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
• Gaming
• Scripts
• Answers
• PC Detective
• Troubleshooting Guides

License, About and Help are pinned to the bottom of the rail, below a line that always sits in the middle of the room kept above License, so it stays with the three it heads however tall the window is. Files & Folders wears a folder with a page in it; the plain folder is the top bar's File Explorer. Icons that fill less of their square than the rest (Gaming, Network & Connectivity, Favorites and PC Detective, and the theme and Accessibility icons in the top bar) are drawn a little larger, so every row looks the same size. License shows the agreement as a page, in headed sections, with Privacy Policy to open it on the website. About is a page to read, with OK as its only button: the logo, the version, how many tasks and languages this copy has, then what Fixyfier is, what it does, why it can be trusted, your privacy, what is free, who it is made for, credits and who makes it.

The title bar

The window has its own title bar, as Windows 11's own apps do: Fixyfier's icon and name, the version in a small badge after them, the search box in the middle with its microphone, Unlock MyTools (Supporter once the add-on is yours), and Minimize, Maximize and Close. Drag the window by any empty part of it, drag it to a screen edge to snap it, double-click it to maximize, and right-click it for the window menu; on Windows 11, point at Maximize for Snap Layouts. Under it, a bar holds Fixyfier Online (the website's globe: a menu with the website, the Microsoft Store, GitHub, Rate the App, Make a Donation and Offline Mode, each with its icon; struck through while Offline Mode is on), and Settings beside it; after a line the settings Language, Theme and Accessibility; after another line Create Restore Point, Quick Actions, Fix Hardware Detection Issues, Update Drivers and the Log; then Run…, Open, File Explorer and Show Desktop Icons; then five tools; then Windows Firewall, Power Mode, Keep Awake, Schedule Shutdown and Power; a line; and at the far right the Confirmation switch. The icons sit side by side from the left, each the same room from the next. There are three thin lines only: after the globe and Settings and after Language, Theme and Accessibility, each with the same room on both sides, and the last before the Confirmation switch, also with the same room on both sides. On a wide window the free room opens before the power group, which stands at the right with the switch. When the window is too narrow for all of them, the icons that do not fit wait under More Actions (three large dots), which appears right before the power group: the left side's go first, from its right end, and the power group only when even it has no room. Its menu lists exactly those icons, and a menu that belongs to one of them opens under More Actions. This is worked out again when the window is resized, when Customize changes and when the language changes, and the bar never makes the window wider. Alt+G opens the globe's menu and Alt+E File Explorer's, from anywhere in the window. Customize, in Settings, can hide any of these icons but Settings itself; a hidden icon's shortcut does nothing until it is shown again, and a line with nothing left on one side goes too. Every icon is drawn at the library's own size with the same line weight as Windows' own, in the bar and in its menus, so none looks larger or bolder than the next. Each of them is used nowhere else in Fixyfier and never twice: a picture in the bar always means the same thing. The dark theme's Theme button is a crescent moon. Every standard button, drop-down list, search box and unticked check box in Fixyfier, and every notification that slides in at the corner of the window, wears the card's own colour in both themes, buttons with the card's hover and pressed shades. So does a segmented switch (Layouts' Desktop Icons | Windows): its selected segment is the card's colour, with the accent's line under it, and the strip lets the page show through; and the version badge in the title bar, its hover too. Accent buttons keep their accent, and a contrast theme keeps its own colours.

Create Restore Point, Power Mode, File Explorer and Desktop Icons

Create Restore Point, the clock with its arrow turning back, creates a restore point now, the same as Create in System Health. While the Confirmation switch is on it asks first.

File Explorer, the folder with its front flap, is a menu, each line with its icon and ticked while it is on: File Explorer's own Item Check Boxes, File Name Extensions and Hidden Items (its View > Show settings, applied to the open File Explorer windows at once), File Explorer Opens on This PC instead of Home, then Restart File Explorer and Rebuild the Icon Cache. While one of these is not as Windows has it out of the box, the folder wears a small green dot and the tooltip names which.

Show Desktop Icons, the screen with icons, hides every desktop icon at one click and brings them back exactly where they were at the next; it is struck through while they are hidden.

Windows Firewall, the castle wall first in the power group, is struck through while the firewall is off and says in its tooltip whether it is on. A click turns it off or on through the Windows Firewall card's own path: the confirmation, the restore point, the question when another firewall may be the one in charge, and the entry What Has Fixyfier Done? lists with its Undo. It is read again after that toggle runs, from the button or the card, and each time the window comes forward.

Power Mode, the gauge, is Windows' own power mode from Settings > System > Power: Best Power Efficiency (a leaf), Balanced (a pair of scales) or Best Performance (a flame), offered only with the Balanced power plan, as in Settings, with Open Power Settings (a battery). It wears a small green dot when it is not Balanced.

Offline Mode is the last line of the globe's menu, ticked while it is on (see Offline Mode under Privacy); the globe is struck through while it is on.

Quick Actions, Keep Awake, Run…, Open, the tools and Power

Keep Awake, the cup between Power Mode and Power at the bar's right end, is one button: a click, a right-click, the Menu key or Shift+F10 opens every choice under the cup, and its tooltip says how it stands and that a click shows the choices. It keeps the PC from sleeping and the screen on: For 30 Minutes, For 1 Hour, For 2 Hours (half a dial, a whole dial, two dials), Until I Turn It Off (infinity), or While a Task Runs (a task playing). Let the Screen Turn Off (a screen with a moon) keeps only the PC awake, and Turn Off Keep Awake is the cup struck through. While it is on, the cup is filled with a green dot. No Windows setting is changed, and it ends when you turn it off or close Fixyfier.

Run…, a window with "C:" and an arrow like Windows' own Run, opens Windows' own Run box, as Win+R does (also a card, Open the Run Box, under Windows Tools).

Open, the window with an arrow, lists Windows' own tools, each with its own icon, 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.

