Reviewing PassFab FixUWin v2.6.7.0 on 2022-12-31.

This builds 1.3GB boot USB ( I could not get it to make an ISO, nor create a boot DVD ).

It asks what OS to plan for, but the result seems all-purpose, asking again after booting from the resulting USB bot drive what OS to repair ( I thought I’d need to make a separate boot USB for each OS, but I think one may be all-purpose anyway ).

Though the original software itself that makes the boot USB may ‘expire’, I believe the resulting boot USB will always work forever nonetheless, we just can’t make any additional boot USBs after the license expires.

This seems safe, though it does NOT tell us what it is going to do, so I tested on a well-backed up computer.

For me, booting to look at a Windows 7 Pro x64 computer, the auto repair tool ran standard Microsoft tools:

- SFC /ScanNow

- ChkDsk /F /OffLineScanAndFix /X

- BootRec /ScanOS
- BootRec /FixMBR
- BootRec /NT60 sys /MBR
- BootRec /FixBoot

Plus, as displayed in the promotional blurbs above, there are other tools, non-Microsoft tools, for backup, to reset Windows passwords, to recover data, and to manage disk partitions.

I consider this a useful repair tool, among many.

Alternatives/compliments:

FREE Hiren’s BootCD PE,

FREE BleepingComputer ComboFix,

FREE Tweaking Windows Repair

Thanks for letting us explore this and share.
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A last try to create a boot disk was successful. Will try to use it to rescue a non-bootable system.

Thought I'd give this a try but after installing and creating a boot drive found it to be useless as it does not detect M.2 drives and incorrectly labels the other disk. May work with SSD and mechanical drives but if you have a M.2drive(s) installed this doesn't work.

PassFab FixUWin is a cool tool set on a bootable USB stick that works with UEFI & Secure Boot. That last part is important, because you'll sadly find all sorts of bootable USB sticks that can't, e.g. AOMEI, EaseUS, MiniTool etc. That said, if you don't mess around with adding/replacing hard disks/SSDs, Partitions, &/or Windows when it breaks, you can skip this GOTD in good conscience. FixUWin is basically Tenorshare's Windows Boot Genius under a different label, so if you're hunting for online reviews, Google that. 4ddig.tenorshare[.]com/windows-boot-genius.html

I ran a 7-zipped copy of the program's folder through Virus Total, getting 3 hits: Malwarebytes, MaxSecure, & VBA32. When I later did the same thing for Boot Genius Malwarebytes didn't flag it -- maybe they updated their pattern files between the 2 runs? Installing FixUWin adds the program's folder, plus a folder in Users\ [UserName]\ AppData\ Roaming. In my Win11 VM I recorded 4 new registry keys. The app itself just downloads the files and puts them on a USB stick, or you can use a DVD, so it's well suited to run in a VM without bothering your regular copy of Windows. When you boot to the USB stick you see all the utilities on a screen that's similar to Windows. The two you're most likely to need/use are the Windows password reset & the boot repair. The password reset isn't that big of a deal -- Google & you'll find all sorts of how to's, tutorials, & tools -- but the boot repair, *if it works for you*, could turn out to save you hours...

Windows boot files [BCD] are complicated. There's a separate BCD registry hive that can record & store data about SATA SSDs & NVMe drives. When you install a fresh copy of Windows it handles that just fine, creating matching boot files. However, the boot files that had been working perfectly on another drive often just won't work if you move them to a new SSD or NVMe drive. Windows' own tools, BCDEdit & BCDBoot, usually won't help. And editing the working boot files after installing a fresh copy of Windows, e.g. to add a 2nd OS to the boot menu, may or may not work, using either EasyBCD or BCDEdit. Paragon HDM & Macrium Reflect USB sticks have boot repair & migration tools that *may* help, but not always. AOMEI has something similar but since their bootable USB sticks won't work it's irrelevant. FixUWin gives you another option.

hope it works well

I just noticed this is a one year license, if we create the boot disk now and have a problem come up after the year ends will it not work? Can it at least diagnose the issue and say yes this can be fixed but the license has expired?

This seems useful, good user reviews but that's on their site - wondering if anyone has either used this themselves or seen editorial reviews.