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If one is missing or has a corrupted winload.exe - and winload~1.exe, winloadOLD.exe, etc. do not work - what can you do to regenerate it? (Such as after a failed logon screen customization.)

Journeyman Geek
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WindowsEscapist
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2 Answers2

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sfc /scannow - should do. Eventually offline scan from recovery CD/USB if you cannot boot.

winload.exe is a system protected file and has full access only by "Trusted Installer". I would not use simple copying, renaming, moving this critical system file !

Copies of winload.exe can be found in:

  1. \windows\system32\boot
  2. \windows\winsxs subfolders (found in 6 subfolders on my Win 7/64 SP1 system).

The default system loader is "\windows\system32\winload.exe".

snayob
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  • I also found out something interesting in the operation I did a while ago - it looks like copying from another Windows install seems to work. Can this be confirmed? – WindowsEscapist Oct 18 '12 at 02:03
  • What if sfc /scannow cannot repair winload.exe.mui, winresume.exe.mui, winload.exe, winresume.exe, or bootres.dll? What alternate commands or sfc parameters can be run? – WindowsEscapist Oct 19 '12 at 15:12
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In my case, I renamed 

C:\windows\system32\winload~1.exe

to

winload.exe

I know, it sounds rediculous, the file has a VERY different size, but at least, I could boot into my installation again and go on form there.

Xan-Kun Clark-Davis
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  • It looks like that probably wouldn't have worked for the install in my question ("and winload~1.exe, winloadOLD.exe, etc. do not work"), but not sure if I'd actually tried, since it was so long ago. Thanks! – WindowsEscapist May 20 '17 at 19:46