And I must admit that websites like this are very useful, because they are far easier to understand than the complicated jargon on Microsoft’s website, and they have step by step outlines that are easy to follow. Besides, learning is always fun.
You say nothing about Internet Information Services – there are many sub
settings (5 – each one has 4 or 5 settings), One is World Wide Web. I use
windows 7 Professional so my Windows Features are different. I notice I
can no longer see Websites from overseas – I guess that they have blocked
just about everything with all their “super security”. I only see a fraction of
the Internet now and it’s just plain boring.
Thank you very much for taking the time to write this. Very informative and I didn’t have to jump through hoops to find it – I can never find anything useful on Windows/Microsoft forums or community posts – this is much appreciated.
I found that by disabling the ‘Internet Explorer’ feature I had 2 unwanted side effects;
1. On my Win10 laptop at work, by doing so I could no longer click on a link in an email in Outlook and go to the website. It would say something about ‘your organization doesn’t permit it’. After reenabling IE, that problem went away.
2. On my home Win10 laptop, I could not longer get to the WIndows store, which you need to do for app installation. After reenabling IE, that problem went away.
The funny thing is that my default web browser in both instances was Firefox.
To the person that took the time to explain each one of these windows features..a HUGE thank you. Quite frankly, I think I only knew 3 of these and what they were used for. To quote my grandson…awesome!!!
Wow!!! I can’t believe I read your very helpful instructions on Windows features on or off. I feel like an IT Tech now. Thank you so much info was very helpful.
Thank you SO much for taking the time to:
Explain, in detail, what each feature is
For wording it in a way “normal” people can understand and
For explaining who needs which features.
My Windows Features match exactly to the list above and I found it EXTREMELY HELPFUL!
I know this an older post but it still shows high on the search results when trying to find an explanation to what those Windows Features are, and so is still relevant I think. Your explanations are good for what appears to be your intended audience, people who are configuring their personal home computer. I’d like to point out though that most people with as little knowledge as the intended audience will not be seeking explanations for all of this. IT pros and businesses, on the other hand, are assumed to already have the knowledge to properly configure these things. This leaves what I would guess is your actual audience, people with pretty good computer skills trying to improve them and implement some of these less well known Windows features in a home or small business environment so they can do this later for a business or a home network. I find then that this article is very inadequate in that capacity. It repeatedly cops out and says that this or that feature is only used by IT pros and businesses. Yeah, ok, but we are reading the article to learn how to use them so why can’t we see an example of how to implement some of these things? We obviously are interested because we are taking the time to read this.
Our audience is consumers of technology and home users, not IT professionals. That's why, the article is written as it is. We will continue to write for consumers and not for IT professionals. Some topics of interest will overlap but our approach will be always suited to home users and consumers.
Thanks for the guide on giving Windows a trimming. I’m your target audience… not an IT pro, just an IP pro, but I needed to pare down my Windows system on my new (though mediocre) laptop, to free up memory so I can run MS’s crappy new version of Office. The article is pretty simplistic, but hey, it was a very chill read and I got enough info to make the decisions on what to uninstall.
[One note — I am very glad I read the comments, to learn about IE11 being necessary for Skype and Win10 Home with a touch screen. Maybe you should edit the article to reflect that? I have to use Skype for work and it would seriously mess me up to lose it.]
Anyway, thanks for the info. I will def check out other articles.
It would’ve been nice to show the Windows 7 version, came to W7 tutorial and got W8, I do know IE11 is used for windows to connect to its own thing therefore disabling it causes big time issues. I have W7 as stated and I see features not covered in this article simply because some wag thought us W7 users needed to look at W8 settings way to go.
I am so glad you pointed out what every feature is for, this helped me to free up a blocked port #80 which I needed for my XAMPP installation. After turning of the right features XAMPP works fine
Hi ,
I just want some more information on network projection . actually i am not able to connect to a network projector i am having epson eb 4850wu model projector and it sin netork i am able to ping the projector and i am able to present using easy mp network projection tool but without software i am not able to connect to the projector if i search on devices i am not able to find the projector . i think the software provided by epson will open some port and allow the projection .Kindly let me know how can i project directly with out software
Be warned: just because you never use internet explorer doesn’t mean you can disable it here. If you have Skype installed this will mess it up (plus who knows what else). This lesson cost me half a day.
I followed this guide (Windows 7) and now I cannot uninstall any programs. It tells me the Widows Installer could not be accessed. What can I do to fix it?
I have Windows 8.1 on my home computer and 4 of those features are not listed:
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
Hyper-V
Network Projection
RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK)
I don’t really need them and assume the feature is only available in the Pro versions of Windows
41 Responses to “Windows Optional Features: What are they and what do they do?”
Thank you so much for the windows feature explanations! Huge help and just what I was looking for. thanks a million!!!!
Happy to have helped. Don’t hesitate to subscribe to our newsletter, for more useful tutorials: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/newsletter/
And I must admit that websites like this are very useful, because they are far easier to understand than the complicated jargon on Microsoft’s website, and they have step by step outlines that are easy to follow. Besides, learning is always fun.
Glad to help. Don’t hesitate to subscribe to our email newsletter, for more useful tutorials: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/newsletter/
I could not find Internet Explorer 11 in my list of “Turn Windows Feature On or Off”. Is this because I installed Microsoft Edge?
Thanks, you made adding or removing so simple, thank you so much for doing all my homework!
You say nothing about Internet Information Services – there are many sub
settings (5 – each one has 4 or 5 settings), One is World Wide Web. I use
windows 7 Professional so my Windows Features are different. I notice I
can no longer see Websites from overseas – I guess that they have blocked
just about everything with all their “super security”. I only see a fraction of
the Internet now and it’s just plain boring.
