If your Windows PC stops working properly and no longer boots up, what can you do? Recovery isn’t always easy, especially if you don’t already have a recovery drive on hand. But Microsoft wants to address this with a new feature called Cloud Rebuild, which was first announced back in November at the Ignite 2025 conference.
The new Cloud Rebuild feature is currently available in preview versions of Windows, such as the Windows 11 Insider Experimental Preview Build 26300.8772. Microsoft writes the following under the “Changes and improvements gradually being rolled out” section:
[Recovery]
We’re introducing Cloud Rebuild, a new recovery option that restores a Windows 11 PC to a clean, known-good state by performing a full OS reinstall, even when Windows won’t boot. Unlike Reset This PC, Cloud Rebuild downloads both the target Windows image and the device’s drivers from Windows Update, so the device comes back fully functional without USB media, without a custom image, and without depending on the health of the currently installed OS.
What’s actually new about Cloud Rebuild?
If your Windows PC ever fails to start up and becomes clearly unusable, the only option left is a time-consuming reinstallation. To do this, you either need a physical installation medium (e.g., USB drive) or you can install Windows from the cloud.
For the latter, there’s already a feature in Windows called Cloud Download, introduced back in 2020, which allows you to reinstall Windows via the Reset This PC option in Settings. Cloud Rebuild is similar but designed for recovery—not just when you want a fresh Windows install, but accessible even when your PC won’t boot.
It’s possible that Cloud Rebuild will first involve Windows attempting to repair your system using Quick Machine Recovery, and if that fails, automatically redirects to a cloud-based reinstallation without you needing to take any further action.
How to try Cloud Rebuild now
You can try it out yourself in the preview build, but before you do, be warned: Cloud Rebuild will delete all existing files on your computer and reformat its storage device!
First, launch the Cloud Rebuild feature directly from the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) by selecting Troubleshoot → Recovery and Uninstallation → Cloud Rebuild.
Within WinRE, connect via a wired Ethernet connection or a Wi-Fi network. Check the target Windows build, edition, and language, and confirm the data loss warning before the rebuild begins.
As of right now, the new Cloud Rebuild feature is intended for system administrators and not for home users. Microsoft describes the feature in more detail on this support page.
By the way: If you’re using Windows 11 Home, you’re missing out on the many benefits of Windows 11 Pro. To learn more, see our comparison of Windows 11 Home and Pro. If you want to upgrade, snag it for cheap in the PCWorld Software Store: now just $59 instead of $99.
