Roles, Role Services, and Features included in Windows Server - Server Core

2025-03-12
Applies to: ✅ Windows Server 2025, ✅ Windows Server 2022, ✅ Windows Server 2019, ✅ Windows Server 2016, ✅ Windows 11, ✅ Windows 10

This article describes the roles, role services, and features available in the Server Core installation option of Windows Server. This information can help you determine if the Server Core option suits your environment. Given the extensive list, you might want to search for a specific role or feature. If your search doesn't yield results, it means that particular role or feature isn't included in Server Core.

For example, if you search for Remote Desktop Session Host, you won't find it on this page. That's because the RD Session Host is not included in the Server Core image. Proceed to the following section to see what's included in Server Core builds.

The Server Core installation option includes the following server roles.

Role	Name	Installed by default?
Active Directory Certificate Services	AD-Certificate	N
Active Directory Domain Services	AD-Domain-Services	N
Active Directory Federation Services	ADFS-Federation	N
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services	ADLDS	N
Active Directory Rights Management Services	ADRMS	N
Device Health Attestation	DeviceHealthAttestationService	N
DHCP Server	DHCP	N
DNS Server	DNS	N
File and Storage Services	FileAndStorage-Services	Y
Host Guardian Service	HostGuardianServiceRole	N
Hyper-V	Hyper-V	N
Print and Document Services	Print-Services	N
Remote Access	RemoteAccess	N
Remote Desktop Services	Remote-Desktop-Services	N
Volume Activation Services	VolumeActivation	N
Web Server IIS	Web-Server	N
Windows Server Essentials Experience	ServerEssentialsRole	N
Windows Server Update Services	UpdateServices	N

The Server Core installation option includes the following role services.

Role	Role service	Name	Installed by default?
Active Directory Certificate Services	Certification Authority	ADCS-Cert-Authority	N
	Certificate Enrollment Policy Web Service	ADCS-Enroll-Web-Pol	N
	Certificate Enrollment Web Service	ADCS-Enroll-Web-Svc	N
	Certification Authority Web Enrollment	ADCS-Web-Enrollment	N
	Network Device Enrollment Service	ADCS-Device-Enrollment	N
	Online Responder	ADCS-Online-Cert	N
Active Directory Rights Management	Active Directory Rights Management Server	ADRMS-Server	N
	Identity Federation Support	ADRMS-Identity	N
File and Storage Services	File and iSCSI Services	File-Services	N
	File Server	FS-FileServer	N
	BranchCache for Network Files	FS-BranchCache	N
	Data Deduplication	FS-Data-Deduplication	N
	DFS Namespaces	FS-DFS-Namespace	N
	DFS Replication	FS-DFS-Replication	N
	File Server Resource Manager	FS-Resource-Manager	N
	File Server VSS Agent Service	FS-VSS-Agent	N
	iSCSI Target Server	iSCSITarget-Server	N
	iSCSI Target Storage Provider (VDS and VSS hardware providers)	iSCSITarget-VSS-VDS	N
	Server for NFS	FS-NFS-Service	N
	Work Folders	FS-SyncShareService	N
	Storage Services	Storage-Services	Y
Print and Document Services	Print Server	Print-Server	N
	LPD Service	Print-LPD-Service	N
Remote Access	DirectAccess and VPN (RAS)	DirectAccess-VPN	N
	Routing	Routing	N
	Web Application Proxy	Web-Application-Proxy	N
Remote Desktop Services	Remote Desktop Connection Broker¹	RDS-Connection-Broker	N
	Remote Desktop Licensing	RDS-Licensing	N
	Remote Desktop Virtualization Host	RDS-Virtualization	N
Web Server (IIS)	Web Server	Web-WebServer	N
	Common HTTP Features	Web-Common-Http	N
	Default Document	Web-Default-Doc	N
	Directory Browsing	Web-Dir-Browsing	N
	HTTP Errors	Web-Http-Errors	N
	Static Content	Web-Static-Content	N
	HTTP Redirection	Web-Http-Redirect	N
	WebDAV Publishing	Web-DAV-Publishing	N
	Health and Diagnostics	Web-Health	N
	HTTP Logging	Web-Http-Logging	N
	Custom Logging	Web-Custom-Logging	N
	Logging Tools	Web-Log-Libraries	N
	ODBC Logging	Web-ODBC-Logging	N
	Request Monitor	Web-Request-Monitor	N
	Tracing	Web-Http-Tracing	N
	Performance	Web-Performance	N
	Static Content Compression	Web-Stat-Compression	N
	Dynamic Content Compression	Web-Dyn-Compression	N
	Security	Web-Security	N
	Request Filtering	Web-Filtering	N
	Basic Authentication	Web-Basic-Auth	N
	Centralized SSL Certificate Support	Web-CertProvider	N
	Client Certificate Mapping Authentication	Web-Client-Auth	N
	Digest Authentication	Web-Digest-Auth	N
	IIS Client Certificate Mapping Authentication	Web-Cert-Auth	N
	IP and Domain Restrictions	Web-IP-Security	N
	URL Authorization	Web-Url-Auth	N
	Windows Authentication	Web-Windows-Auth	N
	Application Development	Web-App-Dev	N
	.NET Extensibility 3.5	Web-Net-Ext	N
	.NET Extensibility 4.6	Web-Net-Ext45	N
	Application Initialization	Web-AppInit	N
	ASP	Web-ASP	N
	ASP.NET 3.5	Web-Asp-Net	N
	ASP.NET 4.6	Web-Asp-Net45	N
	CGI	Web-CGI	N
	ISAPI Extensions	Web-ISAPI-Ext	N
	ISAPI Filters	Web-ISAPI-Filter	N
	Server Side Includes	Web-Includes	N
	WebSocket Protocol	Web-WebSockets	N
	FTP Server	Web-Ftp-Server	N
	FTP Service	Web-Ftp-Service	N
	FTP Extensibility	Web-Ftp-Ext	N
	Management Tools	Web-Mgmt-Tools	N
	IIS 6 Management Compatibility	Web-Mgmt-Compat	N
	IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility	Web-Metabase	N
	IIS 6 Scripting Tools	Web-Lgcy-Scripting	N
	IIS 6 WMI Compatibility	Web-WMI	N
	IIS Management Scripts and Tools	Web-Scripting-Tools	N
	Management Service	Web-Mgmt-Service	N
Windows Server Update Services	WID Connectivity	UpdateServices-WidDB	N
	WSUS Services	UpdateServices-Services	N
	SQL Server Connectivity	UpdateServices-DB	N