But we do, Read again and search for Internet Information Services. We explain that feature as well.
Thank you very much, usefull!
Yes I am sure it did but I appreciate the work, so I can get rid of things I do not use , THANKS
Thank you very much for taking the time to write this. Very informative and I didn’t have to jump through hoops to find it – I can never find anything useful on Windows/Microsoft forums or community posts – this is much appreciated.
Happy to help. 😉
Thanks for the information. There is little about it and very helpful. thanks
You’re welcome. Do not hesitate to subscribe to our newsletter, for more useful content.
I found that by disabling the ‘Internet Explorer’ feature I had 2 unwanted side effects;
1. On my Win10 laptop at work, by doing so I could no longer click on a link in an email in Outlook and go to the website. It would say something about ‘your organization doesn’t permit it’. After reenabling IE, that problem went away.
2. On my home Win10 laptop, I could not longer get to the WIndows store, which you need to do for app installation. After reenabling IE, that problem went away.
The funny thing is that my default web browser in both instances was Firefox.
Thank you so much for this fantastic information. Excellent. You certainly put a lot into it. I understand it all now.
To the person that took the time to explain each one of these windows features..a HUGE thank you. Quite frankly, I think I only knew 3 of these and what they were used for. To quote my grandson…awesome!!!
Excellent. Happy to help. Don’t hesitate to subscribe to our website and continue reading our content.
Wow!!! I can’t believe I read your very helpful instructions on Windows features on or off. I feel like an IT Tech now. Thank you so much info was very helpful.
Thank you SO much for taking the time to:
Explain, in detail, what each feature is
For wording it in a way “normal” people can understand and
For explaining who needs which features.
My Windows Features match exactly to the list above and I found it EXTREMELY HELPFUL!
Happy to help!
Hold on add or remove? Why do you have to removed it?
Why not disable it?
Fucking stupid.
I know this an older post but it still shows high on the search results when trying to find an explanation to what those Windows Features are, and so is still relevant I think. Your explanations are good for what appears to be your intended audience, people who are configuring their personal home computer. I’d like to point out though that most people with as little knowledge as the intended audience will not be seeking explanations for all of this. IT pros and businesses, on the other hand, are assumed to already have the knowledge to properly configure these things. This leaves what I would guess is your actual audience, people with pretty good computer skills trying to improve them and implement some of these less well known Windows features in a home or small business environment so they can do this later for a business or a home network. I find then that this article is very inadequate in that capacity. It repeatedly cops out and says that this or that feature is only used by IT pros and businesses. Yeah, ok, but we are reading the article to learn how to use them so why can’t we see an example of how to implement some of these things? We obviously are interested because we are taking the time to read this.
Our audience is consumers of technology and home users, not IT professionals. That's why, the article is written as it is. We will continue to write for consumers and not for IT professionals. Some topics of interest will overlap but our approach will be always suited to home users and consumers.
Thanks for the guide on giving Windows a trimming. I’m your target audience… not an IT pro, just an IP pro, but I needed to pare down my Windows system on my new (though mediocre) laptop, to free up memory so I can run MS’s crappy new version of Office. The article is pretty simplistic, but hey, it was a very chill read and I got enough info to make the decisions on what to uninstall.
[One note — I am very glad I read the comments, to learn about IE11 being necessary for Skype and Win10 Home with a touch screen. Maybe you should edit the article to reflect that? I have to use Skype for work and it would seriously mess me up to lose it.]
Anyway, thanks for the info. I will def check out other articles.
Checked off 11 items to disable. Win 8.1 had already unticked all those items selected. Very interesting.
It is actually the best guide i encountered till now !!! great job ! Simple, Short, Clear
It would’ve been nice to show the Windows 7 version, came to W7 tutorial and got W8, I do know IE11 is used for windows to connect to its own thing therefore disabling it causes big time issues. I have W7 as stated and I see features not covered in this article simply because some wag thought us W7 users needed to look at W8 settings way to go.
I am so glad you pointed out what every feature is for, this helped me to free up a blocked port #80 which I needed for my XAMPP installation. After turning of the right features XAMPP works fine
Hi ,
I just want some more information on network projection . actually i am not able to connect to a network projector i am having epson eb 4850wu model projector and it sin netork i am able to ping the projector and i am able to present using easy mp network projection tool but without software i am not able to connect to the projector if i search on devices i am not able to find the projector . i think the software provided by epson will open some port and allow the projection .Kindly let me know how can i project directly with out software
Be warned: just because you never use internet explorer doesn’t mean you can disable it here. If you have Skype installed this will mess it up (plus who knows what else). This lesson cost me half a day.
I followed this guide (Windows 7) and now I cannot uninstall any programs. It tells me the Widows Installer could not be accessed. What can I do to fix it?
Hi. Try the steps in this guide: How to Fix the “Windows Installer Service could not be accessed” Error in Windows 7
I have Windows 8.1 on my home computer and 4 of those features are not listed:
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
Hyper-V
Network Projection
RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK)
I don’t really need them and assume the feature is only available in the Pro versions of Windows
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Telnet and TFTP are very different and not at all related.
You are right. The article has been updated. Thank you!
Nice, how about a guide for Windows 7 pro please.
Most of the features mentioned in this guide are also found in Windows 7 Professional. There are only a few that are different.
Thanks, very usefull.
I must admit I was very courious about many thingh in the add/remove features but I never dig too much 😉
I’m glad you enjoyed this article.