- Platform Support
- Why are there two different sets of PowerShell cmdlets?
- Different Functionality
- Different Windows feature names
- List of Windows feature names
- dism.exe and PowerShell
- Add-WindowsCapability
- Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature
- Install-WindowsFeature
- Add-WindowsFeature
- dism.exe
- pkgmgr.exe
Update: Add-WindowsCapability
The *-WindowsCapability cmdlets were added in Windows 10 and Server 2016+, they are similar to the Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature cmdlet but also have the ability to download packages from Windows Update or a local repository if they are not accessible on the machine itself.
Platform Support
| Vista+2008 | Win7 | 2008 R2 | Win8.* | 2012 R* | Win10 | 2016 | Nano | Source | |
| Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature | * | * | * | * | * | Dism module | |||
| Get-WindowsOptionalFeature | * | * | * | * | * | Dism module | |||
| Get-WindowsCapability | * | * | ? | Dism module | |||||
| Install-WindowsFeature | * | * | ServerManager module | ||||||
| Get-WindowsFeature | * | * | * | ServerManager module | |||||
| Add-WindowsFeature | * | A | A | ServerManager module | |||||
| dism.exe | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | %SystemRoot%\System32 | |
| pkgmgr.exe | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | %SystemRoot%\System32 |
So the Server-Manager cmdlets are only available on servers or maybe if you install the remote administration tools on a workstation. If you need to support client computers as well use the Dism cmdlets, to be completely on the safe side, use dism.exe. And if you still support Vista/Server 2008 look into pkgmgr.exe
Why are there two different sets of PowerShell cmdlets?
Good question, my guess is that there were two distinct teams at Microsoft. The Server-Manager team created cmdlets to support features in Server-Manager. The dism team (?) wanted to replicate the functionality of dism.exe. By the time they found out about each other, nobody wanted to give up their code.
Different Features
Lets look at the commands in details:
Install-WindowsFeature [-Name] <Feature[]> [-ComputerName <String>] [-Credential <PSCredential>] [-IncludeAllSubFeature] [-IncludeManagementTools] [-LogPath <String>] [-Restart] [-Source <String[]>] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [<CommonParameters>] Install-WindowsFeature [-ComputerName <String>] [-Credential <PSCredential>] [-LogPath <String>] [-Restart] [-Source <String[]>] [-Vhd <String>] -ConfigurationFilePath <String> [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [<CommonParameters>] Install-WindowsFeature [-Name] <Feature[]> [-ComputerName <String>] [-Credential <PSCredential>] [-IncludeAllSubFeature] [-IncludeManagementTools] [-LogPath <String>] [-Source <String[]>] -Vhd <String> [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [<CommonParameters>]compared to:
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature [-All] [-LimitAccess] [-LogLevel <LogLevel>] [-LogPath <String>] [-NoRestart] [-PackageName <String>] [-ScratchDirectory <String>] [-Source <String[]>] [-SystemDrive <String>] [-WindowsDirectory <String>] -FeatureName <String[]> -Online [<CommonParameters>] Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature [-All] [-LimitAccess] [-LogLevel <LogLevel>] [-LogPath <String>] [-NoRestart] [-PackageName <String>] [-ScratchDirectory <String>] [-Source <String[]>] [-SystemDrive <String>] [-WindowsDirectory <String>] -FeatureName <String[]> -Path <String> [<CommonParameters>]
One big difference is that the Server-Manager cmdlets can work against remote computers as well, while dism works only locally but can target offline Windows installations.
Install-WindowsFeature supports a nice trick, if you want to know what other features are installed, use the '-whatif' switch. This works when using -IncludeAllSubFeature but also when installing roles, it just lists all sub-features it would install. The same works for UnInstall-WindowsFeature, try
UnInstall-WindowsFeature -Name NET-Framework-45-Features -whatifand you can see that you better not remove the dot.NET framework.
Different Windows feature names
Both sets of cmdlets use their own feature names :-(. The dism module cmdlets use the same names as dism.exe, so if you have used those before, just keep using them. The Server Manager uses different names.