Quick Actions, the lightning bolt between Create Restore Point and the Log, is a menu of seven, each with its icon, run exactly as its own card runs it:

• Fix, a spanner, first, 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).
• Install Apps (three app tiles and a plus) opens Install Apps, as its card in Updates does: the programs people install most, a search of winget's whole catalogue and app lists, installed in one pass with winget.
• 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, a bug, starts Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool (mrt.exe), which opens in its own window.
• IP Configuration, a rounded box with “IP” in it, 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.

After Show Desktop Icons come five tools, each run exactly as its card runs it, each with an icon used nowhere else in the bar or on the navigation, and each can be hidden in Customize: Empty the Recycle Bin (a bin with a turning arrow) runs that card as its Run button does; What Is Taking Up the Space? (a pie chart), How Fast Is My Internet? (a down and an up arrow) open their windows; Windows Image Creator (an ISO, drawn as a CD) opens as its card's Run opens it; Eject a Drive (a USB plug, as Windows' own Safely Remove Hardware) opens its window.

Fix Hardware Detection Issues, the chip under a magnifying glass right after Quick Actions, runs the card of that name exactly as its Run button does.

Update Drivers, the chip with a down arrow before the Log, opens Update Drivers as its card does.

Schedule Shutdown, the stop-watch before Power, asks in how many hours and minutes Windows should shut down, as its card does. While a shutdown it scheduled is waiting, the same button is Cancel Scheduled Shutdown (the stop-watch struck through; its tooltip says when), which runs shutdown /a as that card does. It goes back once the shutdown is cancelled or its time has passed, even after Fixyfier restarts.

Power, the power button, 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, each with its icon; Shut Down's is the power mark in a rounded square, not the bar's Power button, and Restart into Advanced Startup's is the boot menu. Lock is immediate; the others always ask first, whatever the Confirmation switch says, and never while a task runs.

Settings

Settings, the gear right of the globe, opens a panel with Fixyfier's own settings. Its three buttons close the panel and then run:

• 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, Read Aloud, Text size, the Accessibility panel's choices, the keyboard shortcuts, what closing the window does, Start With Windows, Offline Mode, the PC Health Letter's reminder, what Customize hides and the notice thresholds), your routines, your favorites, copies of your MyTools scripts, your saved layouts, the routines and tasks that run by themselves and when, Eject a Drive's rules for each drive, and the Windows settings Fixyfier changed on this PC.
• Import Settings opens such a file and lists what it holds. Only what you tick comes in, and nothing already here is written over; each schedule is set up again with its own confirmation.
• Reset to Default Settings puts Fixyfier back to the way it was installed: its settings, saved routines, layouts, Your Changes, the record of dismissed prompts and the cached Store record are removed, every task in Task Scheduler's \Fixyfier\ folder goes too (so schedules stop and Fixyfier no longer starts when you sign in), and the app closes.

Under them are Open Fixyfier from anywhere with (off until you pick one of three ready-made shortcuts or press your own), Eject a drive with, When I close the window and When I sign in to Windows. Each choice applies at once.

Customize, at the bottom of the panel, has a tick for each screen of the navigation and for each top-bar icon; every screen of the navigation is ticked to begin with, and in the top bar the everyday few: Fixyfier Online, Settings, Language, Theme, Accessibility, Create System Restore Point, Quick Actions, Update Drivers, Open, Empty the Recycle Bin, What Is Taking Up the Space?, How Fast Is My Internet? and Power. The others (Fix Hardware Detection Issues, Log, Run…, File Explorer, Show Desktop Icons, Windows Image Creator, Eject a Drive, Windows Firewall, Power Mode, Keep Awake and Schedule Shutdown) are one tick away. Under the top bar's ticks, Only the Suggested Icons puts that starting set back and Show Every Icon ticks them all. Tick or untick one and it shows or goes at once, with no restart, and stays hidden the next time Fixyfier starts. The Dashboard always stays, because it is the home screen, and so do Settings and the Confirmation switch, so there is always a way back. A hidden screen is only off the navigation: search still finds its tasks and opens it, its favorites still run, and the arrow keys skip its row; if it is the screen on show, the Dashboard comes up. Export Settings takes these choices along, and Reset to Default Settings puts them back as they were to begin with.

The Log

The Log, the page in the top bar, is off until you turn it on with Keep a Log (a page being written with a pen); it has a green dot while it is on. Then each task you run is written with its exact command, its output and how it ended, and any error Fixyfier itself hits with its details, to one plain text file a day in Documents\Fixyfier\Logs. Open Today's Log, Open the Log Folder and Delete the Logs are in the same menu, each with its icon. A day's file stops at 5 MB, files older than 30 days are deleted when logging starts, each session's log starts with the line "The Log is on", a crash while it is on (even before any task has run) is written into the day's file with where Fixyfier was, so are the warnings that would otherwise go to a console (Fixyfier never writes to one), and nothing leaves the PC. It is useful when something goes wrong and you want to see, or send someone, exactly what ran.

The first time, Fixyfier opens centred and exactly as tall as the rail needs. From then on it opens at the size and place you left it, maximized or not, always on the Dashboard; it is never shorter than the rail needs to show every screen's icon.

The search box takes the keyboard only when you go to it: a click, Tab, Ctrl+K or the microphone. When a dialog closes, the keyboard goes back to where it was before it opened.

Recently Used: click inside the empty search box to see the five tasks you ran last, and pick one to go straight to its card. It opens only for that click, never when the box gets the keyboard any other way, such as a dialog opening or closing.

PC Detective

PC Detective, on the rail right above Troubleshooting Guides and marked with a magnifier, holds every card that finds out what really happened on this PC, grouped by when you need them (see PC Detective below). Its cards are only there.

Start With Windows is in Settings, in the top bar. Where it cannot be used (a copy not installed from the Microsoft Store), it is greyed out and says why.

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.

Click the version badge beside Fixyfier's name in the title bar to ask the Store at once. The answer is the update window, that no update was found, or that the Store could not be reached.

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.

Run This First

Some tasks do a better job right after another one, and some big steps have a lighter fix worth trying first. Before such a task runs, Fixyfier checks whether that other task ran recently enough, and only says something when it did not. The task's own confirmation and restore point come after, exactly as always, and Esc runs nothing.

