The Quick Machine Recovery feature is available on all devices that have the Windows 11 24H2 KB5062660 or later update installed. It is enabled by default on the Windows Home versions. Windows Pro users and IT admins get the exclusive benefit of manually enabling and customizing this feature as per their needs.

To access this feature, open the Settings app, select “Recovery,” and then choose “Quick Machine Recovery.” You will find a toggle to enable or disable this feature. There is also a drop-down menu to choose the time after which the feature checks for a solution again—by default, it is set to 30 minutes.

All that said, it’s kind of hard to deliberately create a situation where Windows fails to boot three consecutive times and the Quick Machine Recovery feature comes into action. However, there’s a test mode through which you can check (though I do not recommend doing this) how this feature actually functions.

Open Command Prompt as an administrator and execute the following commands one by one. The first command allows you to simulate a boot failure on your computer, while the next command ensures that your computer enters WinRE upon boot.

Open Command Prompt as an administrator and execute the following commands one by one. The first command allows you to simulate a boot failure on your computer, while the next command ensures that your computer enters WinRE upon boot.

reagentc.exe /SetRecoveryTestmode
reagentc.exe /BootToRe

Then, close the Command Prompt window and restart your computer. Instead of booting into Windows, your computer will enter the recovery environment and attempt to connect to the internet through an Ethernet connection. If your computer isn’t connected via Ethernet, WinRE will try to connect to the internet through a preconfigured Wi-Fi connection.

Next, your computer’s diagnostic data will be sent to Microsoft, where it will be evaluated. If an issue is found and a fix is available on the Microsoft servers, your computer will automatically download and install it. However, if no fix is available, your computer will remain in WinRE and will check for a fix again after the set time, which is 30 minutes by default. If you don’t want to wait, you can press the Enter key to access the Advanced Options window, from where you can take other steps, such as uninstalling updates or restoring your system.

Anyway, if the QMR feature is able to fix the issue, your computer will boot normally into Windows. However, if the problem still persists after implementing the downloaded fix, your computer will go into WinRE again, and the whole process will start over.

You will be able to see the fix that the Quick Machine Recovery feature has added to your computer by heading to Settings > Windows Update > Update History.

Once you have tested the Quick Machine Recovery feature, you need to exit test mode; otherwise, your computer will keep entering WinRE on every boot. To do this, open the Command Prompt as an administrator again and execute the following command. This command will completely turn off WinRE on your computer.

reagentc.exe /Disable

Then, execute the following command to enable WinRE and ensure your computer can use the Quick Machine Recovery feature whenever the need arises.

reagentc.exe /Enable

Is the Quick Machine Recovery Feature Foolproof?

The Quick Machine Recovery feature is definitely more advanced than the Startup Repair feature. However, there are a few areas that Microsoft needs to address before we can consider the Quick Recovery feature foolproof against boot failure.

One of the major limitations of the new recovery feature is that it requires an internet connection to function. It becomes completely useless if you encounter a boot issue on a system that does not have access to the internet. Additionally, it will only be helpful in resolving widespread issues. This means that if you are facing a boot problem caused by a change you made to your computer, the Quick Machine Recovery feature might not be helpful.

At the time of writing, the feature is only compatible with wired and WPA/WPA2 Wi-Fi networks. If you connect to the internet through Wi-Fi WPA2-Enterprise, you will not be able to take advantage of this feature. Since the feature is mainly designed for global outages, there’s a high possibility that Microsoft will introduce support for Wi-Fi WPA2-Enterprise soon.