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)

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 Pro 25H2 (in a VM)12th Gen Core i7-1260P64 GB Micron PC4-25600Intel Iris Xe Graphics
OS
Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (in a VM)
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
Intel NUC12WSHi7
CPU
12th Gen Core i7-1260P
Motherboard
NUC12WSBi7
Memory
64 GB Micron PC4-25600
Graphics Card(s)
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Sound Card
on-board Realtek HD Audio
Monitor(s) Displays
Dell U3219Q
Screen Resolution
3840 x 2160
Hard Drives
Samsung SSD 990 PRO 1TB
Crucial MX500 2 TB
Keyboard
CODE 104-Key mechanical with Cherry MX Clears
Antivirus
Microsoft Defender
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 Pro 25H2 (in a VM)12th Gen Core i7-1260P64 GB Micron PC4-25600Intel Iris Xe Graphics
OS
Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (in a VM)
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Manufacturer/Model
Intel NUC12WSHi7
CPU
12th Gen Core i7-1260P
Motherboard
NUC12WSBi7
Memory
64 GB Micron PC4-25600
Graphics Card(s)
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Sound Card
on-board Realtek HD Audio
Monitor(s) Displays
Dell U3219Q
Screen Resolution
3840 x 2160
Hard Drives
Samsung SSD 990 PRO 1TB
Crucial MX500 2 TB
Keyboard
CODE 104-Key mechanical with Cherry MX Clears
Antivirus
Microsoft Defender
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar Windows 11 Tutorials

  • Article Article
Phone Remove Windows 11 Device from Link to Windows app on Android Phone
Replies
0
Views
221
Brink
Brink
  • Article Article
Browsers and Mail Enable or Disable On-device Generative AI models in Google Chrome on Windows 11
Replies
0
Views
647
Brink
Brink
  • Article Article
Privacy and Security Enable or Disable Microsoft Store Suggested Search Results in Windows Search on Windows 11
Replies
2
Views
1K
AVaughn0999
A
  • Article Article
Privacy and Security See Passkeys Recent Activity by Apps in Windows 11
Replies
0
Views
251
Brink
Brink
  • Article Article
Browsers and Mail Allow or Block Website Access to Local Network in Microsoft Edge on Windows 11
Replies
0
Views
693
Brink
Brink
  • Article Article
Apps Set Alarm with Clock app in Windows 11
Replies
1
Views
2K
Mark K
M
  • Article Article
System Enable or Disable Notifications for Reminders and VoIP calls on Lock Screen in Windows 11
Replies
0
Views
293
Brink
Brink

Latest Support Threads

Latest Tutorials

Back
Top Bottom