• Repair System Files works best after Repair the Windows Image (within 7 days).
• Run a Quick Antivirus Scan works best with fresh definitions (within 24 hours, as Microsoft Defender itself dates them).
• Securely Wipe Free Space works best after emptying the Recycle Bin and the temporary files (within 24 hours).
• Fix Windows Apps offers Clear Microsoft Store Cache first as a lighter fix, then Repair the Windows Image and Repair System Files (within 7 days).
• Reset Windows Update offers Clear Windows Update Cache first (within 7 days; the Windows Update Troubleshooter counts too).
• Reset Network Configurations offers Flush DNS, Release & Renew IP, Winsock Reset and Reset TCP/IP first (within 24 hours; any one tried counts).

A task that works best after others offers Run in Order or Run Only This; a big step offers Try the Lighter Fix or Run It Anyway. Time is counted, not the calendar, and only a run that finished counts: stopped, or ended with an error code, it did not happen. A routine or Select Tasks missing a prerequisite offers to add it (a scheduled run never asks), Fix shows a line under Repair System Files when the image repair is not ticked and has not run in 7 days, and after Winsock Reset or Reset TCP/IP the other is offered, so one restart does for both. Suggest what should run first, in Settings, turns this off or on.

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.

Did you mean? When a word you typed is not one any task uses but one is close, by sound or spelling, a line above the results suggests it, and one click searches it. Search also ignores accents, so Greek typed without them finds the same tasks, another form of a word (plural, case) finds its task, and in Chinese, Japanese and Thai a wrong character still finds it.

Search by voice. Click the microphone in the search box, wait for the beep, and say a task's name, such as "Flush the DNS Cache", a short form of it such as "DNS cache", or the problem, such as "my sound stopped working". What was heard is searched as if you had typed it. Windows makes several guesses at what it heard, and a task name among them, or one that is nearly a task name, is searched for as that task. A spoken request is searched by the words that carry it: "I want to clear cache" lists every task that clears a cache. It uses Windows' own offline speech recognition in the app's language (Windows' newer speech engine where the PC has one), listening for the names of Fixyfier's own tasks, so nothing you say leaves the PC and "IP configuration" is heard as IP Configuration. Words that match nothing Fixyfier does are not searched for: it says what it heard and gives an example of what to say. When Windows was not sure which task it heard, Fixyfier asks Did you mean …? and searches only if you say yes. While it listens it shows that sound is arriving, and when the microphone picks up nothing it says so and offers the Sound settings. In a language Windows cannot recognize offline, Windows 11's own voice typing listens instead, in a small box over the search box. Esc, or the microphone again, stops listening.

Keyboard

F1 opens Need Help? for the screen you are on, or for the focused card. When you move with the keyboard, a ring in the accent color shows where the focus is; it goes away when you use the mouse.

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).
• Eject a Drive, the list of USB drives and memory cards to eject (see Eject a Drive under Files & Folders)
• 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.

Language, the globe left of Theme, opens a card with every language in a grid, each in its own name; click one, or move with the arrow keys and press Enter, and Fixyfier offers to restart in it.

When one of Windows' contrast themes is on, Fixyfier uses that theme's own colors instead of its own, and the Theme button is greyed out. Switching a contrast theme while Fixyfier is open offers a restart. The same happens while High Contrast is chosen in Accessibility.

Need Help?

At the right of every screen's title is Need Help?, and F1 opens it from anywhere. The small panel says what the screen is for and where to start; for the focused card, what kind of thing it is (a setting you can switch back, a tool that only opens a window, a deeper change that takes a restore point first) with What Does This Do?; under Something Wrong? Start Here, the six Answers that find most problems and Describe the Problem; and Open the Full Help at the topic for that screen. Nothing in it changes the PC by itself. F1 again closes it; on a keyboard whose top row is set to media keys, it is Fn+F1; on a Logitech MX keyboard, Fn+Esc locks that row to F1-F12.

Help

Help (the ring icon at the bottom of the rail, or Ctrl+H) teaches Fixyfier by showing it: 13 topics, from finding your way around and searching to undoing a change, accessibility, the keyboard and how Fixyfier keeps you safe, plus the full written reference. Each topic has a short moving picture of that part of Fixyfier, drawn in your language, theme and look, with numbered circles that match the numbered steps under it. A click or Space pauses it; with Reduce Motion on it shows a still frame. Show Me lights up the real thing in the window, and Listen reads the topic aloud.

Help also has Play the Welcome Again. The first time Fixyfier opens on a PC, a welcome of about a minute plays Help's own pictures; Skip closes it, and with Reduce Motion on it shows still pictures.

Accessibility

Every button, switch, card and box has a name that Narrator and NVDA read, with a card's state and what it does, and the end of a run and each notification are announced.

Read Aloud, in Accessibility under Listen, is for people who do not use a screen reader but are helped by hearing the screen. Turn it on and Fixyfier reads out, in the app's language, what the keyboard moves to, what the pointer rests on, each dialog as it opens and each notification. Esc stops it. It says the name Fixyfier as it sounds, Fixy-fai-er. It uses only the voices installed in Windows, through Windows' own speech service, never the internet, and only one for the app's language: when there is none, it says so and offers the Speech settings. While a screen reader is running it stays quiet.

Text size, in Accessibility, makes all of Fixyfier larger: Same as Windows, 100%, 125%, 150%, 175% or 200%, after a restart. Only the sizes at which the whole window still fits the screen are offered.

Accessibility, the figure icon right of Language, opens a panel with everything that makes Fixyfier easier to see, read, use and hear: High Contrast Dark or Light; Low Saturation, High Saturation or Monochrome, which recolor the whole window; status colors for red-green or blue-yellow color blindness, with a shape on every status dot; an Easy to Read font and Wide text spacing; a Reading Guide, a line or a mask that follows the pointer; Reduce Motion, which is always on while Windows' animation effects are off; a Stronger Focus Ring; and Read Aloud's speed and whether it reads what the pointer rests on. More in Windows opens Windows' own Text Size, Contrast Themes, Animation Effects, Color Filters, Mouse Pointer and Narrator pages, which apply to every app. Read Aloud is remembered, and says so when Fixyfier starts with it on.

