The negative electrodes in commercial Li-ion batteries are currently based primarily on the use of carbonaceous materials. Silicon stands as an attractive alternative; however, its implementation in complete Li-ion cells is limited by complexities inherent to handling this electrode, either as pure Si or Si/SiO2 composites. Herein, we revisit the use of Si-based electrodes and demonstrate the feasibility of enhancing both their capacity and cycle life via a pre-formatting treatment that triggers the reduction of the native SiO2 coating. Moreover, we show that such pretreatments can be applied to pure SiO2 particles to activate their reactivity with Li by liberating pure Si metal. In addition to its practical importance with regard to Si electrodes, this study also emphasizes the potential to harness new anode materials by strategically overcoming kinetic barriers. (C) 2016 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.