Solved Is my winre.wim the latest?

SIW2 said:

What is that then

try reagentc /disable and if it appears in %windir%\system32\recovery, mount it up and export any drivers

otherwise you can copy winre.wim 10.0.22621.3518 out of that partition yourself to anywhere convenient then mount, and export oem drivers ( if any)

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No, that will not work.... do you even know why I need a August 13, 2024 or later winre.wim. It is required for a security fix in case the system does not boot up which I did experience until I deleted the file that in the UEFI which is related to KB5042562.

It specifically says this:


The correct way to do it is mentioned in post #61 in this thread and to get the .msu needed is by following the directions from the post in the following thread here which will get the .msu file I needed which is for the 22635.4145 build dated August 30, 2024. 10.0.22621.3518 will always be 10.0.22621.3518 and too old for the purpose needed as it is not the OEM drivers that matter, it's the Winre.wim that needs to first be current version before you add in the drivers if you wanted to do it the extremely long way. Exporting drivers means you exported the drivers, your Winre.wim will still be 10.0.22621.3518 and basically be as of May 17, 2024, not August 13, 2024 or later. I am running Beta Insiders so it needs 22635.4145 or else it will not work well. If someone was using the stable version of Windows 11, then they will still need the .msu for the update released on August 13, 2024 or later.

So even using the part of the instructions in post #61, it will only get your Winre.wim to 22621.3958 which would be dated July 25, 2024, it will still not meet the requirements of August 13, 2024 or later.

"Download the latest cumulative update (LCU) from the Microsoft Update Catalog. Search for "Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 23H2". The update will be called something like this: "2024-07 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5040527)"
Download it and save it to C:\temp. Like so: 'C:\temp\windows11.0-kb5040442-x64_c1ba0e4607fd0ee46254a625c55438ffb70edcd0.msu'."

So instead of getting the LCU from Microsoft Update Catalog, you have to get the .msu using the instructions in the post below and then copy and save it to C:\Temp before you proceed with the rest of the instructions in post #61 starting from the line:
"Verify that the recovery partition is of sufficient size. 1 GiB should be enough."

But the correct way to do it is listed here which will get the .msu needed as the ISO is built the same way.


this for example will get the Winre.wim which already includes the OEM drivers to 22635.4145 and it will be dated August 30, 2024.
Now if it was someone running the stable version of Windows, you would generate the .msu needed using the same directions but you will end up with a Winre.wim file that is version 22631.4169 and dated September 10, 2024 because the .msu you generate will be based on:
KB5043076 Windows 11 Cumulative Update Build 22631.4169 (23H2) - Sept. 10

So basically, you can end up with one of the four versions of WinRE.wim depending on what build you are on:
Release/Stable Build 22631.4169 (23H2) - September 10, 2024
Beta Build 22635.4145 (23H2) - August 30, 2024
Dev Build 26120.1542 (24H2) - August 19, 2024
Canary Build 27695.1000 - August 30, 2024

You want the one that is the same channel as your system. All of these will meet the minimum requirements for KB5042562 and be in compliance.

I attempted this again and created the .msu file but the only issue is that even after I assigned the recovery partition the letter R:, my R: has a Recovery folder but there are no files in the Recovery folder so there is no winre.wim file to proceed further. Seems like Windows In-Place install is the only option for me now.

I think you also have to set the partition GUID to
DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC

Or, as you say, create a completely new Windows installation after deleting all partitions and then restore just the Windows partion from a recent backup.

@kelper,
When I got to this section in post #61:


This is what mines shows:



and I confirmed I don't have that file as the entire Recovery folder is empty.




I just looked at post #61 again and I don't even see the GUID part listed. Let me try doing a repair in-place upgrade install and see what happens. Will report back in a few hours. I know with the Repair in-place Install, I will need to add back a few things into the registry either manually or from the reg file. I wrote a post about it before and this is what was not kept:

From my experience. It doesn't completely overwrite everything.

Depends, Modern Standby would be enabled again when you disable it.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems\Windows
Windows SharedSection= returns back to defaults
Windows Photo Viewer hack is removed
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\GDIProcessHandleQuota
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\GDIProcessHandleQuota
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\USERProcessHandleQuota
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\USERProcessHandleQuota
returns back to defaults
Windows Gadgets hack is removed and needs to be uninstalled and reinstalled again

kelper said:

Ok, but please could you answer my question in post #1? I did not ask why, when or if. I just asked how to find out if my winre.wim was the latest available.

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and I answered - yes that is the latest official version available.

cereberus said:

and I answered - yes that is the latest official version available.

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That was back in MAY! And I was asking Freebooter, not you

kelper said:

That was back in MAY! And I was asking Freebooter, not you

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For crying out loud - does it matter who you were talking to so long as you get the right answer?

It has not changed since May for the release 23H2.

No amount of asking the question changes the answer.

It will probably get updated soon when 24H2 is released.

kelper said:

It's OK, my partition is type Unknown, so I put that in the command instead of Recovery

View attachment 103391

I realised what's wrong and I have used Diskpart to set the ID to de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac

It now has the type 'Recovery' instead of 'Unknown'

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I think this is why you mentioned the GID needs to be set but in my case, my type is actually Recovery but it seems like my WinRE is disabled.



It still says disabled when I did:

Do you have a winre.wim file anywhere on your computer?

kelper said:

Do you have a winre.wim file anywhere on your computer?