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).

Run…, Open, Keep Awake, Power, Quick Actions and Settings are in the top bar, on every screen (see The title bar above).

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
• Serial Number, as the maker wrote it into the firmware
• Installed On, the date Windows was installed
• Model, the maker and model
• Battery Health, on a laptop or tablet: how much of its original capacity the battery still holds

Serial Number, Model and Battery Health say N/A when the PC has none (a desktop has no battery) and Unknown when they could not be read. All of them are read from the PC itself, never from the internet.

The live gauges

Three gauges in one row: 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"), read directly on the PC. 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 eleven facts in four groups - Protection, Updates and Windows, A Way Back and Connection - each with a colored dot (green is fine, amber is worth acting on, gray is unknown or not applicable) and the state in words. In each group the rows worth acting on come first and those that could not be read come last, and a line beside the title says how many need a look and how many could not be read:

• 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.
• Drive Encryption: whether BitLocker (or Device Encryption) protects the system drive: On, Off, Suspended or Encrypting… with how far it has got.
• Last Update Installed: the date of the newest Windows update and how many days ago that was, amber after 45 days.
• Memory Integrity: Core isolation's protection against malicious drivers, On or Off.

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, a workspace of its own. A switch at the top chooses Desktop Icons or Windows, beside Import… and Save Current Layout. Under it:

• The chosen layout, drawn to scale: the screens it was saved on, the taskbar, and every icon or window where the layout has it (point at one to see its name).
• All Layouts: every layout of that kind as a tile with its own small picture.

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", and a small line beside it shows how that number went over the readings kept. 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.

Try It First

A switch's right-click menu has Try Turning It On… or Try Turning It Off…. The next time Fixyfier opens, On Trial lists what you tried and how the PC has done since, with Put It Back and Keep Them.

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 are the individual repair cards that Fix and your routines are built from, grouped by what is broken: Repair Windows (DISM, SFC, CHKDSK and the other repairs of Windows itself), Desktop, Search & Apps, Sound, Display & Video, Devices & Connections (the network, printing, Bluetooth and the camera) and Logs.

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.

Fix files

Right-click a routine and choose Save as Fix File… to save it as one .fixyfier file for someone else's PC; send it however you like. On that PC, Open a Fix File… (beside New Routine) shows each step in plain words and runs nothing until Run It, always after a restore point. A fix file can only ask for tasks the receiving Fixyfier already has as routine steps, never a command of its own, and never carries your MyTools scripts.

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.

Fix Hardware Detection Issues

Fix Hardware Detection Issues first has Windows look for new hardware, as it always did, then checks each reason a drive or device can stay hidden after that, and lists what it finds with one fix button per row:

• a group policy that blocks USB drives or makes them read-only (named, never overridden);
• USB storage turned off (Turn On) or Windows giving new drives no letter (Turn On);
• a device with a problem (Restart Device, what Device Manager's Disable and Enable do), without a driver, or turned off in Device Manager (Turn On), including a USB device Windows could not identify;
• a drive whose USB connection is there but whose disk never came up (Restart Device on that connection);
• a disk that is offline: Bring Online for an external disk kept offline by the PC's storage policy or by having the same identity as another disk; any other reason (a virtual machine's disk, for example) is explained and opens Disk Management instead;
• a disk that is read-only (Make Writable), or has nothing on it Windows can read;
• a part of a disk without a drive letter (Give It a Letter), one in a format Windows cannot read (from a Mac or Linux, or damaged), or one locked with BitLocker (opens it so you can unlock it);
• drive letters File Explorer is set to hide (the NoDrives setting; Show Them);
• what the PC's own USB ports and any USB hub report about each port, as Microsoft's USBView reads it: a device that did not start, drew too much power so its port was switched off, did not get enough power, or found no bandwidth left.
• while a drive is missing: each external hub, saying when it has no power adapter of its own (a hard disk behind such a hub often does not get enough power to start), with Restart Hub.
• USB power saving, when a USB drive is missing or in trouble: the power plan's selective suspend and each USB hub's "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" (Turn Off changes both);
• the records Windows keeps of drives that are not connected now, with when the latest was last plugged in (Clear Old Records: only records of drives not connected are removed, and Windows sets each drive up afresh the next time it is plugged in; nothing on the drives changes);
• and a restart, which starts every USB port afresh (with Fast Startup on, Shut Down does not);
• and the drives that are connected fine, with their letters.

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 unless you turn on its Log.

Cleanup & Optimize

Cleanup & Optimize holds the tasks that free space and the switches that affect performance, in three groups: Free Up Space, Drives & Performance and Restore Points. 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, Clear Microsoft Teams Cache and, on Security & Privacy, Delete Recent Items History. The confirmation shows the folder (or folders) 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.

Clear Microsoft Teams Cache works with classic and new Teams, in the folders Microsoft's own instructions name. An open Teams is closed first, waited for until its files are free, and started again afterwards with your ordinary rights. Clear Microsoft Outlook Cache works with both Outlooks: classic Outlook's RoamCache (keeping the AutoComplete list) and its folder of opened attachments, and only the web view's caches of the new Outlook, never its sign-ins. Outlook is never closed for you, because closing it by force can damage its mail file: an open Outlook's folders are left and the log says to close it first. Both end with how many files and megabytes went.

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. Fixyfier never ticks a rule for you; the rules you ticked the last time you removed something are ticked again, and a rule you have never chosen starts unticked. The preview of what would go always comes first.

Storage Sense

Storage Sense is a switch for Windows' own automatic cleanup, which clears temporary files when space runs low. What it clears and when is set in Settings > System > Storage.

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 four groups: This PC (the specifications and reports), Power & Startup, Windows Features & Setup (Windows Features, services, the image creator, moving to a new PC) and Explorer & Taskbar, the switches for how Windows looks and how File Explorer and the taskbar behave.

