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Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) How-to Topics

Applies To: Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

Windows® Recovery Environment (Windows RE) is a recovery environment that can repair common causes of unbootable operating systems, in addition to including push-button reset features that enable your users to repair their PCs quickly while preserving their data and important customizations.

This section describes how to customize Windows RE and push-button reset recovery images on a Windows system.

In This Section

Customize Windows RE

Customize Windows® Recovery Environment (Windows RE) by adding packages (Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE optional components), languages, drivers, and custom diagnostic or troubleshooting tools.

Add a Custom Tool to the Windows RE Boot Options Menu

Add a custom troubleshooting or diagnostic tool to your Windows RE image.

Add a Hardware Recovery Button to Start Windows RE

Configure a hardware recovery button (or button combination) to run a secondary boot path that contains Windows RE.

Deploy Windows RE

Deploy a Windows RE tools image, including any built-in custom tools, to a hard drive partition.

Bare Metal Reset/Recovery: Enable Your Users to Create Media and to Recover Hard Drive Space

Customize push-button reset by adding scripts or executable files.

Add a Script to Push-Button Reset Features

Create a bootable push-button reset USB drive.

Create Media to Run Push-Button Reset Features

Customize push-button reset to create recovery media for your users. You can also prepare Windows to enable your users to create their own recovery media.

Deploy Push-Button Reset Features

Create a push-button reset recovery image, and then deploy push-button reset with customizations.

See Also

Concepts

Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) Overview
Push-Button Reset Overview

Other Resources

Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) Reference
WinPE for Windows 8: Windows PE 5.0