What Is Windows Recovery Environment

Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE)

Article
12/xv/2021
nine minutes to read

Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a recovery environment that can repair common causes of unbootable operating systems. WinRE is based on Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE), and can exist customized with additional drivers, languages, Windows PE Optional Components, and other troubleshooting and diagnostic tools. By default, WinRE is preloaded into the Windows ten and Windows 11 for desktop editions (Habitation, Pro, Enterprise, and Education) and Windows Server 2016, and later on, installations.

What'south new with WinRE for Windows 11

You tin now run about tools within WinRE without selecting an administrator account and entering the password. When booted into the Recovery environment, encrypted files won't exist accessible unless the user has the primal to decrypt the volume.
We've updated the beliefs of Avant-garde startup (Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Avant-garde startup "Restart now") so Ease of Access features will work in the recovery surround. For example, previously, if the narrator feature was enabled prior to launching Advanced startup, it would not be enabled on restart (and could not be enabled). At present Advanced startup boots straight into the Windows Recovery Environment where a user tin plow on Ease of Admission features by using a keyboard shortcut.

What's new with WinRE for Windows 10

By default, if y'all install Windows using media created from Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (ICD), you'll get a dedicated WinRE tools partition on both UEFI and BIOS-based devices, located immediately afterward the Windows partition. This allows Windows to replace and resize the partition as needed. (If yous install Windows by using Windows Setup, you'll get the same partition layout that you lot did in Windows eight.1.)
If you add together a custom tool to the WinRE Avant-garde startup menu, it can merely utilise optional components that are already in the default WinRE tools. For example, if you take a app from Windows 8 that depended on the .NET optional components, you'll demand to rewrite the app for Windows 10.
If you add together a custom tool to the WinRE Advanced startup card, it must be placed in the \Sources\Recovery\Tools folder and so that it can continue to work after future WinRE upgrades.
When adding languages to the push-button reset tools, yous'll now demand to add the WinPE-HTA optional component.

WinRE includes these tools:

Automatic repair and other troubleshooting tools. For more info, see Windows RE Troubleshooting Features.
Push-button reset (Windows dekstop editions just). This tool enables your users to repair their ain PCs apace while preserving their data and important customizations, without having to back up data in advance. For more info, see Push-Push Reset Overview.
System paradigm recovery (Windows Server editions simply). This tool restores the unabridged hard drive. For more info, encounter Recover the Operating Organisation or Total Server.

In addition, you lot can create your ain custom recovery solution by using the Windows Imaging API, or by using the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) API.

Entry points into WinRE

Your users tin can admission WinRE features through the Advanced startup menu, which can be launched from Windows in a few different ways:

From the login screen, click Shutdown, then hold downwardly the Shift key while selecting Restart.
Click Start > Settings > Update & security > Recovery > under Advanced Startup, click Restart now.
Boot to recovery media.
Utilize a hardware recovery push (or button combination) configured by the OEM.

Later on whatever of these actions is performed, all user sessions are signed off and the Advanced startup menu is displayed. If your users select a WinRE feature from this carte, the PC restarts into WinRE and the selected feature is launched.

WinRE starts automatically after detecting the following problems:

Two consecutive failed attempts to start Windows.
Ii consecutive unexpected shutdowns that occur within two minutes of boot completion.
Ii consecutive system reboots inside two minutes of boot completion.
A Secure Boot error (except for issues related to Bootmgr.efi).
A BitLocker fault on touch-only devices.

This menu enables your users to perform these actions:

Offset recovery, troubleshooting, and diagnostic tools.
Boot from a device (UEFI simply).
Access the Firmware menu (UEFI only).
Choose which operating system to boot, if multiple operating systems are installed on the PC.

Security considerations

When working with WinRE, be aware of these security considerations:

If users open the Advanced startup menu from Windows and select a WinRE tool, they must provide the user name and countersign of a local user account with administrator rights.

You can run nigh tools inside WinRE without selecting an ambassador account and entering the countersign. When booted into the Recovery environment, encrypted files won't be accessible unless the user has the cardinal to decrypt the volume.

By default, networking is disabled in WinRE. You can turn on networking when y'all need information technology. For better security, disable networking when y'all don't need connectivity.

Customizing WinRE

You lot tin can customize WinRE by adding packages (Windows PE Optional Components), languages, drivers, and custom diagnostic or troubleshooting tools. The base WinRE epitome includes these Windows PE Optional Components:

Microsoft-Windows-Foundation-Parcel
WinPE-EnhancedStorage
WinPE-Rejuv
WinPE-Scripting
WinPE-SecureStartup
WinPE-Setup
WinPE-SRT
WinPE-WDS-Tools
WinPE-WMI
WinPE-StorageWMI-Parcel (added to the base prototype in Windows viii.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2)
WinPE-HTA (added to the base image in Windows 10)

Note

The number of packages, languages, and drivers is express by the amount of retentivity available on the PC. For performance reasons, minimize the number of languages, drivers, and tools that you add together to the paradigm.

