Eight Ways You Can Use the Windows Recovery Environment to Rescue Your PC

In an ideal world, nothing would ever be mistaken with your laptop or Windows desk, but as you know, the sun does not always shine, your favorite sports team does not always win and you could sometimes encounter problems with your PC. If this happens, Microsoft has provided a suite of troubleshooting tools called Windows Recovery Environment (or Winre to short) to help you solve the problem yourself.

You may not know too much, which is a positive sign – it probably means that your computer has been largely without problem in recent times. However, it is worth knowing the options that these public services offer, that you are having problems right now or that you want to be well prepared in the future.

What is the Windows recovery environment?

The first screen of the Windows recovery environment.
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First and foremost, Winre is a way to solve the problems that prevent your PC from starting normally. It may even appear automatically if your computer does not start properly – it is built directly in Windows systems, so there is nothing to download or install. You can also use Winre to reset Windows and return it to its original condition, in addition to the reset option in the Windows settings.

If you can enter Windows normally, you can launch the Windows recovery environment by opening the settings and choosing System> Recovery> Restart now. Otherwise, you can see that Winre appears automatically – most of the systems must be configured to launch the utility after two or three failed start -up attempts.

Alternatively, there will be a key that you can press during starting to launch Winre rather than Windows: if you are not sure of what it is, see the documentation provided with your PC or search online your brand and your computer model. For some ASUS computers, it is F12, for example, and for some dell computers, it is the Windows key.

All Windows recovery environment options (and how they work)

Use a device

The first option you will see allows you to start from a USB player or DVD rather than your hard drive, which you may need to do if you cannot start your PC normally. From there, you can make a troubleshooting or reinstall other windows. If you need to create a USB player or DVD to start, see the Microsoft guide.

In addition to using a device and options to turn off your PC or continue Windows, there is a Troubleshoot Entry into the menu. Select this for more options.

Reset this PC

This is the first option under Troubleshoot. The choice of a reset will do exactly this: reset the windows to its original settings, hopefully, erase the problems you encountered. Along the way, you will also be asked if you also want to erase all your personal files and programs – the reset is more complete if you do, but you will have to withdraw all your data afterwards, so make sure it is safely saved somewhere first.

The reset option can be everything you need to operate Windows again.
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If Use a device Or Reset this PC are not the solutions you are looking for, you can deepen the Windows recovery environment by choosing Advanced options.

Startups repair

With this option, Windows will try to solve some of the most common problems relating to start -ups, without any other entry required from you. It will examine key files controlling the starting process, registry files and drivers. Cross fingers, you will be back in the normal Windows environment in a few minutes.

Start parameters

This gives you some alternatives to the start of windows in the usual way, including the classic safe mode, which loads the operating system with the least configuration files and drivers as possible. By starting a stripped version of Windows rather than full windows, you may bypass the problems and solve your problems more – by removing malware, for example.

Command prompt

This opens a text-based command prompt window, a return to MS-DOS days. As it is so naked, you may be able to operate the command prompts even if you cannot enter the file commands, for example, or other diagnostic checks. For more details on the command prompts, see Microsoft’s guide.

There are several troubleshooting approaches that you can adopt.
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Uninstalling updates

Sometimes a Windows update will cause problems for your system (and maybe many others). This option allows you to view the updates that have recently been applied to the operating system and delete them if necessary, which can then allow you to start Windows as usual.

UEFI firmware settings

This is where you can make changes to the fundamental UEFI software (unified extensible firmware interface) which works under Windows (and which has now replaced the BIOS). You can check the condition of the hard drives and peripherals, and make sure that your computer works at the most basic level – we have written a more detailed UEFI guide here.

System restoration

Essentially, System Restore brings the windows back at a previous time, which ideally canceled any change causes your current PC problems (it will uninstall the applications that have recently been added, for example). These catering points should have been created automatically by Windows, and you will be invited to choose one from the list, depending on the way to the way where you want to go back.