Windows Dism.exe /RestoreHealth /LimitAccess, no /Source, Where is the Features on Demand location and should I use it?

Question

Regarding the command Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /LimitAccess

Normally /RestoreHealth is used without /LimitAccess, which makes Dism use Windows Update to compare against the machine's Component Store.

You can also specify a source to compare against, for example /Source:wim:Z:\sources\install.wim:1 /LimitAccess.

When running /RestoreHealth with /LimitAccess and no /Source, Microsoft says:

If you do not specify a /Source for the repair files, the default location for Features on Demand is used.

Source: Repair a Windows Image

My Question

Where is the Features on Demand location? Should I use it? Does it use the same (or similar) files as the install.wim from the installation media?

My machines are permanently and intentionally disconnected from Windows Update. I have the source install.wim available from the installation media.

Answer 1

You can list the Features On Demand using the command:

DISM /online /get-capabilities

I chose one installed package : XPS.Viewer~~1.0.mum.

Searching for locations where this package exists on the disk, I found two locations:

• C:\Windows\servicing\InboxFodMetadataCache\metadata\
• C:\Windows\servicing\WUFodMetadataCache\metadata\

Unfortunately, I can find no further information about these two folders, but I believe that they are the folders that will be used by DISM.