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I am trying to generate an reference image of Windows 10 pro. Everything works fine but the recovery tools are not enabled by default in the OOBE after applying the image despite the recovery tools being registered correctly (reagentc /enable during the OOBE does activate the recovery tools).

Is there a way to have WinRE enabled by default in the OOBE?

Additional information:
Windows 10 was installed to a HyperV VM with an .iso generated with the media creation tool.
To prepare, generate and apply the image I followed the following guide by microsoft.
The WinRE.wim was copied from the recovery partition of the vm to the windows directory before generating the image.

Quemrik
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  • Are you directly applying the WIM or using Windows Setup? If the latter, please post the custom answer file being used - as worded, the following quoted section is confusing since Windows Setup isn't used when applying a WIM directly: how is "...reagentc /enable during the OOBE does activate the recovery tools." being done? If using an answer file, has it been verified WinRE is enabled by Windows Setup during Pass 7 [oobeSystem]? – JW0914 Jan 19 '24 at 11:18
  • If not using Windows Setup, the WinRE partition would be manually created via Step 4 under "How do I configure system partitions on a new drive for applying an image?", then enabled via Step 4 under "To move WinRE to its own partition" – JW0914 Jan 19 '24 at 11:20
  • The WIM is applied directly and and the recovery partition is generated the same as in your guide. I ran the command reagentc /enable in the command promt of the OOBE to check if the Winre.wim was copied and registered correctly, so there was no answer file. – Quemrik Jan 22 '24 at 09:25

1 Answers1

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What you're seeing is normal and you should continue on doing "reagentc /enable" during the OOBE.

You're installing a Windows image that contains Windows itself. The recovery tools are located in a separate recovery partition that needs to be created.

The Reagentc command to disable and enable WinRE, only copies Winre.wim to the recovery partition when enabled, or from the recovery partition to the Windows folder when disabled. It may be found in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery or in C:\Recovery\OEM folders, depending on the installed Windows version.

Your Windows image does not create the recovery partition, it just applies Windows to its partition. Therefore "reagentc /enable" is required to create the recovery partition and to copy Winre.wim to it.

harrymc
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  • I am aware that reagentc /enable does not generate the Winre.wim. I guess I need to clarify more as I may have worded this badly. The windows installation to generate the .wim was installed with a .iso that was generated by a windows media creation tool. As the Winre.wim was not in the directory C:\Windows\System32\Recovery, I mounted the recovery partition and copied it from there before generating the image. The Winre.wim is then copied to the recovery partiton and registered by the installation script. I will edit this in the question. – Quemrik Jan 19 '24 at 10:27
  • The winre.wim file is not enough. See https://superuser.com/a/1803522/8672 – harrymc Jan 19 '24 at 11:21
  • I tried modifying the image with the Reagent.xml so that it is identical with the one after using Reagentc /enable in the OOBE but the Recovery tools are still disabled after applying the image. – Quemrik Jan 22 '24 at 09:02
  • The link above contains empirical results that I found, since there is no documentation for it by Microsoft. It might not work or be enough for the OOBE environment, but I can't test this. – harrymc Jan 22 '24 at 10:12