smart App Control has three states, so its card shows three buttons (Off, Evaluation and On) instead of a switch, with the current state marked:

• On: Windows blocks apps it does not recognize as trusted.
• Evaluation: the mode a new install starts in.
• Off: the permanent option.

The privacy switches

Every privacy card is a switch, and every switch shows the setting as Windows has it now. It is not Fixyfier’s memory of the setting. Registry settings are read when the screen opens. Settings that need a Windows tool to read, such as DISM, fill in a moment later. When a setting cannot be read, the card says State unknown and shows two plain buttons instead of a switch that would be a guess.

Block Ads & Telemetry

Block Ads & Telemetry turns off every advertising, suggestion and diagnostic-data setting Fixyfier knows about, in one pass. It is on the Dashboard’s Quick Actions, and in the Set Up a New PC Properly checklist in Answers. The confirmation has a tick for each of these groups, all ticked to begin with, and Select All to clear or tick them together. Under the ticks it lists exactly the commands that will run for what is ticked, grouped under these headings:

• Advertising ID
• Suggested content and promoted apps: Windows’ suggestion surfaces, preinstalled and silently installed apps, and consumer features.
• Start menu and File Explorer ads: sync provider notifications, Start recommendations, account notices and app launch tracking.
• Search highlights and web results
• Diagnostic data: telemetry set to the minimum, tailored experiences, feedback requests and error reporting.
• Activity history and typing data
• Telemetry scheduled tasks: it disables seven of Windows’ scheduled tasks:
• Telemetry services: DiagTrack and dmwappushservice are set to Disabled.

Location

Location Services sets Windows’ machine-wide policy for location. Off blocks it for every app and for Windows itself at once. Note that Wi-Fi Details on Network & Connectivity needs Location Services on to show the wireless connection’s details.

Network & Connectivity

Network & Connectivity has the everyday network checks first. The resets come later, and they are advanced.

Tasks that ask for an address

Test Connection and Trace the Route ask which address to use, because the useful question is whether your site, your router or your game server answers. The box is empty every time, and the exact command appears underneath as you type:

• Test Connection runs ping <address>.
• Trace the Route runs tracert -d -h 20 <address>: no name lookups for each hop, and at most 20 hops.

Reading the connection

IP Configuration (ipconfig /all), Active Connections (netstat -ano) and Wi-Fi Details (netsh wlan show interfaces) only read, and change nothing. Windows shares the wireless details only while Location Services are on. When it refuses, Fixyfier still prints what netsh said, explains that this is a privacy setting only you can change, and offers Open Location Settings. It never changes the setting itself.

My IP Addresses and Wi-Fi codes

My IP Addresses lists this PC’s own addresses on each connected network, IPv4 and IPv6, and the router’s address, each with Copy, plus Copy All. It reads them from this PC and asks no website, so it shows the address on your network, not the public one. Self-assigned (169.254.x.x), link-local and loopback addresses are left out. The same list is on the notification area menu as Copy My IP Addresses.

Resets

Reset TCP/IP (netsh int ip reset), Winsock Reset (netsh winsock reset) and Reset Network Configurations (netcfg -d) are advanced. They ask for a restore point first and can clear static addresses and VPN adapters. The change only takes effect after a restart. When the reset finishes, the run window says so and offers Restart Now. Nothing restarts on its own. Flush DNS and Release & Renew IP take effect straight away.

Updates

Updates gathers Windows Update, app updates, Microsoft Defender’s definitions and the Store in one place. It also has the fixes for updates that will not install: Clear Windows Update Cache, Reset Windows Update and the Windows Update and BITS troubleshooters.

Update Apps

Update Apps asks winget what has an update waiting and shows the answer as a list. A busy dialog covers the few seconds winget takes.

Files & Folders

Files & Folders holds the tasks that act on one file or folder you choose, and the tools for files Windows itself gives up on.

Choosing a file or folder

Force Delete, Lock, Unlock, Hide, Unhide and Repair File or Folder Permissions first ask whether you mean a file or a folder, then open the matching Windows picker. The run window opens only after you choose, and it shows what the Windows commands reported.

