Installation and Upgrade Cloud Rebuild Windows 11

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brink
  • Start date Published: Start date Updated Updated:
  • Featured

Cloud_rebuild_header.webp

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

Starting with Windows 11 build 26300.8772 (Experimental 26H2) 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.

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 26340.9212 (Experimental 26H2) for Insiders, Microsoft is adding 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 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

7 Click/tap on 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

8 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.

This will take a while to finish.


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

9 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 has all the power and security of Windows 10 with a redesigned and refreshed look. It also comes...
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.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7
OS
Windows 7
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.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2
OS
Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2
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."
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7
OS
Windows 7
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
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (RP channel)AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-core64GB Corsair Titanium 6000/CL30MSI Suprim 5080 SOC
OS
Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (RP channel)
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
MSI
CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-core
Motherboard
MEG X870E Godlike
Memory
64GB Corsair Titanium 6000/CL30
Graphics Card(s)
MSI Suprim 5080 SOC
Sound Card
Soundblaster AE-9
Monitor(s) Displays
ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q
Screen Resolution
3840x2160
Hard Drives
Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB (gen 5 x4, system drive/games)
Samsung 990 Pro 2TB
Samsung 980 Pro 2TB
Samsung 870 Evo 4TB
Samsung 870 Evo 2TB
Samsung T9 4TB
PSU
Seasonic PX-2200
Case
Bequiet! Dark Base Pro 901
Cooling
Noctua NH-D15S Chromax black
Keyboard
Logitech G915 X (wired)
Mouse
Logitech G903 with PowerPlay charger
Internet Speed
900Mb/sec
Browser
Microsoft Edge
Antivirus
Windows Defender
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.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7
OS
Windows 7
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.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Pro 25H2AMD Rysen 5 4600H32 GB (2 x 16 GB Samsung SO-DIMM DDR4-3200)GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, 4 GB GDDR6
OS
Windows 11 Pro 25H2
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Lenovo Legion 5-15ARH05
CPU
AMD Rysen 5 4600H
Memory
32 GB (2 x 16 GB Samsung SO-DIMM DDR4-3200)
Graphics Card(s)
GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, 4 GB GDDR6
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
SSD M.2 512 GB SAMSUNG MZALQ512; SSD M.2 1 TB Seagate FireCuda 530
Mouse
Logitech M650L in Bluetooth mode
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.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7
OS
Windows 7
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."
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2
OS
Windows 11 Enterprise 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
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows XP,11 Linux Fedora Rawhide pre-releas...2 X Intel i7
OS
Windows XP,11 Linux Fedora Rawhide pre-release 46
Computer type
PC/Desktop
CPU
2 X Intel i7
Screen Resolution
4KUHD X 2
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar Windows 11 Tutorials

  • Article Article
Personalization Turn On or Off Keep Cloud Storage Actions in Own Section on Context Menu in Windows 11
Replies
0
Views
530
Brink
Brink
  • Article Article
System Use Quick Machine Recovery in Windows 11
Replies
0
Views
693
Brink
Brink
  • Article Article
System Find Windows Recovery (WinRE) Version in Windows 11
Replies
0
Views
936
Brink
Brink
  • Article Article
Privacy and Security Pause Search Indexing in Windows 11
Replies
2
Views
690
Brink
Brink
  • Article Article
Privacy and Security Add or Remove File Types for Search Index in Windows 11
Replies
0
Views
526
Brink
Brink
  • Article Article
Privacy and Security Enable or Disable Indexing File Contents by File Type in Windows 11
Replies
0
Views
517
Brink
Brink
  • Article Article
Privacy and Security Enable or Disable Automatically Find Additional Relevant Search Index Locations in Windows 11
Replies
1
Views
715
Brink
Brink

Latest Support Threads

Latest Tutorials

Back
Top Bottom