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I'm trying to factory reset my PC after a prolonged period not using it. When I try to execute the reset, the system tells me the recovery environment is not found. In all the troubleshoots articles I read, it seemed that an installation disc or the file winre.wim is mandatory. I have neither of both.

reagentc command

Here we can see that the WinRE is disabled, and cannot be enabled.

Here is also the result of the bcdedit /enum all command, if it can help. bcdedit command

I've searched for winre.wim on my c:\ and d:\ (ex : dir /a /s c:\winre.wim), it hasn't been found (and I was unable to find it on my two other PCs either).

How can I proceed now ?

OddBrew
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    I answered this question, based on the information that was provided, it's difficult to determine the reason the winre.wim file does not exist on your system. There are several reasons, including the possibility, it never existed. I would make an educated guess you don't have a Windows recovery partition, so even if the file does exist, you wouldn't have been able to use it. Since I can't read French I can't read the first screenshot, but that isn't required, to indicate an ISO is required to achieve your goal – Ramhound Jan 27 '21 at 22:57
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    I could go into additional details if I knew what the images were contained within your `install.wim`. However, you could also try creating the [recovery partition](https://superuser.com/questions/1533978/how-can-i-restore-functionality-to-my-recovery-partition-disk-management-shows) yourself, but in my opinion that is a waste of time[.](https://superuser.com/questions/707894/windows-8-1-missing-winre-wim-in-winpe) – Ramhound Jan 27 '21 at 23:02

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How can I proceed now?

The only way you proceed with performing a Windows Reset is to download a Windows ISO for the exact same version you have installed. Once you have done that, mount the ISO using the right-click context menu option, and launch setup.exe within Windows.

You will be given an option to keep or delete your personal files. If you use an ISO for a build of Windows that is earlier than the one you have installed you will be unable to keep your files. You will want to allow the installer to update itself.

Since the only way to achieve your goal is to download that ISO here are several sources to achieve your goal. Every single one of those sources download the ISO directly from Microsoft. Microsoft does not provide (public) links to older versions of Windows.

Ramhound
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  • How Windows 10 activation works is well documented. Windows 10 activation unfortunately has nothing to do with your question or my answer so I won’t address it. I encourage you to do the necessary research on the subject. – Ramhound Jan 29 '21 at 00:41
  • thank you for your help, it worked perfectly. – OddBrew Feb 09 '21 at 00:44