PowerShell fixes

Modern Windows troubleshooting for power users.

PowerShell is excellent for gathering system details, diagnosing resources, resetting network adapters, clearing DNS, and generating a support report for DR FRED.

Open laptop during repair

Open PowerShell as administrator

  1. Right-click Start.
  2. Select Terminal (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin).
  3. Confirm the UAC prompt.

Script safety

Never paste a long internet script you do not understand. Avoid commands that change Execution Policy unless you trust the script source and know how to restore the setting.

System facts

Collect Windows and hardware details.

Windows version summary
Get-ComputerInfo | Select-Object WindowsProductName, WindowsVersion, OsBuildNumber, CsManufacturer, CsModel
Storage overview
Get-Volume | Select-Object DriveLetter, FileSystemLabel, SizeRemaining, Size
Get-PhysicalDisk | Select-Object FriendlyName, HealthStatus, OperationalStatus, Size
Performance

Find heavy processes without guessing.

Top CPU users
Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 10 Name, Id, CPU, WorkingSet
Top memory users
Get-Process | Sort-Object WorkingSet -Descending | Select-Object -First 10 Name, Id, @{Name="MemoryMB";Expression={[math]::Round($_.WorkingSet/1MB,1)}}
Network

Inspect and restart network adapters.

List adapters
Get-NetAdapter | Format-Table Name, Status, LinkSpeed, MacAddress
Restart a Wi‑Fi adapter
Restart-NetAdapter -Name "Wi-Fi" -Confirm:$false
Clear DNS cache
Clear-DnsClientCache

Adapter names vary. Run Get-NetAdapter first, then replace Wi-Fi with the exact adapter name shown on your computer.

Image repair

PowerShell equivalent for DISM health repair.

Scan and repair Windows image
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -ScanHealth
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth
Support report

Create a desktop report for DR FRED.

Generate DR FRED support report
$desk = [Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop")
$report = Join-Path $desk "DR-FRED-SystemReport.txt"
"DR FRED SYSTEM REPORT - $(Get-Date)" | Out-File $report
Get-ComputerInfo | Select-Object WindowsProductName, WindowsVersion, OsBuildNumber, CsManufacturer, CsModel | Out-File $report -Append
"`n--- IP CONFIG ---" | Out-File $report -Append
ipconfig /all | Out-File $report -Append
"`n--- TOP PROCESSES BY MEMORY ---" | Out-File $report -Append
Get-Process | Sort-Object WorkingSet -Descending | Select-Object -First 15 Name, Id, WorkingSet | Out-File $report -Append
notepad $report
Can PowerShell fix everything?

No. PowerShell is powerful for diagnosis and controlled repair, but hardware faults, liquid damage, storage failure, and board problems need physical inspection.

Do I need admin rights?

Many network, image repair, and adapter commands require administrator rights. Read-only commands such as basic process listings often work without elevation.

What should I send to DR FRED?

Send the support report, screenshots of errors, device model, what changed before the fault, and whether important files are backed up.