Explorer & Taskbar

Each card is a switch or a short row of buttons that shows the setting as Windows has it now: dark mode, transparency effects, animations, the taskbar icons centered or on the left, Search on the Taskbar (hidden, icon or search box), the Task View button, Widgets, Combine Taskbar Buttons (always, when the taskbar is full, or never), seconds in the clock, End Task in the taskbar's right-click menu, file name extensions, hidden files, whether File Explorer opens on This PC, the Home and Gallery entries in File Explorer, the "Learn about this picture" desktop icon, and Num Lock at startup. Settings that File Explorer or the taskbar read only when they start restart File Explorer for your session after the change; Windows starts it again by itself. Widgets is switched with Microsoft's policy, so it does not come back on by itself.

Set Services to Manual

Set Services to Manual lists a short, vetted set of services that start with Windows but are needed rarely or never, such as the offline-maps downloader, Fax, the Insider service and the background updaters of Edge, Chrome and Acrobat. Every one found on this PC is shown, with what it does. The ones that start automatically come first and can be ticked; one already on Manual or Disabled is listed greyed out with its current setting, so you can see it was not forgotten. On Manual, Windows still starts a service when something asks for it; nothing is disabled. Each change is one sc config <name> start= demand line, shown before it runs, after a restore point. What each service was set to is remembered, and Put Back returns exactly that, unless you changed the service yourself since.

Windows Image Creator

Windows Image Creator makes a new Windows installation ISO from Microsoft's own ISO, set up the way you choose. This PC's Windows is not changed. Choose the ISO; Fixyfier reads the editions in it and preselects Pro when there is one. Then choose:

• which preinstalled apps to leave out (only apps that are safe to leave out are listed; the Microsoft Store, App Installer, Calculator, Photos, Notepad, Paint, Terminal, Windows Security and the Xbox apps are never offered)
• Recall, Copilot and Windows AI data analysis off, by Microsoft's policies
• no suggested apps or ads, and the least diagnostic data the edition allows
• this PC's drivers, and drivers from a folder
• Setup that runs on PCs without TPM 2.0, Secure Boot or 4 GB of memory (Microsoft does not support Windows 11 on such PCs)
• a local account with no Microsoft account or internet connection needed; it starts without a password

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 on your Desktop, 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. The cards are grouped as Everyday Tools, Manage Windows (Disk Management, Services, Registry Editor, Group Policy and the like) and Logs & Monitors (Event Viewer, Reliability, Resource and Performance Monitor). Under Classic Control Panel are the classic windows many people still look for: System Properties, Sound, Power Options, Programs and Features, Date and Time, Internet Options, Network Connections, Mouse Properties, Devices and Printers, Environment Variables, Fonts and Credential Manager. Fixyfier changes nothing here. Each card starts the Windows tool and leaves the rest to you.

Gaming

Gaming has the game session and the settings that make a measurable difference to games. Fixyfier offers no registry "FPS boosts": the network and scheduling tweaks sold as such change nothing a game can measure on current Windows.

Game Session

Game Session sets the PC up for playing in one click and remembers how it was:

• the High performance power plan, when the PC has it (many laptops offer only Balanced, which already runs at full speed when plugged in; Ultimate Performance is left as it is)
• Windows Update paused until the same time tomorrow, when updates are not paused already
• Game Mode on
• the programs you tick closed.

The gaming switches

Game Mode, the Xbox button opening Game Bar, Background Recording (Game Bar's "Record what happened"), hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling, optimizations for windowed games, Enhance Pointer Precision (mouse acceleration), the Sticky Keys shortcut (Shift five times) and Memory Integrity. Each shows the setting as Windows has it now. Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling and Memory Integrity take effect after a restart, and the mouse and Sticky Keys settings after signing out. Memory Integrity is advanced: it protects Windows against malicious drivers, so turning it off asks first and says so. The Sticky Keys switch changes only the shortcut; Sticky Keys itself stays as it is. DirectPlay is a switch for the old DirectX component some games from the 1990s and 2000s still need, changed through DISM; it is advanced and needs a restart.

Security & Privacy

Security & Privacy has four sections: Protection (Windows Security, the antivirus scan, the firewall, the Malicious Software Removal Tool, Smart App Control, User Account Control, BitLocker and Turn Off Microsoft Defender), Privacy (the privacy switches and the history clean-ups), AI Features (Recall, Click to Do, and the AI features in Paint and Notepad) and Microsoft Edge (Edge Debloat and Uninstall Microsoft Edge).

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.

Offline Mode

Offline Mode, the first card under Privacy: while it is on, nothing in Fixyfier opens a web page or goes online - not the website, the Microsoft Store, GitHub, the rating, the donation, a guide, an article, a web search or any other link, and no update check, no Microsoft Store check, no download, no internet or clock test in the System Check-up. Clicking something that needs the internet says "Offline Mode is on, so Fixyfier does not open web pages or go online." with Turn Off Offline Mode (it is turned off, and what you clicked carries on) and Cancel (nothing opens). What runs by itself, such as the update check at start, stays offline without asking. What Has Fixyfier Done? lists each time it stayed shut.

AI Features

Recall, Click to Do, AI Features in Paint (Cocreator, Image Creator and Generative Fill) and AI Features in Notepad are switches that use Microsoft's own policies, so Windows itself treats the features as turned off. Recall and Click to Do exist only on Copilot+ PCs.

Microsoft Edge

Edge Debloat lists what Microsoft Edge can stop doing, each with a tick: the sidebar and its Copilot button, recommendations, shopping, Microsoft Rewards, Collections, startup boost and running in the background, personalized ads, diagnostic data, news and sponsored tiles on the new tab page, Follow, the first-run pages and asking to be the default browser. Each is one of Microsoft's documented Edge policies, written under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge. With any policy set, Edge says "Managed by your organization"; that is all it means here. Clearing a tick removes that value, and only values with the setting Edge Debloat writes are removed. Browser Hijack Check recognizes these policies as Edge Debloat's.