Hard drive partitions

When you install Windows past using Windows Setup, WinRE is configured similar this:

During Windows Setup, Windows prepares the hard bulldoze partitions to support WinRE.
Windows initially places the WinRE image file (winre.wim) in the Windows partition, in the \Windows\System32\Recovery folder.

Before delivering the PC to your customer, you can modify or supercede the WinRE image file to include additional languages, drivers, or packages.
During the specialize configuration laissez passer, the WinRE image file is copied into the recovery tools segmentation, so that the device can boot to the recovery tools fifty-fifty if at that place's a trouble with the Windows sectionalization.

When you deploy Windows by applying images, you must manually configure the hard drive partitions. When WinRE is installed on a hard bulldoze, the partitioning must be formatted as NTFS.

Add the baseline WinRE tools image (winre.wim) to a dissever partitioning from the Windows and information partitions. This enables your users to use WinRE even if the Windows partition is encrypted with Windows BitLocker Bulldoze Encryption. It also prevents your users from accidentally modifying or removing the WinRE tools.

Store the recovery tools in a defended partition, directly after the Windows sectionalization. This way, if time to come updates require a larger recovery partition, Windows will be able to handle information technology more efficiently by adjusting the Windows and recovery sectionalisation sizes, rather than having to create a new recovery segmentation size while the old one remains in place.

To learn more, see Configure UEFI/GPT-Based Difficult Drive Partitions or Configure BIOS/MBR-Based Difficult Drive Partitions.

Retention requirements

In order to boot Windows RE directly from retentiveness (as well known as RAM deejay boot), a contiguous portion of physical retentivity (RAM) which tin can hold the entire Windows RE image (winre.wim) must be available. To optimize retentiveness utilise, manufacturers should ensure that their firmware reserves retention locations either at the commencement or at the stop of the physical memory accost space.

Updating the on-disk Windows Recovery Environment

The on-disk copy of Windows RE tin exist serviced every bit part of rollup updates for the Bone. Not all rollup updates will service Windows RE.

Unlike the normal Os update procedure, updates for Windows RE do non directly serviced the on-deejay Windows RE image (winre.wim). Instead, a newer version of the Windows RE image replaces the existing ane, with the following contents being injected or migrated into the new image:

Boot critical and input device drivers from the full Bone environment are added to the new Windows RE image.
Windows RE customizations under \Sources\Recovery of the mounted winre.wim are migrated to the new image.

The following contents from the existing Windows RE image are non migrated to the new image:

Drivers which are in the existing Windows RE prototype merely not in the full Bone environment
Windows PE optional components which are non office of the default Windows RE image
Language packs for Windows PE and optional components

The Windows RE update process makes every endeavour to reuse the existing Windows RE partitioning without whatever modification. However, in some rare situations where the new Windows RE image (forth with the migrated/injected contents) does not fit in the existing Windows RE partition, the update procedure will behave as follows:

If the existing Windows RE partition is located immediately after the Windows division, the Windows division volition be shrunk and infinite will be added to the Windows RE partitioning. The new Windows RE image will be installed onto the expanded Windows RE partitioning.
If the existing Windows RE partition is non located immediately subsequently the Windows sectionalization, the Windows partition will be shrunk and a new Windows RE sectionalisation will be created. The new Windows RE image will be installed onto this new Windows RE division. The existing Windows RE division will be orphaned.
If the existing Windows RE partition cannot be reused and the Windows partitioning cannot successfully exist shrunk, the new Windows RE paradigm volition exist installed onto the Windows partition. The existing Windows RE partition will exist orphaned.

Important

To ensure that your customizations continue to work subsequently Windows RE has been updated, they must non depend on functionalities provided by Windows PE optional components which are not in the default Windows RE paradigm (e.yard. WinPE-NetFX). To facilitate development of Windows RE customizations, the WinPE-HTA optional component has been added to the default Windows RE prototype in Windows x.

Note

The new Windows RE image deployed equally role of the rollup update contains linguistic communication resource only for the system default linguistic communication, even if the existing Windows RE image contains resource for multiple languages. On most PCs, the system default language is the language selected at the time of OOBE.

Known Result

If the GPO "Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options/Accounts: Block Microsoft accounts" is set to enable the policy "User can't add together or log with Microsoft account", attempting to restore the System in WinRE volition fail with the fault message "You need to sign in as an administrator to go along, but there aren't any administrator accounts on this PC."

This is a known issue and the workaround is to either avoid setting the "Accounts: Block Microsoft accounts" to "User tin't add or log with Microsoft Account" or set up the MDM policy Security/RecoveryEnvironmentAuthentication to 2.

Run into too

Content type	References
Deployment	Customize Windows RE \| Deploy Windows RE
Operations	REAgentC Control-Line Options
Troubleshooting	Windows RE Troubleshooting Features
Add-on tools	Add together a Custom Tool to the Windows RE Advanced startup Bill of fare \| Add together a Hardware Recovery Push button to Start Windows RE \| Button-Push button Reset Overview