So what is WinRE?
Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a recovery platform based on Windows Preinstallation Encironment (WinPE). WinRE provides two main functionalities:
- Automatic diagnosis and repair of boot problems using a tool called Startup Repair.
- A centralized platform for advanced recovery tools.
WinRE is new for Windows Vista and completely replaces the recovery console in Windows XP. You should be able to perform most tasks of recovery console from WinRE.
Source : Windows RE Team's blog on MSDN