Block Ads & Telemetry

Block Ads & Telemetry turns off every advertising, suggestion and diagnostic-data setting Fixyfier knows about, in one pass. It is in the top bar'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, consumer features, the "finish setting up your device" offer that returns after updates, and tips sent as notifications.
• Start menu and File Explorer ads: sync provider notifications (the Microsoft 365 and OneDrive offers in File Explorer), Start recommendations, account notices in Start and on Settings' home page, and app launch tracking.
• Search highlights and web results: including Windows 11's own policy for web results in Start search.
• 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 three groups: Fix the Connection (Flush DNS, renewing the IP address, and the resets, which are advanced), Check the Connection (addresses, tests, Wi-Fi details and the connection list) and Network Settings (IPv6 and the Telnet Client).

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, in two groups: Windows Update and Apps & Microsoft Store. 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 Drivers

Update Drivers asks Windows Update which drivers it has for this PC's exact hardware - the drivers manufacturers publish there, signed and tested for Windows, the same list Settings keeps under Optional updates - and offers only the ones newer than what each device has now. Fixyfier keeps no driver database of its own: the driver updaters that do are where wrong drivers, meant for another model, come from.

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.

Install Apps

Install Apps installs programs in one pass with winget. A busy dialog covers the few seconds winget takes to say what is already installed (winget export, which gives exact package IDs).

Windows Update Settings

Windows Update Settings decides when Windows Update installs what. Every choice is a setting Windows itself has, written where Settings or Group Policy write it, and the command box shows the exact reg lines before anything changes. A restore point comes first.

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.

Eject a Drive

Eject a Drive lists the USB drives and memory cards that are connected, each with an Eject button. A disk with several drive letters is ejected as one. The disk Windows runs from, the one with the page file and the one Fixyfier runs from are never listed.

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, and in the full one under Show more options. Every line has its own picture, drawn light or dark as Windows draws its menus. 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. Right-click a row, or press the Menu key or Shift+F10 on it, for the same menu.

The list is drawn as one control, so it stays light however many apps there are: only the rows on screen are drawn, and an app's icon is looked up only once its row is on screen, a few at a time (a plain mark stands in until it arrives) and then kept for the rest of the session. With the keyboard, Tab into the list and use the arrow keys, Home, End, Page Up and Page Down; Enter runs the row's Uninstall, and in Select mode Space ticks the row. Screen readers and Read Aloud read each row as it is shown.

Store apps take a few seconds to read, so desktop programs are shown first and Store apps join the list when they arrive. They are read once per session: opening the screen again shows the list at once and only re-reads the desktop programs. The Store apps are read again on Refresh and the next time the list is shown after any run (an uninstall, a reset or repair, Install Apps, a built-in app's switch). Refresh keeps the rows where they are while it reads, and the list updates in place, keeping your scroll position and your ticks.

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.

What Is Running, and Windows' Services

Fixyfier has no screen of its own for running programs or for Windows' services: what is running is Task Manager's, and the list of services is Windows' own Services console. Both open straight away, with no run window, from the Dashboard's Open menu and from the Open Task Manager and Open the Services Console cards on Windows Tools, and every button that answers "what is using it?" or "show this service" opens them:

• the Dashboard's Processor and Memory gauges (right-click, Open Task Manager);
• the System Check-up's Memory row (Open Task Manager) and its Windows Update service row (Open the Services Console);
• Why Is It Slow Right Now?, Why Does My Game Stutter? and Who Is Using This File? (Open Task Manager);
• What Changed's new services, Why Does It Take So Long to Shut Down? and Windows Update's "the service is turned off" answer (Open the Services Console).

Fixyfier does not recommend disabling any service. Where it offers to change one - Watch an Install and Hand It Over Sealed for a service that was added or now starts by itself, Why Is There No Sound? for a stopped audio service, and an Undo in Your Changes - the change goes through the rules below.

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

Services Windows needs to start, sign in or be managed at all are Protected: they cannot be stopped, restarted, disabled or set to Manual from here, and Fixyfier says why. Services whose loss is specific and painful (Windows Update, Microsoft Defender, Windows Firewall, audio, printing, Wi-Fi and others) can be changed, and the confirmation names the consequence first. Starting a service and setting it to Automatic are always allowed, because those are the two directions that cannot break a PC.

Start types

A start type is set to Automatic, Automatic (Delayed Start), Manual or Disabled with Windows' own sc config. Every change shows its command first, and Windows is asked for a restore point before it runs.

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 the questions Fixyfier can answer about this PC as it is now; what really happened, and the checks before and after a change, are in PC Detective, which opens several of the cards described below. 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.

What Has Fixyfier Done? lists, for this session, each time Fixyfier went online and why, each page it opened in your browser, each scan of your local network and each change it made. It is kept in memory only and is gone when Fixyfier closes.

Ask Someone for Help saves what is wrong with this PC as one small file for the person who helps you, every line shown first; your name, the PC's name, its serial number and your files are never in it, and Fixyfier sends nothing. They open it with Help Someone From Here, see that PC as if sitting at it, and send back a fix file made with Make a Fix File for Them….

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.

What Got Worse, and Why? does not need you to remember when a problem began: it finds the day in Windows' own records, from the time every start took, each program's crashes and freezes, blue screens and sudden power losses over the last month, and lists what changed just before it, most likely first, each with its own Roll Back, Uninstall, Show or Undo. It is a list of suspects, not a verdict.

Did It Help? checks Fixyfier's own work afterwards. For each change from the last month it compares the two weeks before with the days since: the typical start, crashes and freezes, blue screens and sudden power losses. Only large differences count, and only with enough on both sides; too soon is said as plainly as better or worse. When something got worse, the row has the change's Undo.

Rewind to the Day It Worked is for "it worked last week". Windows keeps no history of everyday settings, so Fixyfier keeps one: once a day it notes the default apps, DNS servers, proxy, default printer, power plan, time zone, firewall, display scaling, mouse, keyboard layouts and PATH, and keeps the days that differ, for up to sixty days. Pick a day and every setting that is different now is shown, then and now. Put It Back uses Windows' own command where there is one, after a restore point, and is listed in Your Changes; it never turns a firewall off. Default apps, display scaling and keyboard layouts can only be changed in Settings, so their row opens the right page.

