New Windows 11 recovery tool could be invaluable in a future Crowdstrike-style disaster

Microsoft is working on a new feature for Windows 11 called 'Quick Machine Recovery' which is designed to help companies (or individuals) quickly recover from serious problems with their PCs.

Bleeping Computer spotted the revelation of this tool as one of the elements of Microsoft's Windows Resiliency Initiative, which just as the name suggests aims to make the desktop operating system more bulletproof from gremlins that can cause serious havoc with Windows 11 systems.

The Quick Machine Recovery facility is currently in testing for Windows 11 in the Beta channel (see some screenshots from a well-known Windows Insider, XenoPanther, above), and can be accessed via the Startup menu. (It's in the Advanced Options page, and is labeled as replacing the Startup Repair functionality).

The feature sends crash data to Microsoft's servers (either via LAN or Wi-Fi) to allow the software giant to crunch that data and hopefully make a diagnosis of the problem. If it's a known issue and there's a tweak to settings that can be applied - or maybe a driver that's causing trouble - the theory is that the tool will automatically implement said solution.

As Bleeping Computer points out, in scenarios like Crowdstrike, the remedial action - manually removing the offending .SYS files - could have been a lot easier if it was automated. The fix would have been deployed a good deal more swiftly, and therefore downtime would have been minimized.

Microsoft explains:

"With quick machine recovery, when a widespread outage affects devices from starting properly, Microsoft can broadly deploy targeted remediations to affected devices via Windows RE - automating fixes and quickly getting users to a productive state without requiring complex manual intervention."

The software giant notes that Quick Machine Recovery will eventually be enabled as a default part of Windows 11 Home. In enterprise scenarios or with Windows 11 Pro, admins will be able to decide whether the tool is part of their armory of troubleshooting options, or not.