The right-click menu in File Explorer

Right-click one file or folder in File Explorer and choose Fixyfier to reach six of these tools with the item already chosen: Who Is Using This File?, Get Back an Older Version, Check a File’s Fingerprint, Unlock File or Folder, Repair File or Folder Permissions and Force Delete File or Folder. On Windows 11 the entry is in the short menu. For a .bat, .cmd, .ps1 or .vbs file there is a seventh entry, Move to MyTools, described below.

Force Delete File or Folder

Force Delete File or Folder is advanced. After you confirm, it works through four passes and stops as soon as everything is gone:

1. It clears the read-only, hidden and system attributes and deletes normally.
2. It takes ownership and grants full access, then deletes again.
3. It asks Windows which programs have what is left open, and ends those programs, as long as each one is an ordinary program.
4. Whatever is still locked is marked to be deleted the next time Windows starts, before the program holding it runs.

Get Back an Older Version

Get Back an Older Version asks for a file or folder, then looks through Windows’ restore points and shadow copies for earlier copies of it. It lists every saved copy, newest first, with its date and size. Get This One copies that version into a new folder next to the original, named after it with “(restored” and the date and time. The live file is never touched or overwritten, and the shadow copy is left as it was. If Windows kept no older copy, or the restore points cannot be read, Fixyfier says so.

Check a File’s Fingerprint

Check a File’s Fingerprint shows a file’s SHA-256 checksum. Paste the checksum from the download page into the box, and it says straight away whether the two match. Spaces, capital letters and a leading “sha256:” are ignored. Nothing is changed.

Fix My Folders’ Locations

Fix My Folders’ Locations reads where Windows thinks Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music, Videos and Favorites are, and marks any that point at a path that no longer exists. That often happens after unlinking OneDrive or removing a drive, and it breaks Save dialogs and apps. A broken one can be pointed back at its normal place in your profile.

Files Windows Can’t Handle

Files Windows Can’t Handle asks for a folder and lists the names Explorer cannot delete, copy or rename:

• paths longer than 260 characters
• names Windows reserves for itself, such as CON, NUL, PRN, AUX, COM1 to COM9 and LPT1 to LPT9
• names that end in a space or a dot

Installed Apps

Installed Apps shows everything installed on this PC and gives you the switches for what starts by itself. From top to bottom the screen holds four parts: Startup Apps, Scheduled by Programs, Built-in Apps, and the full list of installed apps.

The list

Store apps and desktop programs appear in one list. Each row shows the app’s own icon, its name, publisher, version, install date and size, a Store or Desktop chip, an Uninstall button, and a More Actions menu. Hover over a row to read the whole line when the window is too narrow to show it.

Uninstall, Reset and Repair

Each of these shows its exact command in the confirmation first, and Windows is asked for a restore point before it runs. Uninstalls are recorded in Your Changes. When an uninstaller has finished, use Refresh to update the list.

Startup Apps

Startup Apps lists the programs Windows starts at sign-in, A to Z, each with an On/Off switch. They are read from the same five places Task Manager reads: the Run keys for your account, for all users and for 32-bit programs, and your own and the common Startup folders. Off flips the same setting Task Manager’s Startup tab uses, so the two always agree. The program stays installed and its startup entry stays in place; it simply no longer starts by itself, and On puts it back. Store apps’ own startup tasks use a different mechanism and are not listed here.

Scheduled by Programs

Scheduled by Programs lists the tasks programs have registered in Task Scheduler to run by themselves (at sign-in, at start, every hour, daily at a set time), which the startup list and Task Manager do not show, A to Z by name. Only tasks outside Task Scheduler’s \Microsoft\ folder are listed. Each row shows when it runs, who signed the program (from the file’s signature, not from the task’s free-text Author field) and what it runs. Off is Task Scheduler’s own Disable: the task stays as the program set it up, and On turns it back on. Nothing is deleted.