Catch It in the Act names what you only see for a moment: a window that flashes up and closes, something that steals the focus, or the fan suddenly roaring. Choose what happens, leave it open, and press It Just Happened right after it does. It shows what started, came to the front or used a quarter or more of the processor in the last minute and a half, and who started it: a scheduled task (with Turn Off, which can be undone), Windows on a service's behalf, you, or another program. Even a console window open for a fraction of a second is caught. It watches only while open, unless you choose Keep Watching; nothing it sees is kept or sent.

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. How Fast Is My Internet? measures download, upload and lag, and says what limits them: the Wi-Fi or cable, lag that jumps while something downloads, or the connection itself. 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. Each device shows what it usually is (router, printer, network storage, TV, phone, smart-home device and so on) and who made it, from the public IEEE list of network-card makers that ships with Fixyfier, its name on the network, and a look at four common ports (a settings page, shared folders, a printer). A printer, a NAS or the router gets Open; any other device can be given your own name with Name It…. On a company network or one Windows treats as public it asks before looking, because the other devices there are not yours. 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.

Watch an Install finds what a new program really adds. Press Start Watching before installing; afterwards, open it again (after the restart, if the installer asked for one) to see what is new: programs installed alongside, something that now starts with Windows, a new service or one that now starts automatically, and tasks that run by themselves. Each comes with Stop It Starting, Set to Manual or Turn Off, and every change can be undone from Your Changes. Only names are kept, never paths, and a watch older than two weeks starts again.

Is It Safe to Restart Now? says in one line whether a restart now would interrupt something: Windows installing updates, an installer, a copy or download writing to the disk, a low battery that is not charging, windows whose titles show unsaved changes, or another account still signed in. It also says when a restart is waiting anyway, and offers Restart Now… when the answer is yes.

PC Health Letter writes this PC's month on one page, in plain words: what needs a look, what got worse, crashes and restarts, space and battery, and what Fixyfier changed and whether it helped. It is saved in Documents\Fixyfier\Reports and opened in your browser, to keep, print or give to whoever looks after the PC; nothing is sent anywhere. Remind Me Each Month offers the letter when Fixyfier opens, once a month.

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.

Why Isn't Windows Offering Me the Update? answers the question Windows Update leaves open when a new version is out and it says the PC is up to date. It lists, in order: your own update settings (paused, new versions delayed, told to stay on this version, automatic updates off), each with a button to Windows Update Settings; a compatibility hold Microsoft placed because a driver or program on this PC has a known problem with the new version, read from Windows' own record and shown with the hold's id and Look It Up for Microsoft's release health pages (opened in your browser only when you press it); the requirements this PC does not meet; and less than 20 GB free on the system drive. When nothing is in the way, it says the update has most likely not reached this PC yet, because Microsoft offers a new version a few PCs at a time. When Fixyfier starts as you sign in, it tells you when a hold it saw has been lifted.

How Used Is This PC? is an odometer for a PC you are buying, new or second-hand. It reads counters Windows cannot reset: how many hours the disk has run, how often the battery has been charged and how much of its capacity is left, when Windows was first set up here (Windows keeps the date of every installation it upgraded from, so a feature update does not hide the first one), the accounts that have used it, the Wi-Fi networks it remembers, the Bluetooth devices paired with it and the USB devices ever connected. Then it says, in a word, how used it looks: new, lightly used, used or heavily used. A new PC has a few hours and charges from the factory and the shop, and the verdict allows for that. Nothing is changed.

Hand It Over Sealed is for the day the PC goes to a repair shop or is lent out. Seal It just before you hand it over: Fixyfier notes the hardware by serial number, when Windows was installed, the accounts and administrators, the root certificates it trusts, the programs, what starts by itself and the everyday settings. When it is back, Compare Now shows what is different: a disk or motherboard replaced, memory taken out, Windows installed again, a new account or administrator, a new trusted root certificate, a remote-control program, what now starts by itself, and changed settings, each with its own action. Copy copies the list to take back to the shop. The seal stays on this PC.

PC Detective

PC Detective finds out what really happened on this PC. It sits on the rail right above Troubleshooting Guides, and its cards are only there. Each reads what Windows recorded and changes nothing until you choose.

When Something Goes Wrong

• What Got Worse, and Why?: Finds the day something got worse - slower starts, a program that began crashing, blue screens or sudden power losses - and lists what changed just before it.
• Rewind to the Day It Worked: Compares today's everyday settings, such as default apps, DNS, proxy, power plan and firewall, with a day when things worked, and puts back what changed.
• Catch It in the Act: Names the program behind a window that flashes up, something that takes the focus or a fan that suddenly roars, and the scheduled task that started it.
• Why Is It Slow Right Now?: Watch the PC for ten seconds and say what is slowing it down right now - the processor held back, the disk or memory at its limit, or Windows' own work - cause first. Nothing is changed.
• Explain an Error: Paste any error code, message or missing file name and get what Windows says it means and, where the fix is known, the one thing to do.
• Read an Error from the Screen: Snip an error on the screen and Windows' own text recognition reads it, offline, then every code in it is explained.
• Blue Screen Autopsy: Every blue screen from the last three months: what its stop code means in plain words, what changed on the PC just before, and the next step. Also the driver hangs Windows recovered from without one.
• Why Did It Restart?: Why the PC restarted or shut down, each time in the last 30 days: Windows Update, a person, a program, a blue screen or the power going. Nothing is changed.
• Why Did It Wake Up?: What woke the PC from sleep, what is keeping it awake now, and which devices and scheduled tasks may wake it, from Windows' own records. Each can be switched off, and undone.
• Why Does It Take So Long to Shut Down?: Windows' own timing of every shut-down, the programs and services that held one up, and the two settings that make every shut-down slow.
• It Started Around…: Say roughly when a problem started and see what changed on the PC around then, most likely first: drivers, updates, programs, startup entries and Fixyfier's own changes.

