Installation and Upgrade Cloud Rebuild Windows 11

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Cloud_rebuild_header.webp

This tutorial will show you how to use Cloud rebuild to perform a full clean reinstall of Windows 11 from Windows Recovery (WinRE).

Starting with Windows 11 build 26300.8772 (Experimental 26H2), build 26220.9343 (Beta 25H2), build 28020.3142 (Beta 26H1), and build 28120.3032 (Experimental 26H1) for Insiders, Microsoft is introducing Cloud rebuild, a new recovery option that restores a Windows 11 PC to a clean, known-good state by performing a full OS reinstall, even when Windows won't boot. Unlike Reset this PC, Cloud rebuild downloads both the target Windows image and the device's drivers from Windows Update, so the device comes back fully functional without USB media, without a custom image, and without depending on the health of the currently installed OS.

Starting with Windows 11 build 26310.9502 (Experimental 26H2) and build 28120.3151 (Experimental 26H1) for Insiders, Microsoft is updating Cloud rebuild, the recovery option that restores a Windows 11 PC to a clean, known-good state by performing a full OS reinstall, with two additions.
  • Cloud rebuild can now sanitize the device's drives as part of the rebuild. When you start a rebuild in WinRE, choose Remove files if you're keeping the PC, or Remove & sanitize files before recycling, returning, or reassigning it. The sanitize option uses the storage hardware's erase capability to securely erase data before Windows is reinstalled and is irreversible.
  • IT administrators can now configure and start a Cloud rebuild remotely through the Recovery CSP, using either the currently installed build or a target build you specify.
Starting with Windows 11 build 26220.9587 (Beta 25H2) and build 26340.9596 (Experimental 26H2) for Insiders, Microsoft is adding a new entry point for Cloud Rebuild under Settings > System > Recovery, making it easier to access the feature from Settings.

Reference:
learn.microsoft.com

Cloud rebuild (Preview)

IT Pro documentation for the Cloud rebuild feature in Windows 11
learn.microsoft.com



Here's How:

1 Boot to Advanced Startup (WinRE).

2 Click/tap on Troubleshoot. (see screenshot below)

Cloud_rebuild-1.webp

3 Click/tap on Cloud rebuild. (see screenshot below)

Cloud_rebuild-2.webp

4 Cloud rebuild attempts to connect to the network. If the device is connected to Ethernet, the connection completes automatically. If only Wi-Fi is available, select a WPA-Personal network and provide the passkey when prompted. (see screenshot below)

Starting with Windows 11 build 26100.9550 (24H2), build 26200.9550 (25H2), and build 26300.9550 (26H2), Microsoft added a new WinRE networking capability that allows the Windows Recovery Environment to automatically reuse eligible Wi-Fi profiles already saved in the main Windows OS, including supported certificate-based Wi-Fi networks. Previously, WinRE could automatically connect only to wired unauthenticated Ethernet or Wi-Fi networks that were separately preconfigured for WinRE, while users had to manually connect to other WPA2/3 networks by entering a password. With this update, WinRE can use saved Wi-Fi profile information when a recovery workflow requires connectivity, helping devices get online automatically during scenarios such as quick machine recovery or cloud rebuild without requiring users or IT admins to separately preconfigure Wi-Fi credentials in WinRE. By default, this capability is enabled. However, IT admins can disable this functionality if desired. To test this feature in your environment, see Test networking in WinRE.


Cloud_rebuild-3.webp

5 Wait for Cloud rebuild to finish preparing. Cloud rebuild contacts Windows Update to determine the target Windows build and to download the device's networking drivers. (see screenshot below)

Cloud_rebuild-4.webp

6 Do step 7 (remove files) or step 8 (remove & sanitize) below for how thoroughly you want to remove your files.

This step is only available starting with Windows 11 build 26310.9502 (Experimental 26H2) for Insiders.

Choose Remove files if you're keeping the PC, or Remove & sanitize files before recycling, returning, or reassigning it. The sanitize option uses the storage hardware's erase capability to securely erase data before Windows is reinstalled and is irreversible.



7 Remove files

A) Click/tap on Remove files. (see screenshot below)​

Cloud_rebuild-2b.webp

B) Wait for Cloud rebuild to finish getting things ready. (see screenshot below)​

Cloud_rebuild-4.webp

C) Review the rebuild target state. Confirm that the displayed Windows build, edition, and language match the expected target, and click/tap on Continue when ready. (see screenshot below)​

Cloud_rebuild-5.webp

D) Click/tap on Erase and install when ready to start the Cloud rebuild. (see screenshot below)​

Cloud rebuild reformats the system disk and removes all locally stored files, accounts, apps, and settings. Data stored in cloud services such as OneDrive is not affected.


Cloud_rebuild-6.webp

E) Go to step 9 below.​

8 Remove & sanitize

A) Click/tap on Remove & sanitize. (see screenshot below)​

Sanitize-1.webp

B) If the device has more than one disk, click/tap on Windows disk only or All disks for which disk(s) you want wiped. (see screenshot below)​

Windows disk only sanitizes only the disk where Windows is installed. Files on the other disks are kept.

All disks sanitizes every disk on the PC. This can take much longer to complete.


Sanitize-2.webp

C) Wait for Cloud rebuild to finish getting things ready. (see screenshot below)​

Cloud_rebuild-4.webp

D) Review the rebuild target state. Confirm that the displayed Windows build, edition, and language match the expected target, and click/tap on Continue when ready. (see screenshot below)​

Cloud_rebuild-5.webp

E) Review the sanitization confirmation screen, and click/tap on Sanitize and install when ready to start the Cloud rebuild. (see screenshot below)​

Data sanitization is irreversible. Files stored in cloud services such as OneDrive are not affected.


