Giant WINRE file - what for?

[Fracso]

What´s the purpose of the 3+ GB WinRE file that is in the IFW installation folders? Can it be safely deleted?

[Brian K]

What is the name of that file?

[Fracso]

The name was WinRE, as I remember. Deleted it and didn´t keep the name.

I created a new image with IFW and noticed the size was about 3 GB larger than usual. Checked with TreeSize and found this file.

Deleted it and created a new image. Size returned to "normal", about 3 GB less.

Maybe it´s related to "Keep WinRE WIM backups when updating" in the TBWinPE/RE Builder, which is enabled?

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

If it was the WinRE_Backup folder and you're using Windows 11 it could be large due to the number of updates Windows 11 does to WinRE. If you create frequent builds it's also more likely you would have more backups because the WinRE would be checked more often. There is a new option in Settings to delete the backups if you want/need to. By default, the four most recent will be retained in case WinRE is broken by an update and you need to use a previous working version.

Individual WinRE WIM files usually wouldn't be that large unless one or more large files were somehow added to the build's WIM.