Several mainstream tech sites this week published details of a purported new Microsoft support tool designed to fix problems with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. After some digging, I can report that it is no such thing. My advice: Stay far away from this "Windows Self Healing Tool."
If you want to be a Windows expert, one of the most important lessons to learn is skepticism. Whenever someone claims to have a magic fix-it tool or a MakeRocketShipGoFast registry tweak, you should keep it away from any system you care about until you can confirm it does what it says it does.
In my experience, those claims rarely turn out to be true.
That guideline applies double when the bag of magic beans comes from a user in a support forum, or even from a first-tier support rep.
This week's case in point is instructive. According to a post on the Microsoft Answers forum for owners of Surface devices, Microsoft is testing a "Windows Self Healing Tool" specifically designed to fix problems with the Anniversary Update.
After downloading the tool in question, I became suspicious and started asking some questions.
