System Find Windows Recovery (WinRE) Version in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to check and see the current version of WinRE installed in Windows 11.

Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a set of built‑in Windows tools designed to help troubleshoot and fix common system problems. If your PC has trouble starting, Windows RE can automatically launch and attempt to repair the issue. It also serves as a central starting point for advanced tools used in manual system recovery.

When you install Windows by using Windows Setup, WinRE is configured like this:

1. During Windows Setup, Windows prepares the hard drive partitions to support WinRE.
2. Windows initially places the WinRE image file (winre.wim) in the Windows partition, in the C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder.
3. During the specialize configuration pass, the WinRE image file is copied into the Recovery Partition, so that the device can boot to the recovery tools even if there's a problem with the Windows partition.

The WinRE version is usually updated by installing the latest cumulative update (LCU) for Windows.

The WinRE version is not always the same as the Windows 11 build, so it can be helpful to check and verify which WinRE version you currently have installed.

References:

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshot below)


3 You will now see the Windows RE Version (ex: "10.0.26100.8770") currently installed.







1 Open Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc).

2 Perform either action below: (see screenshots below)

• In the left pane of Event Viewer, expand open Windows Logs, click/tap on System to open it, right click on System, and click/tap on Filter Current Log.
• In the left pane of Event Viewer, expand open Windows Logs, click/tap on System to open it,, and click/tap on Filter Current Log in the right "Actions" pane.

If you have already filtered this log, click/tap on Clear Filter first and then click/tap on Filter Current Log to start over.

3 Type 4501 into the <All Event IDs> field, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)


4 You will now see the Windows Recovery Environment Version (ex: "10.0.26100.8770") installed by the selected event. (see screenshot below)

Select the latest Date and Time event for the latest WinRe version.

That's it,
Shawn Brink