How to enable or disable WinRE on Windows 11, 10

On Windows 11 (and 10), you can enable or disable the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) as needed, and in this guide, I’ll walk you through the steps to configure this feature.

WinRE is an essential system component designed to help troubleshoot and repair issues that may prevent Windows from booting correctly. When your computer encounters problems, accessing WinRE allows you to use advanced recovery options such as Startup Repair, Reset This PC, UEFI Firmware Settings, and more.

You can launch WinRE by clicking the “Restart now” button under Advanced startup settings or booting from Windows 11 installation media. If you’ve ever seen a blue screen with troubleshooting options, that’s WinRE in action.

Windows 11 keeps this feature enabled by default, and it’s recommended that you leave it on. However, if you ever need to disable it for a specific reason, the operating system provides the REAgentC command-line tool to manage its availability.

In this guide, I’ll explain the steps to manage the Windows Recovery Environment state on Windows 11. You can also refer to these instructions to manage the recovery experience on Windows 10.

Enable WinRE on Windows 11
Disable WinRE on Windows 11

Enable WinRE on Windows 11

To check and enable the Windows Recovery Environment, follow these steps:

Open Start on Windows 11.
Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
Type the following command to check the state of WinRE and press Enter:
```
reagentc /info
```
Type the following command to enable WinRE on Windows 11 and press Enter:
```
reagentc /enable
```

After you complete the steps, the operating system will copy the “winre.wim” file from the “Recovery” folder inside the “System32” folder to the “Recovery Partition,” and it’ll configure the necessary settings to enable the Windows Recovery Environment.

You can always run the reagentc /info command to confirm that the feature has been enabled successfully.

Disable WinRE on Windows 11

To disable WinRE on Windows 11, follow these steps:

Open Start.
Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
Type the following command to check the state of WinRE and press Enter:
```
reagentc /info
```
Type the following command to enable WinRE on Windows 11 and press Enter:
```
reagentc /disable
```

Once you complete the steps, the system will disable the recovery environment and copy the “winre.wim” file from the “Recovery Partition” to the “Recovery” folder inside the “System32” folder available in the local installation.

You can always run the reagentc /info command to confirm that the feature has been disabled successfully.

It’s important to note that while this feature is disabled, you can continue to use the operating system normally. However, you won’t be able to access the “Advanced startup” settings (WinRE) to troubleshoot and resolve problems with the operating system.