Where can I find a missing Windows file?

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Summary: It is often possible to locate missing Windows files elsewhere on your hard disk, but when all else fails they can be found on your installation media.

ipconfig is a standard Windows utility and should be part of your installation by default. Obviously, for some reason it's not.

We'll look at a few ways to see if you have it, where it might be, where else it might be, and how to get it where it should be.

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I'll use "ipconfig.exe" as an example, but in reality this applies to almost any file that's a part of Windows.

The first thing we'll attempt is to search for the file on your hard disk. Again, in the Command Prompt:

The "cd" command changes the current directory or folder. Normally when you open a command prompt, the current directory is the directory associated with your user account. We'll want to search the entire hard disk, which means we want to be at the top level directory to do that search. That directory is referred to as "\", so "cd \" takes us there. You can see that reflected in the prompt that results on the next line, as it shows you the current directory.

The "dir" command produces a listing of files, or a "directory". We ask it to show a list of all files named "ipconfig.exe", and the "/S" parameter says "search the current folder and all folders within it". When executed at the top level directory "dir /S" scans the entire hard drive.

On my system that results in:

 Volume in drive C is NOTENQUAD
 Volume Serial Number is E852-AA62

 Directory of C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$

07/27/2007  04:00 AM            55,808 ipconfig.exe
               1 File(s)         55,808 bytes

 Directory of C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386

04/14/2008  05:42 AM            55,808 ipconfig.exe
               1 File(s)         55,808 bytes

 Directory of C:\WINDOWS\system32

04/14/2008  05:42 AM            55,808 ipconfig.exe
               1 File(s)         55,808 bytes

     Total Files Listed:
               3 File(s)        167,424 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  176,697,344,000 bytes free

As you can see, ipconfig.exe is in several places, including "C:\WINDOWS\system32", where it's supposed to be. In your case it's apparently not there.

The other places you might find it include:

• C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 this would typically be the most recently applied service pack, and hence a fairly reasonably up-to-date copy of the file. This is probably the copy that I would choose to use below.

• C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ this is the previous version of the file prior to that service pack. This is retained so that you can uninstall the service pack and revert to the previous version of this, and all files affected by the service pack.

• C:\I386 not listed in my example, since I have installation CDs, but many manufacturers will place a copy of the Windows install files in this folder in lieu of (or occasionally in addition to) giving you an install CD. This would be the version of the file as originally installed on your machine. Be sure to see the note below about compressed files.

• D:\Windows\System32 I include this specifically because many manufacturer's often include a copy of your Windows installation on a recovery partition. On my laptop that happened to be the "D:" drive. If you don't find what you're looking for on your primary Windows drive, and you have a separate recovery partition, it's worth searching that as well.

Regardless of which one you choose, you can simply copy the file to where it was supposed to be (C:\Windows\system32, for example), or to some other appropriate place where you can use it. Depending on the file it may, or may not be safe to use it in the place that you found it, so I recommend making a copy so as not to inadvertently damage the contents of that location.

If you don't find the file, you'll need to grab your Windows installation CD or DVD. Much like the "C:\I386" example above, that vast majority of Windows files are in a folder "\I386" on the installation CD, and you can just copy them directly from the CD to where they belong in your existing Windows installation.

If you don't have an installation CD, and all you're attempting to do is replace a missing file or files on your legitimate and legal installation of Windows, it's seems to me that it'd be perfectly valid to go out and borrow an installation CD from which to copy the files. Be sure that it's the same version of Windows - it may not matter for some files (like ipconfig.exe), but for others it's actually quite critical that the Windows version match.

Compressed Files: on installation media and copies of installation media individual files are often compressed to save space, and you'll need to decompress them before they can be used. Compressed files also have a modified name - the last character of the extension is replaced with an underscore. That means that instead of searching for "ipconfig.exe" in our example, we would look for "ipconfig.ex_".

Once you've located "ipconfig.ex_" you'll need to decompress it:

What I've done with the command above is used the expand command to decompress ipconfig.ex_ into ipconfig.exe, placing the later in a temporary folder on my hard drive. "F:" is my CD drive with the Windows installation CD installed, and the compressed file was located in the I386 folder.

The results look like this:

Microsoft (R) File Expansion Utility  Version 5.1.2600.0
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1990-1999.  All rights reserved.

Expanding ipconfig.ex_ to c:\t\ipconfig.exe.
ipconfig.ex_: 17105 bytes expanded to 49664 bytes, 190% increase.

The bottom line is that missing Windows files may be found in several locations, both on your hard disk and on your original installation media. Be sure to look for compressed versions as well, which can then be easily decompressed before use.

Related:

• I don't have an installation CD for Windows XP - what if I need one? At some point you'll need your Windows installation CD. If you don't have one, you could be out of luck. Be sure to get one, and keep it safe.

• How should I reinstall Windows? There are different ways to reinstall Windows. Which is appropriate depends on the problem you're attempting to solve.

• Can I burn the I386 folder to a CD and use that as an install CD? The I386 folder usually contains a copy of the files used to install Windows in the first place. You can often use it to reinstall Windows.

Article 12734 | Posted October 10, 2008