The following tests were done on a Server 2012 R2
get-windowsfeature | select Name | sort namereturns 267 features.
Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online | Select FeatureName | Sort FeatureNamereturns 311 features, exactly the same as:
dism.exe -online -get-features
List of Windows feature names
| *-WindowsOptionalFeature (Dism) | *-WindowsFeature (Server-Manager) |
|---|---|
ActiveDirectory-PowerShell ADCertificateServicesManagementTools ADCertificateServicesRole AdminUI Application-Server Application-Server-HTTP-Activation Application-Server-MSMQ-Activation Application-Server-Pipe-Activation Application-Server-TCP-Activation Application-Server-TCP-Port-Sharing Application-Server-WAS-Support Application-Server-WebServer-Support AppServer AS-Dist-Transaction AS-Ent-Services AS-Incoming-Trans AS-NET-Framework AS-Outgoing-Trans AS-WS-Atomic AuthManager BdeAducExtTool BiometricFramework BitLocker BitLocker-NetworkUnlock BitLocker-RemoteAdminTool Bitlocker-Utilities BITS BITSExtensions-AdminPack BITSExtensions-Upload BusScan-ScanServer CCFFilter CertificateEnrollmentPolicyServer CertificateEnrollmentServer CertificateServices CertificateServicesManagementTools ClientForNFS-Infrastructure CoreFileServer CoreFileServer-RSAT DamgmtTools DataCenterBridging Dedup-Core DesktopExperience DfsMgmt DFSN-Server DFSR-Infrastructure-ServerEdition DHCPServer DHCPServer-Tools DirectoryServices-ADAM DirectoryServices-ADAM-Tools DirectoryServices-AdministrativeCenter DirectoryServices-DomainController DirectoryServices-DomainController-Tools DirectoryServices-ISM-Smtp DirectPlay DNS-Server-Full-Role DNS-Server-Tools DSC-Service EnhancedStorage FailoverCluster-AdminPak FailoverCluster-AutomationServer FailoverCluster-CmdInterface FailoverCluster-FullServer FailoverCluster-Mgmt FailoverCluster-PowerShell FaxServiceConfigRole FaxServiceRole FileAndStorage-Services FileServerVSSAgent File-Services File-Services-Search-Service FRS-Infrastructure FSRM-Infrastructure FSRM-Infrastructure-Services FSRM-Management Gateway Gateway-UI HCAP-Server HCSRuntime HCSUI IAS NT Service IdentityServer-SecurityTokenService IIS-ApplicationDevelopment IIS-ApplicationInit IIS-ASP IIS-ASPNET IIS-ASPNET45 IIS-BasicAuthentication IIS-CertProvider IIS-CGI IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication IIS-CommonHttpFeatures IIS-CustomLogging IIS-DefaultDocument IIS-DigestAuthentication IIS-DirectoryBrowsing IIS-FTPExtensibility IIS-FTPServer IIS-FTPSvc IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics IIS-HostableWebCore IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic IIS-HttpCompressionStatic IIS-HttpErrors IIS-HttpLogging IIS-HttpRedirect IIS-HttpTracing IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication IIS-IPSecurity IIS-ISAPIExtensions IIS-ISAPIFilter IIS-LegacyScripts IIS-LegacySnapIn IIS-LoggingLibraries IIS-ManagementConsole IIS-ManagementScriptingTools IIS-ManagementService IIS-Metabase IIS-NetFxExtensibility IIS-NetFxExtensibility45 IIS-ODBCLogging IIS-Performance IIS-RequestFiltering IIS-RequestMonitor IIS-Security