Yesterday, we reported on an annoyance where users say they have not been able to delete 8.63 GB of past update data after upgrading to Windows 11 24H2. One of the readers" comments on the post drew our attention, which said that there was also an SFC-related bug that was affecting systems post-2024 feature update.
For those who may not be familiar, System File Checker or SFC.exe is a native Windows utility that helps fix corrupt or broken Windows files by restoring them.
Essentially, running the SFC/scannow command would tell users that they had broken or corrupted files on their PC, but apparently, "fixing" the files would do nothing, and SFC would again report broken files. The reader, Sladen, also provided additional details about the problem and said that it was related to a potential WebView2 hash mismatch.
There is also another known issue with /sfc. When a user runs sfc /scannow, it will report corrupted files and it will repair them, but then when the user runs an additional sfc /scannow it will report and fix the same thing again. The file is Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Core.dll. There is a hash mismatch between the microsoft store version and the one that is on the system.
After noticing the comment, we headed to the Feedback Hub to see that, indeed, the issue has been heavily upvoted by users, with 208 upvotes at the time of writing.
It is also happening to others, as there are several threads on Google across various forums that are talking about the issue. Thankfully, Microsoft was aware of the problem and has rolled out a fix in the latest release preview build, 26100.2152, released under KB5044384. In the release notes, Microsoft says:
[sfc /scannow command] Fixed: You get errors every time you run the command.
Hence, those fighting the Release Preview Insider channel should have the issue resolved. The fix will also be rolling out to non-Insiders towards the end of this month on the non-security preview update (C-release) under the same KB.