Microsoft is starting tests of Quick Machine Recovery. This is a solution that, in principle, allows Microsoft to recover computers and servers that can no longer boot up on their own due to an error.
As part of the Windows Resiliency Initiative, Microsoft is testing a new feature: Quick Machine Recovery (QRM). This function should enable Microsoft to recover crashed machines, even when they can no longer boot up.
Contact with Microsoft
The solution detects the state of Windows during startup and can determine when Windows 11 encounters a critical error during boot. It then restarts the operating system directly into Microsoft’s recovery environment.
In that environment, manual intervention is typically needed, but this is problematic when a bug affects systems on a large scale. Therefore, Windows will now contact Microsoft’s servers via Wi-Fi or Ethernet in the recovery environment.
Microsoft will then analyze the crash data from systems. If Redmond recognizes a pattern, it can take action and develop a solution. The affected systems can then pull in a recovery package from the recovery environment, allowing them to repair themselves.
Response to Crowdstrike
Quick Machine Recovery doesn’t come out of nowhere. The above action plan would have prevented a lot of trouble on July 19 last year, when 8.5 million Windows computers worldwide could no longer boot up. Security company Crowdstrike had rolled out an automatic update of its Sensor Tower software, but it contained a bug that blocked the correct start of Windows.
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With QRM, affected systems would have contacted Microsoft themselves. The software specialist could then roll out a recovery package that removed the defective Crowdstrike update. Now, the recovery of affected computers was done manually.
QRM is currently being rolled out to Windows Insiders in the Beta channel of Windows 11 24H2. In the long term, Microsoft wants to enable the recovery function by default for Windows 11 Home users. Pro and Enterprise customers will be able to choose whether to enable QRM themselves, both as local system administrators and within an organization.