IIS-ServerSideIncludes IIS-StaticContent IIS-URLAuthorization IIS-WebDAV IIS-WebServer IIS-WebServerManagementTools IIS-WebServerRole IIS-WebSockets IIS-WindowsAuthentication IIS-WMICompatibility InkAndHandwritingServices Internet-Explorer-Optional-amd64 IPAMClientFeature IPAMServerFeature iSCSITargetServer iSCSITargetServer-PowerShell iSCSITargetStorageProviders iSNS_Service KeyDistributionService-PSH-Cmdlets LegacyComponents Licensing Licensing-Diagnosis-UI Licensing-UI LightweightServer ManagementOdata MediaPlayback Microsoft-Hyper-V Microsoft-Hyper-V-Management-Clients Microsoft-Hyper-V-Management-PowerShell Microsoft-Hyper-V-Offline Microsoft-Hyper-V-Online Microsoft-Windows-Deployment-Services Microsoft-Windows-Deployment-Services-Admin-Pack Microsoft-Windows-Deployment-Services-Deployment-Server Microsoft-Windows-Deployment-Services-Legacy-SIS Microsoft-Windows-Deployment-Services-Transport-Server Microsoft-Windows-FCI-Client-Package Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ServerAdminTools-Update MicrosoftWindowsPowerShell MicrosoftWindowsPowerShellISE MicrosoftWindowsPowerShellRoot MicrosoftWindowsPowerShellV2 Microsoft-Windows-ServerEssentials-ServerSetup Microsoft-Windows-Web-Services-for-Management-IIS-Extension MSMQ MSMQ-ADIntegration MSMQ-DCOMProxy MSMQ-HTTP MSMQ-Multicast MSMQ-RoutingServer MSMQ-Server MSMQ-Services MSMQ-Triggers MSRDC-Infrastructure MultipathIo NetFx3 NetFx3ServerFeatures NetFx4 NetFx4Extended-ASPNET45 NetFx4ServerFeatures NetworkDeviceEnrollmentServices NetworkLoadBalancingFullServer NetworkLoadBalancingManagementClient NFS-Administration NIS NPAS-Role NPSManagementTools OEM-Appliance-OOBE OnlineRevocationServices OnlineRevocationServicesManagementTools P2P-PnrpOnly PeerDist PKIClient-PSH-Cmdlets Printing-AdminTools-Collection Printing-Client Printing-Client-Gui Printing-InternetPrinting-Client Printing-InternetPrinting-Server Printing-LPDPrintService Printing-LPRPortMonitor Printing-Server-Foundation-Features Printing-Server-Role Printing-XPSServices-Features PSync QWAVE RasCMAK RasRoutingProtocols RasServerAdminTools RemoteAccess RemoteAccessMgmtTools RemoteAccessPowerShell RemoteAccessServer RemoteAssistance Remote-Desktop-Services ResumeKeyFilter RightsManagementServices RightsManagementServices-AdminTools RightsManagementServicesManagementTools RightsManagementServices-Role RMS-Federation RPC-HTTP_Proxy RSAT RSAT-ADDS-Tools-Feature RSAT-AD-Tools-Feature RSAT-Hyper-V-Tools-Feature RSAT-NIS RSAT-RDS-Tools-Feature SBMgr-UI SearchEngine-Server-Package Security-SPP-Vmw ServerCore-Drivers-General ServerCore-EA-IME ServerCore-EA-IME-WOW64 ServerCore-FullServer ServerCore-WOW64 Server-Drivers-General Server-Drivers-Printers ServerForNFS-Infrastructure Server-Gui-Mgmt Server-Gui-Shell ServerManager-Core-RSAT ServerManager-Core-RSAT-Feature-Tools ServerManager-Core-RSAT-Role-Tools Server-Manager-RSAT-File-Services ServerMediaFoundation ServerMigration Server-Psh-Cmdlets Server-RSAT-SNMP ServicesForNFS-ServerAndClient SessionDirectory SimpleTCP SIS-Limited SMB1Protocol SMBBW SmbDirect SMBHashGeneration SmbWitness