Before and After a Change

• Did It Help?: For each change Fixyfier made in the last month: has the PC started faster, crashed less, or the opposite since? Measured from Windows' own records, with Undo when it got worse.
• Watch an Install: Start watching before you install something; afterwards, what it really added - programs, startup entries, services, tasks that run by themselves - each with a way to stop it.
• Is It Safe to Restart Now?: Whether a restart now would interrupt an update, an installer, a copy, unsaved work or another account, in one line.
• Something Broke After an Update: Every update and driver from the last two weeks, each with Windows' own way back, and a way to pause updates while its maker fixes it.
• What Has Fixyfier Done?: Each time Fixyfier went online since it started and why, each page it opened in your browser, and each change it made. Kept in memory only.

Keeping This PC Yours

• I Think I Was Scammed: After a fake support call: finds remote-control programs, remote access switched on, new administrators, sign-in screen back doors and web redirects, and undoes each one you choose.
• Did Someone Use My PC?: Everything Windows recorded while you were away: sign-ins and unlocks, failed sign-ins, wakes, programs started, files opened, USB drives connected.
• Hand It Over Sealed: Before the PC goes for repair or is lent out, seal it; when it is back, see what changed: parts replaced, Windows reinstalled, new accounts, programs and certificates.
• What Happened While It Was Away for Repair?: Everything Windows recorded since you handed the PC in for repair: programs, drivers, accounts, remote-control programs, sign-ins, files opened.
• Who Used My Camera or Microphone?: Which apps used the camera, the microphone or location, and when. Use at night is marked.
• Find Sensitive Files Lying Around: Passwords in text files, password exports, card numbers, IBANs, private keys and passport photos in your folders - before you sell, lend or lose this PC.

Buying, Selling and Planning Ahead

• How Used Is This PC?: An odometer for a PC you are buying: disk hours, battery charges and wear, when Windows was first set up, and signs of earlier owners.
• Why Isn't Windows Offering Me the Update?: What keeps a new version of Windows from this PC: your own settings, a compatibility hold Microsoft placed, the requirements or free space - and a notice when a hold is lifted.
• What Upgrade Would Actually Help?: The disk, memory and slots in this PC, and the one upgrade that would really make it faster - or that none is needed.
• Is a Drive Dying? Save What Matters: Each drive's health as Windows and the drive report it, and a copy of your folders to another drive, skipping what can no longer be read.
• Before You Sell or Give Away This PC: What to do before a PC changes hands: copy what you need, find what must not be left behind, and reset it the way that really erases.
• Make an Emergency Card: One page for the day Windows does not start: the PC's model and serial, drive recovery keys, network drivers, and how to reach recovery.
• PC Health Letter: This PC's month on one page, in plain words, to keep or give to whoever looks after it, with a monthly reminder if you want one.

Getting Help From Someone

• Describe the Problem: Say what is wrong in your own words and get the tools that answer it, best first. An error code in it is explained straight away.
• Ask Someone for Help: Saves what is wrong with this PC as one small file for the person who helps you, shown line by line first. They can send back a fix file. Fixyfier sends nothing itself.
• Help Someone From Here: Open a help request someone saved on their PC: see what is wrong there as if you were sitting at it, and make a fix file to send back.

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, each starting with a short drawn, moving picture of that kind of problem, what the group covers, and Check this PC first buttons that open the Fixyfier cards checking the same thing here. The pictures play only while on screen, and not with Reduce Motion. A box above the groups finds a guide by a word or a symptom:

• 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. Unlike the guides, it is on fixyfier.com in all 44 of Fixyfier's languages, so it opens in the app's language and its card shows its title in that language.

When the PC is on a Wi-Fi network with no password and no encryption, and no VPN is up, Fixyfier says so once for that network: This Wi-Fi Network Isn't Encrypted, a sentence on what that means, and Read on fixyfier.com, which opens the same article. It checks while the window is open (shortly after it appears, then every fifteen minutes), never while Fixyfier is only in the notification area, and it remembers the networks it has mentioned as short one-way codes, not by name. A network with a password, Enhanced Open, Ethernet, or Windows not saying (with Location turned off, Windows 11 can keep a network's security to itself) gets no note. Every link to this article goes to fixyfier.com; the app never links to a VPN provider.

Settings and Reset

What Fixyfier stores

Settings live in one file, settings.json in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Fixyfier, with a spare copy beside it (settings.json.bak). It holds:

• the theme, the language, the Confirmation switch, Read Aloud and Text size;
• 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;
• whether Offline Mode is on, the switches on trial, and whether the welcome was shown.
• an install being watched (names only), and when the last PC Health Letter was written and whether to remind you;
• whether Fixyfier starts when you sign in, and which screens and top-bar icons Customize hides;
• the compatibility holds Windows Update had the last time you looked.

Start With Windows. Settings, in the top bar, also has When I sign in to Windows: Don't Start Fixyfier (the default) or Start Fixyfier, with Start Minimized under it (ticked to begin with: in the notification area; unticked: with its window open). When it is on, Fixyfier starts a few seconds after you sign in, so Eject a Drive, the shortcuts and the notices work from the start. It is started the way the Start menu starts it, so Windows asks for administrator rights each time. It is a task named Start at Sign-in in Task Scheduler's \Fixyfier\ folder, and choosing Don't Start Fixyfier removes it. If Windows ever refuses the change, the setting says so and, with the Log on, the Log holds Windows' exact reason. The first time, a notification says where the icon is.

Reset to Default Settings

Reset to Default Settings (in Settings, in the top bar) puts Fixyfier back to the way it was installed and then closes it. It removes:

• every setting in settings.json (settings, routines, schedules, Your Changes and every dismissed prompt), and the old SOFTWARE\Fixyfier registry key;
• 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.

With the settings go Offline Mode, the window's saved size and place, the language, the theme and the Accessibility choices; closing ends Keep Awake. Nothing about Windows is changed.

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 unless you ask, no telemetry. Fixyfier keeps no log files on disk unless you turn on its Log, and sends nothing anywhere. Your Changes and every other record stay in the settings file on this PC.
• Network only when a task needs it: Update Apps, Install Apps, the extra cleaning rules download, network tests, the speed test (only when you press Start), Update Drivers (Windows Update), 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. Fixyfier ends a process only for Force Delete, and only an ordinary, identified program: never one of Windows' core processes, a service or the process that hosts it, or Explorer. Everything else that is running is Task Manager's.
• 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.