Built-in Apps

Built-in Apps gives a switch to 31 apps Windows preinstalls. Eight of them carry an explanation of their own: OneDrive, Copilot, Widgets, Xbox Game Bar, Microsoft Teams, Quick Assist, Feedback Hub and Get Started. The rest appear under Everything else Windows preinstalled on this PC, named by Windows in your language and described by their publisher and version. Both groups are listed A to Z by the name shown.

Processes

Processes is the first tab of the Processes & Services row. It shows what is using this PC right now, grouped by program and ranked by what it costs. It is not a copy of Task Manager: it answers what is running, what it is, and whether it is safe to end. The list is read when the screen opens and when Refresh is pressed; nothing runs on a timer.

What each row shows

All the processes of one program are one row: twelve browser processes are a single row with their costs added up. Each row shows:

• the program’s own file description (for example “Host Process for Windows Services” instead of svchost.exe), with the file name under it;
• who made it, from the file’s digital signature: Windows, Microsoft, the named publisher, or Unsigned.
• how many processes it has, and the Windows services it hosts;
• three chips for Processor, Memory and Disk.

Worth a Look

A Worth a Look chip appears in only two cases: a file with the name of a Windows process that is not running from the Windows folder, and an unsigned program running from a temporary, Downloads, Desktop or Public folder. Nothing is called malware. The row’s menu then offers the Malware Removal Tool so you can check it.

What End does

End runs taskkill on every process of the program at once. For ordinary programs it also ends everything those processes started (/T), so no helper is left running and holding files. The confirmation names those child processes before anything runs, lists any services that stop with the program, says how many processes will be ended, and shows the exact command. Windows’ shell parts are ended without their child processes, so ending Explorer never closes the programs you opened from it. Ending a process changes nothing on disk, so no restore point is requested. The list refreshes a few seconds later.

More Actions

The Why Is It Slow Right Now? button at the top of the screen watches the PC for ten seconds and names what is slowing it down, cause first.

Services

Services is the second tab of the Processes & Services row. It lists every Windows service with the description Windows itself provides, already in your Windows language. When Windows has no description for a service, the row says so. Each row shows the display name, the short service name and description, a Running or Stopped chip, the start type, and a Start or Stop button. Filter with All, Running, Stopped, Automatic and Disabled, and search by name or description. The list of services appears within a second and the descriptions follow a moment later.

Fixyfier does not recommend disabling anything. Nobody can know from the outside what a given PC needs, so the screen shows what each service is, what will stop with it, and the exact command, and then does what you ask.

Dependents

Before any stop, restart or start-type change, Fixyfier asks Windows which services depend on the one you picked and lists every one of them in the confirmation, one per line (“These will stop with it:”), or says that nothing depends on it. Stop uses net stop /y, which stops those dependents too. Restart stops the service with its dependents, starts it again, and then starts again the dependents that were running before.

The three-level safety model

Starting a service and setting it to Automatic are always allowed, because those are the two directions that cannot break a PC.

Start types

The More Actions menu sets the start type to Automatic, Automatic (Delayed Start), Manual or Disabled, using Windows’ own sc config. Every change shows its command first, and Windows is asked for a restore point before it runs. The list is read again a few seconds later.

Your Changes

Start-type changes are recorded in Your Changes together with the start type the service had before, and their Undo sets that previous type back. A change is recorded only when the previous type was known, and before an Undo runs Fixyfier checks that the service name is still installed on this PC. Starting, stopping and restarting a service are not recorded, because they do not outlast a restart.

Scripts and MyTools

Scripts is where your own scripts run from inside Fixyfier. This feature is called MyTools.

The MyTools folder

Fixyfier creates a folder called MyTools inside Documents\Fixyfier for everyone. When OneDrive has moved your Documents folder, Fixyfier finds the real location through Windows instead of assuming C:\Users\<you>\Documents. Open MyTools Folder opens it. The folder holds a readme.txt that explains MyTools in the language you chose in the app.

Free trial and unlock

Running your own scripts is a paid, one-time unlock. Before you buy, MyTools gives you 3 free runs: while you have runs left, your scripts are real, runnable cards with a chip showing how many runs are left. A run is counted only after you confirm it, so backing out costs nothing. When the free runs are used up, your scripts stay in the folder and their cards show as locked.