Smtpsvc-Admin-Update-Name Smtpsvc-Service-Update-Name SNMP Storage-Services TelnetClient TelnetServer TFTP TIFFIFilter TlsSessionTicketKey-PSH-Cmdlets UpdateServices UpdateServices-API UpdateServices-Database UpdateServices-RSAT UpdateServices-Services UpdateServices-UI UpdateServices-WidDatabase User-Interfaces-Infra VmHostAgent VolumeActivation-Full-Role WAS-ConfigurationAPI WAS-NetFxEnvironment WAS-ProcessModel WAS-WindowsActivationService WCF-HTTP-Activation WCF-HTTP-Activation45 WCF-MSMQ-Activation45 WCF-NonHTTP-Activation WCF-Pipe-Activation45 WCF-Services45 WCF-TCP-Activation45 WCF-TCP-PortSharing45 WebAccess Web-Application-Proxy WebEnrollmentServices WindowsFeedbackForwarder Windows-Identity-Foundation Windows-Internal-Database WindowsMediaPlayer WindowsPowerShellWebAccess WindowsServerBackup WindowsServerBackupSnapin WindowsStorageManagementService WINSRuntime WINS-Server-Tools WirelessNetworking WMISnmpProvider WorkFolders-Server WSS-Product-Package Xps-Foundation-Xps-Viewer |
AD-Certificate ADCS-Cert-Authority ADCS-Device-Enrollment ADCS-Enroll-Web-Pol ADCS-Enroll-Web-Svc ADCS-Online-Cert ADCS-Web-Enrollment AD-Domain-Services ADFS-Federation ADLDS ADRMS ADRMS-Identity ADRMS-Server Application-Server AS-Dist-Transaction AS-Ent-Services AS-HTTP-Activation AS-Incoming-Trans AS-MSMQ-Activation AS-Named-Pipes AS-NET-Framework AS-Outgoing-Trans AS-TCP-Activation AS-TCP-Port-Sharing AS-WAS-Support AS-Web-Support AS-WS-Atomic Biometric-Framework BitLocker BitLocker-NetworkUnlock BITS BITS-Compact-Server BITS-IIS-Ext BranchCache CMAK Data-Center-Bridging Desktop-Experience DHCP DirectAccess-VPN Direct-Play DNS DSC-Service EnhancedStorage Failover-Clustering Fax FileAndStorage-Services File-Services FS-BranchCache FS-Data-Deduplication FS-DFS-Namespace FS-DFS-Replication FS-FileServer FS-iSCSITarget-Server FS-NFS-Service FS-Resource-Manager FS-SMB1 FS-SMBBW FS-SyncShareService FS-VSS-Agent GPMC Hyper-V Hyper-V-PowerShell Hyper-V-Tools InkAndHandwritingServices Internet-Print-Client IPAM IPAM-Client-Feature iSCSITarget-VSS-VDS ISNS LPR-Port-Monitor ManagementOdata Migration MSMQ MSMQ-DCOM MSMQ-Directory MSMQ-HTTP-Support MSMQ-Multicasting MSMQ-Routing MSMQ-Server MSMQ-Services MSMQ-Triggers Multipath-IO NET-Framework-45-ASPNET NET-Framework-45-Core NET-Framework-45-Features NET-Framework-Core NET-Framework-Features NET-HTTP-Activation NET-Non-HTTP-Activ NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45 NET-WCF-MSMQ-Activation45 NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45 NET-WCF-Services45 NET-WCF-TCP-Activation45 NET-WCF-TCP-PortSharing45 NFS-Client NLB NPAS NPAS-Health NPAS-Host-Cred NPAS-Policy-Server PNRP PowerShell PowerShell-ISE PowerShellRoot PowerShell-V2 Print-Internet Print-LPD-Service Print-Scan-Server Print-Server Print-Services qWave RDC RDS-Connection-Broker RDS-Gateway RDS-Licensing RDS-Licensing-UI RDS-RD-Server RDS-Virtualization RDS-Web-Access RemoteAccess Remote-Assistance Remote-Desktop-Services Routing RPC-over-HTTP-Proxy RSAT RSAT-AD-AdminCenter RSAT-ADCS RSAT-ADCS-Mgmt RSAT-ADDS RSAT-ADDS-Tools