Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) Reference

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

Windows® Recovery Environment (Windows RE) is an extensible recovery platform that is based on Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE). Windows RE is installed by default on Windows® 8 for both client and server editions. When a computer cannot start, Windows automatically fails over to this environment. Windows RE is required to enable push-button reset, which is the recommended tool for full system recovery in client editions of Windows 8. Push-button reset features provide end users with more recovery options.

In This Section

REAgentC Command-Line Options

Use REAgentC.exe command-line syntax to administer Windows RE and push-button reset.

Windows RE Troubleshooting Features

Learn about automatic failover behavior, manual diagnosis, and the repair process in Windows RE. These tools are available in Windows® 8, but are not recommended.

Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) Overview

Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) How-to Topics

See Also

Other Resources

WinPE for Windows 8: Windows PE 5.0