Your scripts, your responsibility

A note under the script cards, shown in every state, says it plainly: Fixyfier only lists what is in your MyTools folder and starts it for you. It does not read, check, modify or vouch for any script there, it cannot tell whether one is safe, and it cannot undo what one does. Scripts run with the same administrator rights as Fixyfier, so a script can change anything on this PC. Run only files you wrote yourself or fully trust.

Answers

Answers holds every question Fixyfier can answer about this PC in one place. Each one reads what Windows recorded and changes nothing until you press a row’s button.

In Your Own Words

Start here when you cannot name the problem. Describe the Problem takes what is wrong in your own words, in any of the app’s languages (“no sound since yesterday”, “the laptop is slow and hot”), and lists the six tools that answer it best, best first. Under them come the fixyfier.com guides that match (up to three) and the featured article when it fits, exactly as the search box lists them; each opens in your browser after asking. An error code in what you typed goes straight to Explain an Error, which explains any error code, message or missing file name with what Windows says it means and, where the fix is known, the one thing to do. Read an Error from the Screen lets you snip an error message; Windows’ own text recognition reads it on this PC, offline.

Find the Cause

These answer “why is this happening?” from Windows’ own records: why the PC is slow right now (a ten-second watch), why an app keeps crashing (a month of crashes grouped per program, with the part that failed), which programs hold a file open, why the PC restarted or failed an update, what broke after an update (with Windows’ own way back and a way to pause updates), and what changed around the time a problem started. There are also focused checks for sound, printing, the display, battery drain, drain during sleep, what wakes the PC, and slow shut-downs.

Network & Connectivity

These answer questions about the connection. Find Where the Connection Breaks tests one link at a time (adapter, address, router, internet, names, web) and names the first one that fails. Others show when the internet dropped during the last week, how much data each program used in the last 30 days, how crowded your Wi-Fi channel is, and which programs accept connections from other devices. Who Is on My Network? pings only the addresses of your own network and lists every device that answers, with devices new since the last check marked. Which DNS Server Is Fastest From Here? times your DNS servers against four public ones and offers a one-click switch only when one is clearly faster. These are the Answers that use the network, and only when you run them.

Check This PC

These read Windows’ own records about who and what has used this PC: what took over a browser, what happened while you were away, which apps used the camera, microphone or location, every USB device ever connected, whether each drive is encrypted and its recovery key, and every Group Policy set on the PC in plain words. I Think I Was Scammed looks for what a fake support call leaves behind: a remote-control program (AnyDesk, TeamViewer and others), Remote Desktop or Remote Assistance switched on, another administrator account, a back door on the sign-in screen, web traffic sent through a proxy, a website redirected in the hosts file, or a browser steered by policies. Each row offers the one step that undoes it, nothing changes until you choose it, and turning Remote Desktop, Remote Assistance or the proxy back can be undone from Your Changes. Find Sensitive Files Lying Around looks in Desktop, Documents, Downloads and Pictures for passwords in text files, password exports, card numbers, IBANs, private keys and passport photos, masks the sensitive part on screen, and keeps and sends nothing.

Find the Space

These find where disk space actually went: the largest folders on a drive (three levels deep), which folders grew since last week, old installers in Downloads, OneDrive files stored on this PC, old phone backups, leftovers of uninstalled games, old driver versions, and virtual disks that never shrink. Nothing is ticked by default: each list shows what it found with its size, and only what you tick goes, after a confirmation that lists every item. Files go to the Recycle Bin (Windows deletes an item too big for it). Old driver packages are removed with Windows’ own pnputil, which refuses one a device still uses; virtual disks are compacted, not deleted; OneDrive files are made online-only, not deleted.

Plan Ahead

These prepare for what comes next: why this PC cannot get Windows 11, which upgrade would really make it faster, whether a drive is dying (with a copy of your personal folders to another drive using Windows’ own robocopy, skipping what can no longer be read), a first-day checklist for a new PC, what to do before selling it, an Emergency Card page for the day Windows does not start, and what happened while the PC was away for repair.

