There might be times when Windows 7 seems to not be working correctly and one way to help troubleshoot is use System Maintenance. Rather than going through several menus to access it, we’ll create a shortcut to it.

To get to System Maintenance you can go through several menus in Control Panel to launch it. If you want easier access to it, we’ll show you how to create a shortcut to it. It’s a basic troubleshooting feature that can clean unused files, perform maintenance tasks, and help prevent problems with your PC.

Create Shortcut to Troubleshoot Using System Maintenance

Right-click an empty area on your Desktop and select New \ Shortcut.

Now type in the following path in the location field.

%systemroot%\system32\msdt.exe -id MaintenanceDiagnostic

In the next step name the shortcut something that will help you remember what it’s for. Here we are using Troubleshoot System Maintenance.

Now we have the new shortcut icon on the desktop. If you want to change the icon check out our article on how to customize icons in Windows 7 and Vista.

Double click on the icon and it will bring you directly to System Maintenance and you can begin using the wizard to search for problems, if you want check the box to apply repairs automatically.

Luckily on our system nothing was needed to be changed or updated.

If you do experience problems, you can get a full report on what issues were found.

Then if you want you can easily add it to the Taskbar with a drag and drop.

If you’re experiencing problems on your Windows 7 PC or want to prevent them, running System Maintenance is a good place to start. By creating a shortcut to it, you’ll save a few mouse clicks for easier access to it.