System Enable or Disable Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) in advanced startup options in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a recovery environment that can repair common causes of unbootable operating systems.

Advanced startup enables you to perform these actions:

• Start recovery (aka: Windows RE or WinRE), troubleshooting, and diagnostic tools.
• Boot from a disk (ex: USB or DVD) or device (UEFI only)
• Access the PC's UEFI firmware
• Restore Windows from a system image
• Choose default operating system to boot to on PC if multiple operating systems are installed

When you boot to advanced startup, all user sessions are signed off. If you select a Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) feature from this menu, the PC restarts into WinRE and the selected feature is launched.

What's new with WinRE for Windows 11

• You can now run most tools within WinRE without selecting an administrator account and entering the password. When booted into the Recovery environment, encrypted files won't be accessible unless the user has the key to decrypt the volume.
• Microsoft updated the behavior of Advanced startup (Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Advanced startup "Restart now") so Ease of Access features will work in the recovery environment. 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). Now Advanced startup boots directly into the Windows Recovery Environment where a user can turn on Ease of Access features by using a keyboard shortcut.

WinRE tools that get enabled or disabled:

• Automatic repair and other troubleshooting tools. For more info, see Windows RE Troubleshooting Features.
  • System Restore
  • Startup Repair
  • Uninstall Updates
  • Command Prompt at boot
  • System Image Recovery
  • Go back to previous version of Windows
• Push-button reset. 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.

References:

You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable WinRE.

If you disable WinRE, you can still boot to WinRE from a connected recovery drive or Windows 11 installation USB.

EXAMPLE: Advanced Startup with WinRE enabled and disabled









1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshots below)


3 You will now see the Windows RE Status as currently Enabled or Disabled.







1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshots below)








That's it,
Shawn Brink