Scalable Windows Resiliency with new recovery tools

Today at Ignite, we’re announcing new Windows recovery capabilities designed to help IT admins respond quickly — whether it’s restoring a single PC that’s misbehaving or recovering large sets of devices during a widespread outage. Device recovery scenarios vary, and customers need different tools for different situations. That’s why we’re providing a range of solutions, all managed through a familiar, centralized platform. Microsoft Intune brings these capabilities together, and other modern device management vendors can integrate similar functionality if they choose. In this blog post, we are covering the tools that are available to you this week. Stay tuned for future blog posts that will deep dive into other capabilities.

Quickly recover Windows devices during a widespread outage

Large outages affecting millions of devices are rare but frustrating when they can only be remediated by an in-person action. These devices are usually stuck on WinRE. That is when quick machine recovery (QMR) comes into play. QMR is a Windows capability that automatically detects, diagnoses, and remediates boot critical issues from WinRE, helping restore productivity without requiring hands on, in-person intervention. QMR is generally available and enabled by default on Windows Home and will be soon enabled on Pro devices that are not managed by IT. It requires Windows 11 24H2 or 25H2. On managed Windows Pro and Enterprise devices, QMR needs to be enabled by IT policy, and soon can be enabled just-in-time by Autopatch management.

We are introducing the preview of QMR management in Windows Autopatch. Autopatch empowers IT administrators with comprehensive control over the deployment of QMR updates, including approvals, scheduling, alerting, and reporting. To discover more details, visit the Ignite Autopatch blog post and attend the Ignite breakout session BRK345: Resilient by design: How Windows has evolved with new recovery tools for a demo.

Restore Windows devices to a previous state in minutes

A device disruption doesn’t have to be widespread — it can strike any device at any time and cost organizations valuable time and productivity. That’s why we’re excited to introduce point-in-time restore for Windows, a new recovery capability that enables devices to be rolled back to a previous state within minutes. This feature is designed to help minimize downtime and simplify remediation, without the need for technical expertise or lengthy troubleshooting. A public preview of this feature will be available this week for Windows Insiders.

Point-in-time restore will help IT admins (remotely) or end users (locally) restore a PC to a previous state from restore points stored on the device. This feature can be used to help customers recover from both widespread and one-off issues. When a device or group of devices has been suddenly impacted, point-in-time restore provides a fast way to return to productivity without waiting for a targeted fix.

Point-in-time restore aims to address the need for:

• Flexibility, as a restore can help resolve both isolated and widespread incidents
• Fast and simple recovery in minutes without advanced troubleshooting needed.
• Built‑in reliability and predictability, including recurring capture of restore points, a short restore point retention period, and disk space limits
• Comprehensive rollback of the entire system to a previous state, including OS, apps, settings, configurations, and local files

How is this different from System Restore?

Organizations may be wondering how this capability differs from System Restore. While both point-in-time restore and system restore use Volume Shadow Copy Service and are designed to restore the system to a previous state, there are important differences:

How does this feature in Windows 11 compare to point-in-time restore for Windows 365?

Both point-in-time restore for Windows and point-in-time restore for Windows 365 are designed to help organizations recover quickly from system failures, flawed updates, or user errors. While these features share the same core goal of minimizing downtime and restoring productivity during disruptions, their implementations differ due to architectural differences and design choices unique to each environment.

Below are the key differences that IT administrators should be aware of when evaluating or deploying point-in-time restore across environments:

Limitations and risks for Windows client

As with any recovery solution, it is important to be aware of some limitations and risks.

• Data loss: point-in-time restore is a comprehensive recovery solution that reverts the entire system — including user files, applications, settings, passwords, secrets, certificates, and keys — to the selected restore point. Any changes made after the restore point will be lost. Data stored in cloud services such as OneDrive is not affected.
• Storage constraints: restore points are stored locally and require sufficient disk space to be maintained. If available disk space becomes limited, the oldest restore points will be deleted automatically to free up space. To complete a restore, the device must have at least as much free space as the total size of all restore points on the system.
• Restore points are retained for a maximum of 72 hours and are deleted after this period.
• There is no guarantee that a rollback will always result in a bootable or fully functional system, as certain system states or updates may impact reliability.

What will be available in the preview this week?

Starting this week Windows Insiders in the Beta and Dev Channels can test point-in-time restore by installing the latest Insider Preview build for Windows 11. 

Point-in-time restore settings page in System > Recovery

Devices running Home, Pro or Enterprise editions of Windows will have access to view all configurations, however, only administrators will have the ability to configure the feature. Configurations are available in Windows 11 System Settings and are outlined below:

*Only devices with a total disk size of 200GB or greater will have the feature on by default. Devices with disk sizes below 200GB can still configure the feature to be on if desired.

For preview, a restore can only be triggered locally by the end user when the device is in WinRE only (remote management of this feature and triggering a restore from full Windows is not included in the preview).

Point-in-time restore shown in the Troubleshoot menu for WinRE

The steps to perform a point-in-time restore are below:

1. In WinRE select Troubleshoot > Point-in-time restore
2. Enter BitLocker recovery key.
3. Select a restore point to restore PC to the exact state it was at the time of the restore point.
4. Review and acknowledge the risks and limitations associated with this feature by selecting Continue.
5. Review the restore point selection, OS version, and warning of data loss, and select Restore to start the restore process.

File your feedback via the Feedback Hub (under Recovery and Uninstall > Point-in-time restore) to help us refine and optimize this feature.

Next steps

Stay tuned for future enhancements as we continue to strengthen Windows resilience and support IT admins in maintaining seamless business operations.

Point-in-time restore and quick machine recovery (QMR) with Autopatch are available this week — start testing both to help build your own recovery framework. Additional tools will become available in the first half of 2026.

Attend the Ignite breakout session Resilient by design: How Windows has evolved with new recovery tools (BRK345) for more details and demos. The session will be recorded, so you can stream it on demand.

To learn more about the Windows Resiliency Initiative, see the Windows Resiliency e-book .

Disclaimer:
This blog post is for informational purposes only and outlines Microsoft’s current product direction and plans. Product availability, licensing terms and capabilities may vary by region and are subject to change. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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