Sanitize-3.webp

F) Go to step 9 below.​

9 Cloud rebuild will now prepare, download, and install Windows 11 in phases. The device may restart one or more times during this process. (see screenshots below)

Keep the device connected to power until Cloud rebuild is complete. Do not manually restart or power off the device while Cloud rebuild is preparing, downloading, or installing Windows. Interrupting the process can leave Windows unable to boot, and having to do a clean install with a USB at boot.

This will take a while to finish.


Cloud_rebuild-7.webp
Cloud_rebuild-8.webp
Cloud_rebuild-9.webp

10 When the Cloud rebuild completes, the device boots into the Windows out-of-box experience (OOBE) to set up Windows 11. Continue at step 13 in the tutorial below to finish setting up Windows 11.

www.elevenforum.com

Clean Install Windows 11

This tutorial will show you step by step on how to clean install Windows 11 at boot on your PC with or without an Internet connection and setup with a local account or Microsoft account. Windows 11 is a client operating system and includes features that users and organizations should know...
www.elevenforum.com www.elevenforum.com


That's it,
Shawn Brink


Related Tutorials

 
Last edited:
Click to expand...
No indication on how it takes to download the install image from MS, and re-install it. Depending on your network speed, this recovery process could take 30 min. or more?

Hopefully the download image is up-to-date (like how MCT is refreshed), and you don't have to run Windows Update after getting your system back.
 

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Yeah repair setup over the LAN (at least ours) takes about 30 minutes. I'm hoping they let us hook this to the connected cache eventually if not already, so not every PC has to get content from the clouds.
 

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Win11 Ent. 25H2
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I wondering if MS got lazy and doesn't provide an updated install image. I can imagine the product managers thinking "hey, OOBE enforces a mandatory Windows Update check, so the user can just sit around for another 10-15 min."
 

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garlin said:
No indication on how it takes to download the install image from MS, and re-install it. Depending on your network speed, this recovery process could take 30 min. or more?

Hopefully the download image is up-to-date (like how MCT is refreshed), and you don't have to run Windows Update after getting your system back.
Click to expand...
Looking at the screenshot it determines which version of Windows is installed and re-installs that version (rather like the Repair install from Settings does)

Not sure how it would determine the build if it's so corrupted that it can't find anything to work with

Installing from media takes literally a few minutes to get to the desktop, I imagine this would be slower as the download is as required, but it shouldn't take long to install to a fast drive
 

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Presumably it's reading the offline registry from your Windows volume to learn which edition was present.

Cloud Restore is to help in situations where you or something has modified Windows files or screwed up permissions and settings, that it doesn't work correctly. And you don't have a prepared full image backup, and the user doesn't know enough to do a repair install.

The big catch is MS warns you they're wiping the Windows volume, and doing a clean install. The only thing they're restoring is a copy of all the 3rd-party drivers they extracted before kicking off re-install. Cloud Restore will not re-install your apps or personal files.

Eventually they could make it do what (new) Windows Backup does. Which is to reload any Store apps you had before, and resync to your OneDrive folders after getting you to sign into MS Accounts.

To me, it's another half finished product like Quick Machine Recovery. You can see where they're going, but it's surprising that more engineering hasn't gone into the product before it was released. The drawback is each incremental recovery feature is starting to bloat the size of WinRE.
 

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From my point, this is nothing else but well known network installation. This way, Microsoft could release a small separate network installer which can be started from any external media like a small USB flash drive, connect to server with main Windows components and perform such installation from scratch. You don't need to have any big local media with Windows components and will receive the fully updated OS.

However, the weak point of this installation is an appropriate network driver. While Ethernet driver may be a generic of some kind, the Wi-Fi device may be more proprietary and require the presence of OEM driver on the installation media. Or the ability to add it on-the-fly. How this problem has been solved, is not very clear.
 

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Cloud Restore avoids this problem because a properly initialized WinRE will have imported all of the 3rd-party drivers from your current Windows. Therefore it can safely assume it can get online, with the possible exception of asking if you need a Wi-Fi password to join a network.

Macrium and Hasleo have the same idea when they create a WinRE-based boot drive. An user normally finishes installing all the required Windows drivers before they get around to setting up their backup software the first time.
 

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Yep. Almost surely, if the folks know what they're doing, a business machine is going to have drivers added to WinRE. I think some of these things are ideas aimed at businesses that have been made available to consumers.

Hotpatch came out of enterprise for sure.

Point-in-time restore is almost surely done with businesses in mind. People here like to poo-poo it because "MaH mAcRiUm," but no business I've seen is taking backups of thousands of user devices, except maybe in rare cases they're backing up C-suite devices.

Cloud rebuild seems the same kind of thing. "We made it for businesses, but you can use it too."
 

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Win11 Ent. 25H2
Fine in theory but you need a reasonably fast reliable not interrupted Internet service. There's an issue though with this method if you want to install to physical vhdx files - especially if the vhdx file(s) are on an external device. However for many this seems like a good way to go.

This cloud method might also have problems if you have some eseoteric hardware where you've had to install specific drivers from the manufacturer - although in some - but not all cases as you've mentioned a decent WINRE should be able to pick up your current drivers for the cloud install to work.

Seems 100% sensible for small (and even larger ) businesses to use this method if they've loads of company PC's / laptops to maintain. !!

Cheers
jimbo
 

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