Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) Technical Reference

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Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) Overview

Published: February 29, 2012

Updated: May 31, 2012

Applies To: Windows 8, Windows Server 2012

Windows® Recovery Environment (Windows RE) is a recovery environment that can repair common causes of unbootable operating systems. Windows RE is based on Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE), and can be customized with additional drivers, languages, Windows PE optional components, and other troubleshooting and diagnostic tools. By default, Windows RE is preloaded into the Windows® 8 and Windows Server® 2012 installations.

Tools

Windows RE includes the following tools:

• 
  Push-button reset (Windows 8 only). This tool enables your users to repair their own PCs quickly while preserving their data and important customizations, without having to back up data in advance. For more information, see Push-Button Reset Overview.
  
• 
  Automated repair, system image recovery, and other troubleshooting tools. For more information, see Windows RE Troubleshooting Features.
  

Note

We no longer support building the default Windows RE boot image using the Windows PE from the ADK. Because of this change, the Windows PE optional components required to build the default Windows RE image are no longer included in the ADK.

Your users can access Windows RE features through the Boot Options menu which can be launched from Windows in the following ways:

• 
  In Windows, open the Settings charm > More PC settings > General. In Advanced startup, click Restart now.

  -or-
  

• 
  In Windows, open the Settings charm, and then hold the Shift key while clicking Restart.

  -or-
  

• 
  From a command prompt, run the Shutdown /r /o command.

  -or-
  

• 
  Boot the computer by using recovery media. For more information, see How to Create Recovery Media to Run Push-Button Reset Features.
  

In some scenarios, Windows RE automatically tries to repair the system. In addition, the following scenarios automatically trigger failover to Windows RE:

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

The Boot Options menu enables your user to perform the following actions:

• 
  Start recovery, troubleshooting, or diagnostic tools.
  
• 
  Boot from a device (UEFI only).
  
• 
  Access the Firmware menu (UEFI only).
  
• 
  Choose which operating system to boot, if multiple operating systems are installed on the same computer.
  

Note

You can add one custom tool to the Boot Options menu. Otherwise, these menus can't be further customized. For more information, see How to Add a Custom Tool to the Windows RE Boot Options Menu.

When working with Windows RE, be aware of the following security considerations:

• 
  If your user opens the Boot Options menu from Windows and selects a Windows RE tool, they must provide the user name and password of a local user account with administrator rights. This consideration doesn't apply to the Reset your PC feature.
  
• 
  By default, networking is disabled in Windows RE. You can turn on networking dynamically if you need it. However, we recommend that you disable networking when you don't need connectivity.
  

You can customize Windows RE by adding packages (Windows PE optional components), languages, drivers, and custom diagnostic or troubleshooting tools. By default, Windows RE includes the following Windows PE optional components:

• 
  Microsoft-Windows-Foundation-Package
  
• 
  WinPE-EnhancedStorage
  
• 
  WinPE-Rejuv
  
• 
  WinPE-Scripting
  
• 
  WinPE-SecureStartup
  
• 
  WinPE-Setup
  
• 
  WinPE-SRT
  
• 
  WinPE-WDS-Tools
  
• 
  WinPE-WMI
  
• 
  Microsoft-Windows-Foundation-Package
  

Note

The number of languages, drivers, and optional components is limited to the amount of memory available on the computer. However, for performance reasons, we recommend that you minimize the number of additional languages, drivers, and tools you add to the image. In addition, we recommend that you include only the preloaded Windows image languages, instead of injecting as many languages as possible.

When you install Windows with Windows Setup, Windows RE is configured as follows:

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

  At this point, you can modify or replace the Windows RE image file to include additional languages, drivers, or Windows PE optional components.

  
  
• 
  At the start of the Out of Box Experience (OOBE), the Windows RE image file is copied into a separate partition, so that the computer can boot to the recovery tools even if there is a problem with the Windows partition. On UEFI-based computers, the image is copied to the Windows RE Tools partition. On BIOS-based computers, the image is copied to the System partition.
  

When Windows RE is installed on a hard drive, the partition must be formatted as NTFS.

Add the baseline Windows RE tools image (winre.wim) to a separate partition from the Windows and data partitions. This enables your users to use Windows RE even if the Windows partition is encrypted with Windows® BitLocker® Drive Encryption. In addition, it prevents your users from accidentally modifying or removing these files.

For UEFI-based systems, we recommend that you store the tools image in a dedicated partition. For BIOS-based systems, we recommend that the tools are included in the system partition.

For more information about configuring hard drive partitions, see How to Configure UEFI/GPT-Based Hard Drive Partitions or How to Configure BIOS/MBR-Based Hard Drive Partitions.