PSFExtractor

More often than not, during Windows updates, you may notice that you are getting some errors that are typically associated with missing or corrupted files. The obvious solution for this would be to find the culprit and replace it with a clean file.

While the clean file can be extracted from a clean update, the problem is that most common extractors don’t work properly in this case. One way to address this is expand.exe, a tool embedded in all Windows versions starting with Windows 2000.

PSFExtractor is a tool designed to help you extract the CAB file from the Windows update along with its corresponding PSF file, as they need to be alongside after all. Functionality wise, you need to use a console with Administrative rights and use the following command PSFExtractor.exe -v[N] <PSFFile> <description file> <destination>.

If all went well, you should be able to have the full extracted update in a new folder and you can use it to change a corrupted file or replace a missing one. The developer states you can also employ it with DISM, online, add-package directly or just repack it inside a new CAB file. Take note that the tool should work well with any PSF that features a PSM or XML description file.