Click to expand...

Doesn't seem like I do, what does your C:\Windows\System32\Recovery actually look like?

Almighty1 said:

Doesn't seem like I do, what does your C:\Windows\System32\Recovery actually look like?

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I don't have it as I am running a cut down version of Windows. I use Macrium Reflect and restore from a backup if I have any problems.

That folder normally contains two files, winre.wim and ReAgent.xml

Look at this link to rebuild the Recovery partition. You can skip downloading 7-zip since Windows will mount aan ISO just by clicking or double clicking on it.

There is no need to rebuild the recovery partition as Windows in-place repair install will not require deleting anything either.... The only problem is having to redo all of these:
Windows7Games_for_Windows_11_10_8
Add_Install_to_cab_context_menu.reg
Add_Run_as_administrator_to_MSI_context_menu.reg
Add_Wireless_Adapter_Settings_Power_Saving_Mode_to_Power_Options.reg
Disable_Modern_Standby.reg
Disable_Power_Throttling.reg
RestoreWindowsPhotoViewerSetup v1.23.exe
Workaround for Windows 10 and 11 HiveNightmare Windows Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
Reinstall printer
Dolby AC-3 codec
Windows Desktop Gadgets v2.0

Registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems\Windows Windows SharedSection=
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\GDIProcessHandleQuota
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\USERProcessHandleQuota
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile SystemResponsiveness

There is no winre.wim file in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery either even after the repair install as seen here where the file is only there initially but it is copied to the Recovery partition.





Looks like I actually have the winre.rim in the actual recovery partition and it's updated to 22621.4225, I guess it says 22621 instead of 22635 because the 22635 is with the optional features turned on in Beta Insiders as this is the September 20, 2024 version. Now the question is it seems like I have 3 Recovery partitions, Q: is the current one and R: was the earlier one. The one without a letter is reported by diskpart as a Bitlocker Windows Recovery partition, probably what was on the system originally. So not sure if it's a good idea to delete R: and if so, one thing I have not seen is what do people do with the space after they delete the extra unused recovery partitions, do they give it back to C: or do they do something else with it. Probably the best way to do it would be to disable, delete all recovery partitions and then create one after reclaiming the space to C: then enable it.

Post(s) #21 and #22 in this thread explains it well:
which I will screenshot to explain how it works... credits with many thanks to the original authors of those two posts .

I noticed something more interesting is the 1.06GB partition for example, Minitool claims it's a Bitlocker Filesystem. Looks like AOMEI only showed used space but not unused space.


Windows Computer Management's Storage Management completely doesn't even show the 1.06GB partition on the top, only in visual image on the bottom:

Everything that recovery environment does, booting from a Windows 10/11 USB flash drive will also do anyway.

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Booting from usb stick



there is no reset option












booting winre.wim from disk




There is the reset option






I just took those pictures today

@SIW2 - Yes but USB sticks can fail as I had a USB stick 128GB from SanDisk that I only used one back in 2016, it no longer works so better to have redundancy when needed. I never do backups because everytime I do a backup or even make a website, eventually it will disappear on it's own as that's not my area with luck. When I don't do backups, I had never had any problems for the last 29 years. So they serve the same purpose but how do you get the menu when booting up from USB as I thought you can only get into the command prompt with shift+F10 if you burned the ISO to a flash drive on Ventoy as a iso image file.

And I will tell you that the WinRE will not boot at all if you were trying to use KB5042562 which requires both the system as well as the WinRE to be August 13, 2024 or later dated as all options will result in an error. So the only remedy was to use one of the WinPE ISO's and delete a file as seen in System will not boot and GSODs

That was the reason I needed to update WinRE before I attempt KB5042562 again in the near future.

Here is what I show to be the latest version. I wrote a function into my program to pull this info automagically . Note that this is on the release preview build 26100.1742:


The boot.wim image has the following build number:
10.0.26100.1742

The winre.wim image has the following build number:
10.0.26100.1710

Yes, that's 24H2. Beta Insiders is still on 22621.4225 which was released on September 20, 2024.

Almighty1 said:

@SIW2 - Yes but USB sticks can fail as I had a USB stick 128GB from SanDisk that I only used one back in 2016, it no longer works so better to have redundancy when needed. I never do backups because everytime I do a backup or even make a website, eventually it will disappear on it's own as that's not my area with luck. When I don't do backups, I had never had any problems for the last 29 years. So they serve the same purpose but how do you get the menu when booting up from USB as I thought you can only get into the command prompt with shift+F10 if you burned the ISO to a flash drive on Ventoy as a iso image file.

And I will tell you that the WinRE will not boot at all if you were trying to use KB5042562 as all options will result in an error. So the only remedy was to use one of the WinPE ISO's and delete a file as seen in System will not boot and GSODs

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If you look at the pictures they show additional options when booting winre.wim from disk. It is not the same. It is better to boot winre.wim from disk for most people.

SIW2 said:

If you look at the pictures they show additional options when booting winre.wim from disk. It is not the same. It is better to boot winre.wim from disk for most people.

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Well, the one on disk does not work in my scenario as the WinRE on the disk was prior to August 13, 2024 so it will only give a error code no matter what option is chosen which is the requirement that I missed originally. And how do you get to what's on the picture for the booting from USB flash stick as I never saw that when booting the 24H2 ISO on a USB flash stick. It went directly to the setup program and shift+f10 was the only thing that one can do.