RSAT-ADLDS RSAT-AD-PowerShell RSAT-ADRMS RSAT-AD-Tools RSAT-Bits-Server RSAT-Clustering RSAT-Clustering-AutomationServer RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface RSAT-Clustering-Mgmt RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell RSAT-CoreFile-Mgmt RSAT-DFS-Mgmt-Con RSAT-DHCP RSAT-DNS-Server RSAT-Fax RSAT-Feature-Tools RSAT-Feature-Tools-BitLocker RSAT-Feature-Tools-BitLocker-BdeAducExt RSAT-Feature-Tools-BitLocker-RemoteAdminTool RSAT-File-Services RSAT-FSRM-Mgmt RSAT-Hyper-V-Tools RSAT-NFS-Admin RSAT-NIS RSAT-NLB RSAT-NPAS RSAT-Online-Responder RSAT-Print-Services RSAT-RDS-Gateway RSAT-RDS-Licensing-Diagnosis-UI RSAT-RDS-Tools RSAT-RemoteAccess RSAT-RemoteAccess-Mgmt RSAT-RemoteAccess-PowerShell RSAT-Role-Tools RSAT-SMTP RSAT-SNMP RSAT-VA-Tools RSAT-WINS Search-Service ServerEssentialsRole Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra Server-Gui-Shell Server-Media-Foundation Simple-TCPIP SMTP-Server SNMP-Service SNMP-WMI-Provider Storage-Services Telnet-Client Telnet-Server TFTP-Client UpdateServices UpdateServices-API UpdateServices-DB UpdateServices-RSAT UpdateServices-Services UpdateServices-UI UpdateServices-WidDB User-Interfaces-Infra VolumeActivation WAS WAS-Config-APIs WAS-NET-Environment WAS-Process-Model WDS WDS-AdminPack WDS-Deployment WDS-Transport Web-App-Dev Web-AppInit Web-Application-Proxy Web-ASP Web-Asp-Net Web-Asp-Net45 Web-Basic-Auth Web-Cert-Auth Web-CertProvider Web-CGI Web-Client-Auth Web-Common-Http Web-Custom-Logging Web-DAV-Publishing Web-Default-Doc Web-Digest-Auth Web-Dir-Browsing Web-Dyn-Compression Web-Filtering Web-Ftp-Ext Web-Ftp-Server Web-Ftp-Service Web-Health Web-Http-Errors Web-Http-Logging Web-Http-Redirect Web-Http-Tracing Web-Includes Web-IP-Security Web-ISAPI-Ext Web-ISAPI-Filter Web-Lgcy-Mgmt-Console Web-Lgcy-Scripting Web-Log-Libraries Web-Metabase Web-Mgmt-Compat Web-Mgmt-Console Web-Mgmt-Service Web-Mgmt-Tools Web-Net-Ext Web-Net-Ext45 Web-ODBC-Logging Web-Performance Web-Request-Monitor Web-Scripting-Tools Web-Security Web-Server Web-Stat-Compression Web-Static-Content Web-Url-Auth Web-WebServer Web-WebSockets Web-WHC Web-Windows-Auth Web-WMI WFF Windows-Identity-Foundation Windows-Internal-Database WindowsPowerShellWebAccess Windows-Server-Backup WindowsStorageManagementService Windows-TIFF-IFilter WinRM-IIS-Ext WINS Wireless-Networking WoW64-Support XPS-Viewer |
dism.exe and PowerShell
In case you decided to support older Windows versions without support for the PowerShell cmdlets, you will use dism.exe
to install optional features.
Here's a bit of PowerShell code check whether a feature is installed:
$tempFile = "$env:temp\tempName.log" & dism.exe /online /get-features /format:table | out-file $tempFile -Force $WinFeatures = (Import-CSV -Delim '|' -Path $tempFile -Header Name,state | Where-Object {$_.State -eq "Enabled "}) | Select Name Remove-Item -Path $tempFileYou now have a list of all installed feature-names, you can check for the existence of a feature like this:
if(($WinFeatures | Where-Object {$_.Name.Trim() -eq "WirelessNetworking"}) -eq $null) {...}