Turn Windows Features On/Off

The Windows operating system contains many features. Internet Explorer, the Windows games, DVD Maker, and Windows Media Center are some examples. Perhaps you do not use nor will ever use some of these features. For example, you may prefer Firefox over Internet Explorer as your web browser. Perhaps you use a third party DVD creation program such as Roxio(tm) over Windows' DVD Maker. Businesses may want to disable the games to keep employees from frittering away their time. Or possibly Windows 7 installed a feature that is irrelevant to your machine: Tablet PC features on a desktop computer. To prevent a feature from being available in versions prior to Windows 7 you had to uninstall it using the same procedure as any program. If you later decided that you wanted the feature, you had to dig out your Windows CD and reinstall it.

Windows 7 has improved on this procedure by letting you turn a feature off. Because the feature is not removed from the hard drive you can turn it back on without having to go through the reinstallation routine. [NOTE: Since the files required for the feature are still on your hard drive you do not save any disk space by turning features off.] You can turn a feature on or off using the following steps. You must be an administrator to turn features on or off.

Click the Start Orb and then choose Control Panel, Programs and Features. The shield indicates that you must be an administrator to make changes.

Clicking on the 'Turn Windows features on or off' link opens the Windows Features dialog box. Items whose boxes are checked are on, while those whose boxes are empty are off. Items with a plus sign, such as Print and Document services, have multiple features. You can select all or part of group to turn on or off. A group with a filled-in box rather than a check box indicates that only a portion of the group's features is on.

After making your changes, click the OK button. If the changes are successful you will see the dialog box requesting that you restart your computer.

If you are not logged in as an administrator you will receive an error message similar to the following after clicking the OK button.