Turn Windows Features on or off on Windows 10

Over 30 optional features available in Windows 10

by Milan Stanojevic
Milan Stanojevic
Milan Stanojevic
Windows & Software Expert
Milan has been enthusiastic about technology ever since his childhood days, and this led him to take interest in all PC-related technologies. He's a PC enthusiast and he... read more
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Reviewed by Vlad Turiceanu
Vlad Turiceanu
Vlad Turiceanu
Editor-in-Chief
Passionate about technology, Windows, and everything that has a power button, he spent most of his time developing new skills and learning more about the tech world. Coming... read more
Affiliate Disclosure
  • Windows 10 comes with a set of hidden optional features.
  • They can be manually toggled on and off.
  • We will show you how to do this in our article.
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Windows 10 is a great operating system, but it also comes with several hidden features that you might not know about.

All these features are listed in the Turn Windows features on or off section, and in today’s article, we’ll show you how you can enable or disable them.

How do I turn on or off optional Windows features?

You can easily configure optional Windows features from the Control Panel. From there, you can manually select which features you want to turn on or off.

1. Press the Windows key and type control panel in the search box.

2. Click on the first result to open Control Panel.

3. Navigate to Programs.

4. Now select Turn Windows features on or off.

turn windows features on or off programs

5. A list of features will now appear.

6. Check the feature you want to install or uncheck the one you want to remove and click OK.

turn windows features on or off selection

7. Restart your PC in order to apply the changes.

If you want to access this feature quickly, you can use the following method:

  1. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run window.
  2. Now enter optionalfeatures and press Enter or click OK.
    optional features run window how to turn windows features on

Want to unlock secret Windows 10 features? Here’s how to do it like a pro!

What features are available to be installed?

what windows 10 optional features are available

There are about 30+ optional features available to be installed, but we’re going to focus on several most important ones.

  • .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) and .NET Framework 4.6 Advanced Services – These two features are required in order to run applications created using the .NET Framework 3.5 or 4.6.
  • Hyper-V – Microsoft’s virtualization technology that lets you run virtual machines on your PC without third-party software.
  • Internet Explorer 11 – If you still need to use Internet Explorer on your PC, you should know it’s still available on Windows 10.
  • Media Features – This includes Windows Media Player and other multimedia components.
  • Microsoft Print to PDF – A feature that lets you “print” your documents straight to PDF files instead of an actual printer.
  • Windows PowerShell 2.0 – Command Line interface similar to the Command Prompt, but more advanced.
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta) – This feature gives you access to the Ubuntu command line and it allows you to use the same commands you’d use on a Linux system.

These are some of the most notable features that you can enable/disable, but there are a lot more available.

There you go, a quick and easy guide on how to use Turn Windows Features on or off on your PC.

As you can see, most of the features available here are made for advanced users, and you most likely won’t have to enable or disable them on your own anytime soon.

We hope you found this article informative and that you now have a better understanding of optional Windows Features.

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