Troubleshooting Guides

Troubleshooting Guides is the library of step-by-step articles on fixyfier.com for the problems no single task can fix. It holds 72 articles in six groups of twelve:

• Performance & Startup
• System Stability & Crashes
• Updates & Activation
• Network & Connectivity
• Hardware & Peripherals
• Apps, Cloud & Maintenance

Article titles are shown in English, the language the articles are written in. Each guide opens in your default browser; when the Confirmation switch is on, Fixyfier asks first. The guides are also searchable: up to three matching guides appear under your search results.

The featured article, Secure Browsing, Privacy, and Public Wi-Fi Protection, is not a troubleshooting guide and is not in this list. It appears as a Worth Reading card at the foot of Network & Connectivity and in search, and its button says that it opens fixyfier.com.

Settings and Reset

What Fixyfier stores

Settings live in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Fixyfier. There is no settings file. The key holds:

• the theme, the language and the Confirmation switch;
• the restore-point switch from the Dashboard;
• your saved routines and your schedules, and which scheduled runs were already seen;
• Your Changes, the newest 150 changes Fixyfier made;
• the System Check-up’s history, the weekly folder measurements behind Where Did My Space Go?, the date each startup entry was first seen, the startup before-and-after timings, and the devices already seen on your network;
• the number of MyTools free runs used, and the state of the prompts you dismissed.

Reset to Default Settings

Reset to Default Settings (on the Dashboard’s Settings card) puts Fixyfier back to the way it was installed and then closes it. It removes:

• the whole SOFTWARE\Fixyfier key (settings, routines, schedules, Your Changes and every dismissed prompt);
• every task in Task Scheduler’s \Fixyfier\ folder, so nothing keeps starting Fixyfier for a schedule that no longer exists;
• the Store purchase record (the next launch asks the Store again; nothing is canceled or refunded);
• the readme.txt in MyTools;
• every saved desktop icon and window layout, with the arrangement kept for Undo, and the Layouts folder once it is empty.

Safety and Privacy

• You see every command first. Every change shows its exact command in the confirmation before it runs.
• Restore points. Advanced tasks ask Windows for a restore point first. This is switchable on the Dashboard.
• A record you can undo. Changes are recorded in Your Changes. Undo is rebuilt from validated names and values, never from a stored command.
• No logs, no telemetry. Fixyfier keeps no log files on disk and sends nothing anywhere. Your Changes and every other record stay in the registry on this PC.
• Network only when a task needs it: Update Apps, the extra cleaning rules download, network tests, guide and article links, the Microsoft Store purchase check, and the update check: at most once a day it asks the Store, and only when an update is waiting does it read the change log from fixyfier.com.
• Protected folders. Force Delete, Lock, Unlock, Hide and Repair Permissions refuse whole drives, Windows and the folders every program and account depend on. Force Delete and Lock also refuse folders holding a driver Windows loads.
• Force Delete ends as little as possible. It only ends ordinary programs that hold the file (never a service, Explorer or part of Windows), and only that process.
• Processes. Windows’ core processes and svchost.exe are never ended; a single service is stopped from Services. Ending one of Windows’ shell parts is warned first.
• Services. Services Windows needs to start, sign in or be managed are never stopped, disabled or set to Manual. Fixyfier never recommends disabling a service.
• No guesses. When something could not be read, the screen shows “Unknown” or says it could not be read, never a guessed value.
• Installed apps. Programs are listed from the registry, never through Win32_Product. Uninstalling runs the program’s own uninstaller.
• Extra cleaning rules never run anything. A rule can only name files and registry values to delete. Only entries that apply to this PC are offered, and the files and registry values they resolve to are listed before anything is removed.
• One elevated copy. Fixyfier always runs as administrator, and a second start hands over to the window that is already open. That window accepts requests only from an elevated process of the same Windows user, so a program without administrator rights cannot get anything done through it.
• Safe command lines. Names and paths that go into PowerShell commands are quoted as literals, so text in a file or service name cannot change the command.
• Your scripts are yours. Fixyfier never reads, checks or changes the scripts in MyTools; it only lists and starts them.