Question
Issue: How to fix SFC error “Windows resource protection cannot perform the requested operation”?
My PC got very slow, so I’ve wrote to several IT forums and was offered to run sfc / scannot. I’m not going to list all the fixes I was offered because the problem lies not there.
The problem is that whenever I try to run SCF, the process stops at a certain percentage and throws a notification saying: “windows resource protection cannot perform the requested operation”. Don’t have any ideas why does it show up and how to restore sfc. Please help!
Solved Answer
SFC or System File Checker is one of the Windows maintenance utility, which comes by default with all Windows OS versions. Its purpose is to scan Windows system thoroughly, discover damaged/corrupted/missing system files, and fix them automatically. Thus, SFC usefulness is unquestionable.
In order to run sfc / scannow (a.k.a sfc.exe), the user has to access elevated Command Prompt and run the command on it. Unfortunately, but quite often sfc scan fails during the process or immediately after it and informs the users that “Windows resource protection cannot perform the requested operation”.
First of all, this notification informs that sfc detected some issues related to system files, but could not repair them. Second of all, it indicates the fact that SFC utility is malfunctioning as well. Microsoft hasn’t yet acknowledged this bug and probably is not going to do so in the future because it’s not very common and shows up on random occasions only.
The bad news is that SCF – Windows resource protection cannot perform the requested operation error causes are not known. The good news is that specialists have found the way to fix it and we are going to share those ways with you.
How to fix SFC “Windows resource protection cannot perform the requested operation” error?
Solution 1. Launch CHKDSK
- Click Win key and press cmd.
- Right-click on the search results and select Run as Administrator.
- If you are asked to enter your administrator password, make sure you enter it correctly.
- Type CHKDSK C: /R in the Command Prompt window and press Enter.
- After that, type y and press Enter again.
- Reboot your PC and wait for the CHKDSK scan to finish.
- If after that you can run SFC scan, it means that the problem has been fixed.
Solution 2. Change security descriptors
In case SFC scan fails due to the fact that it cannot acces winsxs folder, you should modify security descriptors of this folder manually. This can be done by performing the following steps:
- Click Win key and type cmd.
- Right-click on the results and select Run as Administrator.
- If a confirmation window appears and asks you to type in an administrator password, make sure that you type it correctly.
- Type ICACLS C:\\Windows\\winsxs in the Command Prompt window and press Enter.
- After that, close Command Prompt window and reboot your PC.
If these methods did not help to fix SFC scan failed with “Windows resource protection cannot perform the requested operation” notification, you can also try to run a scan with a PC optimization tool in case the failure is triggered by malware, software incompatibilities, or similar problems. For this purpose, you can use Reimage.
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