Windows 10 is an excellent operating system, which includes several hidden features to activate and, at the same time, functions that may be useless and that it would be better to disable in order not to weigh down the system. In fact, one way to optimize Windows and make it a little faster is to disable functions that are not needed by the operating system. All of these features are listed in the Enable or disable Windows features section, with some enabled by default after a fresh installation and which can be disabled if considered unnecessary, while others can be enabled if you need special tools.
Accessing the active window disables Windows functionality
The activation or deactivation of additional or optional Windows features can be done by going to the Control Panel and then to Programs. From the window that opens, press the link Activate or deactivate the Windows features that require administrator rights.When the list of features is displayed, you will notice that some have a check mark to indicate that the function is installed while if the square is empty it is not active; when, on the other hand, only one point is visible, it means that a sub-component of that characteristic is installed and not entirely.
You can then select the function you want to install or deselect the one you want to remove and then press OK to proceed with the installation or uninstallation. Restarting the PC will apply the changes.
Most important functions to activate or keep activated
There are around 30 optional features that can be added in Windows 10, including some more important than others such as:- .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) and .NET Framework 4.8 Advanced Services : functionality required to run applications created using the .NET Framework 3.5 or 4.6 development environment (many programs require them).
- Hyper-V : Microsoft's virtualization technology that allows you to run virtual machines on your PC without external software.
- Internet Explorer 11 : If you still need to use Internet Explorer on your PC, you need to know that it is still available on Windows 10.
- Multimedia features (Windows Media Player 12 on Windows 10): still an excellent program for listening to music on the PC
- Print to PDF Microsoft : the function that allows you to "print" documents directly to PDF files instead of a real printer.
- Windows subsystem for Linux : the function that allows you to install and activate Linux commands in Windows 10
- Windows Defender Application Guard : a special version of the browser to protect it from any internet risk.
- Windows SandBox : to activate the Windows 10 Sandbox (recently added function).
Functions that are not needed and can be deactivated
In another article we have already seen what Windows features can be added or removedHere are the features that you can disable (I'm using Windows 10 but these indications are also good for Windows 7 and 8 in large part), if they are not needed (these are not actually removed and can be reactivated at any time without problems).
- Internet Explorer 11 : If you are not using it and you believe that you can do without it now, you can disable Internet Explorer 11 from this window by removing the cross. Just be careful that Internet Explorer is still important to properly open sites such as Microsoft's patch download site or some old public administration sites.
- Legacy Components - DirectPlay : DirectPlay is an outdated API that was once part of Microsoft's DirectX. Some older games may still require its presence, but not modern games. If you don't play old games like Age of Empires on your PC, then you can disable it.
- Printing and digitization services
- Under this category of functionality there are various services to print from the Internet, to send faxes, to manage a scanner and other things. In particular, the Internet Print Client allows you to print using network printers or using the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). If you are not using your computer to print or you are only using a local printer connected via USB cable, then you can disable it. The same applies to the Fax and Scanner service, if not used or if managed with the supplied scanner program.
- Remote Differential Compression (RDC) API Support : Microsoft has introduced RDC API support in Windows Server 2003 R2 and is used only by a few server-side programs. It is almost certainly not needed on a home PC and can be disabled.
- Windows PowerShell 2.0
- Windows PowerShell 2.0 is the old version of an advanced command prompt which should not be confused with PowerShell, an integral part of Windows.
- Currently on Windows 10 PCs there is Powershell 5.0 so, unless you need support for PowerShell 2.0, you can disable it.
- Windows Process Activation Service : This category of functionality is aimed at developers of websites and programs, which need not be kept active.
- Workbook Client : This is a useful feature on corporate computers to access shared files on the network in offline mode on any associated device. On a home PC it can be deactivated
- XPS Services Services and XPS Viewer : The XPS format was created by Microsoft to try to impose it as an alternative to the Adobe PDF. By now it can be said that the XPS has failed therefore the services to create XPS and the XPS Viewer program to open them are no longer needed and can be deactivated.
Optional Windows 10 features that can be installed or removed
In Windows 10 there is also a section of optional features that you can install or remove. This is found in Settings> Apps> Apps and features, by pressing the link on the right: Optional features .In this list you can install or uninstall programs such as Windows Media Player, XPS Viewer, Internet Explorer 11, Speech Recognition, Windows Hello, Graphic Tools, Microsoft Quick Help, OpenSSH Client and several other things. To find the list of all the optional functions, just press the Add a function button.
In addition to these Windows features I had already explained, in other articles:
- How to disable Onedrive in Windows 10 and 8.1
- How to disable Cortana in Windows 10
- Disable Windows Defender in Windows 10 and 8.1
- Disable Feedback requests in Windows 10
- Disable the notification center in Windows 10
- How to disable background apps in Windows 10
