Note: An update of this article for Windows 10 can be found here
One of the more useful Windows features for Windows administrators is the Remote Server Administration Tools pack (RSAT).
Apart from allowing you to install GUI elements in the Administrative Tools menu, this can also install the command-line tools for querying and managing Active Directory: dsquery.exe, dsadd.exe, dsget.exe, dsmod.exe, dsmove.exe and dsrm.exe.
Note from Microsoft:
**Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 with SP1 can be installed ONLY on computers that are running the Enterprise, Professional, or Ultimate editions of Windows 7 or Windows 7 with SP1.**
The version for Windows 7 can be used to manage Windows 2003, 2008 and W2008 R2, and can be obtained here.
For completeness: The version for Windows 8 can be used to manage Windows 2012, and can be obtained here. I have not tested that version, however, as I don’t use Windows 8.
To manage features using the command line, use the dism command.
This command can also be used to enable features on Windows 2008 and 2012 servers.
The dism command also works if your no-brain domain administrator has used a policy to disable the Features management (“Turn Windows features on or off“) in the Programs and Features control panel. Of course, you do need to be a local administrator.
By the way, that policy is stored in the registry at
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesPrograms Name: NoWindowsFeatures Type: DWORD Change to 0 to enable the feature management
This is the reg command to disable the policy:
reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Programs /v NoWindowsFeatures /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
To list all the features available on a PC, and their state (disabled/enabled), use:
dism /online /get-features
For instance, to install the Telnet Client, use:
dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:TelnetClient
Or, if you need to print to an LPR printer on your network, you need to install the LPR print port monitor:
dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Printing-Foundation-LPRPortMonitor
Be aware that the feature names are case-sensitive. The /featurename parameter can be repeated multiple times, and some features have dependencies which need to be specified before them on the command line. The dism command will report failures because of dependencies, so you can build a correct command line by experimenting.
To install the Active Directory components from the RSAT tools pack, you need first to download and install the pack (duh).
Then, the following command installs the AD tools, including the ds* command line tools:
dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-DS /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-DS-SnapIns /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-Powershell /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-DS-AdministrativeCenter
Available Windows 7 Enterprise features (sorted by name):
Chess ClientForNFS-Infrastructure CorporationHelpCustomization FaxServicesClientPackage FreeCell Hearts IIS-ASP IIS-ASPNET IIS-ApplicationDevelopment IIS-BasicAuthentication 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-ODBCLogging IIS-Performance IIS-RequestFiltering IIS-RequestMonitor IIS-Security IIS-ServerSideIncludes IIS-StaticContent IIS-URLAuthorization IIS-WMICompatibility IIS-WebDAV IIS-WebServer IIS-WebServerManagementTools IIS-WebServerRole IIS-WindowsAuthentication InboxGames Indexing-Service-Package Internet Backgammon Internet Checkers Internet Games Internet Spades Internet-Explorer-Optional-amd64 MSMQ-ADIntegration MSMQ-Container MSMQ-DCOMProxy MSMQ-HTTP MSMQ-Multicast MSMQ-Server MSMQ-Triggers MSRDC-Infrastructure MediaCenter MediaPlayback Minesweeper More Games NFS-Administration NetFx3 OEMHelpCustomization OpticalMediaDisc Printing-Foundation-Features Printing-Foundation-InternetPrinting-Client Printing-Foundation-LPDPrintService Printing-Foundation-LPRPortMonitor Printing-XPSServices-Features PurblePlace RasRip SNMP SUA ScanManagementConsole SearchEngine-Client-Package ServicesForNFS-ClientOnly Shanghai SimpleTCP Solitaire SpiderSolitaire TFTP TIFFIFilter TabletPCOC TelnetClient TelnetServer WAS-ConfigurationAPI WAS-NetFxEnvironment WAS-ProcessModel WAS-WindowsActivationService WCF-HTTP-Activation WCF-NonHTTP-Activation WMISnmpProvider WindowsGadgetPlatform WindowsMediaPlayer Xps-Foundation-Xps-Viewer
Available Remote Server Administration Tools features:
RemoteServerAdministrationTools RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features-BitLocker RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features-Clustering RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features-GP RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features-LoadBalancing RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features-SmtpServer RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features-StorageExplorer RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features-StorageManager RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features-Wsrm RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-DS RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-DS-AdministrativeCenter RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-DS-NIS RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-DS-SnapIns RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-LDS RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-AD-Powershell RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-CertificateServices RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-CertificateServices-CA RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-CertificateServices-OnlineResponder RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-DHCP RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-DNS RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-FileServices RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-FileServices-Dfs RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-FileServices-Fsrm RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-FileServices-StorageMgmt RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-HyperV RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Roles-RDS RemoteServerAdministrationTools-ServerManager