Windows 11’s Cloud rebuild offers a fresh installation downloaded with device drivers from Windows Update. Its file-removal choice needs careful reading: choosing Remove files still removes your personal files, accounts, apps and settings. Files already stored in a cloud service such as OneDrive are unaffected, but that does not establish that every local file has been backed up.
Check the October update and the recovery option
Microsoft introduced Cloud rebuild in the October 28, 2026 KB5127936 preview update for Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 26H2. The release uses gradual and normal rollout phases, so installing an update is not a promise that every new feature appears immediately on every device. Check the recovery options actually available on your PC.
Microsoft: October 28 update and rollout notes
Cloud rebuild and Reset this PC make different promises
Microsoft’s Reset this PC guide includes Keep my files, which preserves personal files while removing apps and settings. Its separate Cloud download choice concerns where Windows comes from. Do not read the word cloud as a promise to retain your documents. Cloud rebuild has no Keep my files mode; Microsoft recommends trying less disruptive recovery options first.
Microsoft: Reset this PC options
- Cloud rebuild — Remove files: intended when you will keep using the PC. File removal is faster, but specialist recovery may remain possible.
- Cloud rebuild — Remove & sanitize: intended before recycling, returning or giving away the PC. It adds an irreversible hardware erase operation.
- Multiple disks: Windows disk only sanitizes the Windows disk and keeps files on the others; All disks targets every disk on the PC. Read the target summary.
Microsoft’s administrator guide says sanitization relies on the storage hardware implementing the erase request correctly. Windows cannot independently verify what that hardware did. For a managed device, have the responsible IT team confirm the required process and disk scope before proceeding.
Microsoft Learn: disk scope and sanitization limits
Make a recovery sheet before choosing a destructive option
Consider a fictional owner who stores family photos online but keeps an unfinished invoice only in Downloads. Seeing the photos on another device answers a question about those photos. It says nothing about the invoice. The useful preparation is a file-by-file inventory of what must survive, where its backup resides and whether that copy opens.
Microsoft’s backup guide describes cloud storage and external or network drives as available backup routes. Choose a route that covers the files you actually need. As a suggested check, open representative copied documents and photos from the backup location before relying on it.
Microsoft: choose a backup solution
- Record the recovery option’s exact name and your reason for using it.
- List important local folders, their backup destinations and the files you checked.
- Record whether you are keeping the PC or transferring it, and which disks the confirmation screen targets.
- Stop if a required file or the intended disk scope remains unresolved; ask the device owner or IT team for help.
Cloud rebuild needs internet access and continuous power. Its duration varies, especially with sanitization. No rebuild, file recovery, disk erasure or timing test was performed for this guide. The fictional example illustrates preparation rather than a measured result.
Microsoft Support: Cloud rebuild prerequisites and file-removal choices