While Microsoft has still not officially discussed the Cloud Download feature, Windows 10 watcher Albacore has provided more information. It seems Microsoft has been working on the feature for some time, or at least had previous plans to develop something similar. According to Albacore, the feature currently downloads a version of Windows 10 Build 14393. That is a Redstone 1 release from way back in August 2016, a build Microsoft no longer supports. In its current guise the Windows 10 cloud restore would only function as a reset option with networking already running.
— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) August 4, 2019
Surface Hub Tool
We guess Microsoft would create a newer version of Windows available in the cloud. Indeed, the company already offers a similar service that is specific for the Surface Hub hardware. In its description for that solution, the company says: “If for some reason the Surface Hub becomes unusable, you can still recover it from the cloud without assistance from Microsoft Support. The Surface Hub can download a fresh operating system image from the cloud, and use that image to reinstall its operating system. You may have to use this type of recovery process under the following circumstances:
The Surface Hub or its related accounts have entered an unstable state The Surface Hub is locked”
It will be interesting to see how Microsoft develops a similar feature for Windows 10 on any PC. As How-to Geek notes, this cloud restore feature could bear similarities to macOS’ Time Machine, which lets users download a fresh version of the OS while automatically restoring cloud backups for documents, pictures, and system files.
