Fixing 'There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete'

Are you receiving the 'There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart windows and run sfc again.' error? If rebooting the system doesn't resolve this issue, you'll be pleased to know I was successful in finding a solution for this error. I had to scour a lot of different blog posts, websites and comments to find the correct process of fixing this issue.

This error can also show up as "Error: 1115 A system shutdown is in progress." when attempting to run the DISM Check Health command. Rebooting the system rarely solves this problem. Look below for the series of steps of resolving this issue with SFC and DISM not wanting to run and their relevant errors regarding reboots.

1. Reboot the affected system (can apply to Windows 10 as well as Server 2016 and 2019).
2. Open an elevated command prompt (right click and run as Administrator).
3. Run sfc /scannow and confirm you're still receiving the same error.
4. If yes, open File Explorer and head over to C:\Windows\WinSxS and wait for all the folders/files to load.
5. Find pending.xml in that directory, right click on that file and go to Properties.
6. Go to the Security tab and click Advanced.
7. Change the owner of the file to the administrative user you're currently logged on with.
8. Close the advanced security settings and re-open them to re-load the permissions (required after changing ownership of a file/folder).
9. Add your administrative user and give yourself Full control of the pending.xml file.
10. Make a backup copy of the pending.xml file somewhere and then delete the pending.xml file located in C:\Windows\WinSxS.
11. Attempt to run sfc /scannow and any DISM commands you need.

Removing the pending.xml file should get rid of the 'There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete" error and allow you to issue any SFC and DISM commands you need without any further errors.