¹Indicates a service no longer available in Windows Server Core starting with Windows Server 2019, version 1803.

The Server Core installation option includes the following features.

Feature	Name	Installed by default?
.NET Framework 3.5 Features	NET-Framework-Features	N
.NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)	NET-Framework-Core	(removed)
HTTP Activation	NET-HTTP-Activation	N
Non-HTTP Activation	NET-Non-HTTP-Activ	N
.NET Framework 4.6 Features	NET-Framework-45-Features	Y
.NET Framework 4.6	NET-Framework-45-Core	Y
ASP.NET 4.6	NET-Framework-45-ASPNET	N
WCF Services	NET-WCF-Services45	Y
HTTP Activation	NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45	N
Message Queuing (MSMQ) Activation	NET-WCF-MSMQ-Activation45	N
Named Pipe Activation	NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45	N
TCP Activation	NET-WCF-TCP-Activation45	N
TCP Port Sharing	NET-WCF-TCP-PortSharing45	Y
Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)	BITS	N
Compact Server	BITS-Compact-Server	N
BitLocker Drive Encryption	BitLocker	N
BranchCache	BranchCache	N
Client for NFS	NFS-Client	N
Containers	Containers	N
Data Center Bridging	Data-Center-Bridging	N
Enhanced Storage	EnhancedStorage	N
Failover Clustering	Failover-Clustering	N
Group Policy Management	GPMC	N
I/O Quality of Service	DiskIo-QoS	N
IIS Hostable Web Core	Web-WHC	N
IP Address Management (IPAM) Server	IPAM	N
iSNS Server service	ISNS	N
Management OData IIS Extension	ManagementOdata	N
Media Foundation	Server-Media-Foundation	N
Message Queuing	MSMQ	N
Message Queuing Services	MSMQ-Services	N
Message Queuing Server	MSMQ-Server	N
Directory Service Integration	MSMQ-Directory	N
HTTP Support	MSMQ-HTTP-Support	N
Message Queuing Triggers	MSMQ-Triggers	N
Routing Service	MSMQ-Routing	N
Message Queuing DCOM Proxy	MSMQ-DCOM	N
Multipath I/O	Multipath-IO	N
MultiPoint Connector	MultiPoint-Connector	N
MultiPoint Connector Services	MultiPoint-Connector-Services	N
MultiPoint Manager and MultiPoint Dashboard	MultiPoint-Tools	N
Network Load Balancing	NLB	N
Peer Name Resolution Protocol	PNRP	N
Quality Windows Audio Video Experience	qWave	N
Remote Differential Compression	RDC	N
Remote Server Administration Tools	RSAT	N
Feature Administration Tools	RSAT-Feature-Tools	N
BitLocker Drive Encryption Administration Utilities	RSAT-Feature-Tools-BitLocker	N
DataCenterBridging LLDP Tools	RSAT-DataCenterBridging-LLDP-Tools	N
Failover Clustering Tools	RSAT-Clustering	N
Failover Cluster Module for Windows PowerShell	RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell	N
Failover Cluster Automation Server	RSAT-Clustering-AutomationServer	N
Failover Cluster Command Interface	RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface	N
IP Address Management (IPAM) Client	IPAM-Client-Feature	N
Shielded VM Tools	RSAT-Shielded-VM-Tools	N
Storage Replica Module for Windows PowerShell	RSAT-Storage-Replica	N
Role Administration Tools	RSAT-Role-Tools	N
AD DS and AD LDS Tools	RSAT-AD-Tools	N
Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell	RSAT-AD-PowerShell	N
AD DS Tools	RSAT-ADDS	N
Active Directory Administrative Center	RSAT-AD-AdminCenter	N
AD DS Snap-Ins and Command-Line Tools	RSAT-ADDS-Tools	N
AD LDS Snap-Ins and Command-Line Tools	RSAT-ADLDS	N
Hyper-V Management Tools	RSAT-Hyper-V-Tools	N
Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell	Hyper-V-PowerShell	N
Windows Server Update Services Tools	UpdateServices-RSAT	N
API and PowerShell cmdlets	UpdateServices-API	N
DHCP Server Tools	RSAT-DHCP	N
DNS Server Tools	RSAT-DNS-Server	N
Remote Access Management Tools	RSAT-RemoteAccess	N
Remote Access module for Windows PowerShell	RSAT-RemoteAccess-PowerShell	N
RPC over HTTP Proxy	RPC-over-HTTP-Proxy	N
Setup and Boot Event Collection	Setup-and-Boot-Event-Collection	N
Simple TCP/IP Services	Simple-TCPIP	N
SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support	FS-SMB1	Y
SMB Bandwidth Limit	FS-SMBBW	N
SNMP Service	SNMP-Service	N
SNMP WMI Provider	SNMP-WMI-Provider	N
Telnet Client	Telnet-Client	N
VM Shielding Tools for Fabric Management	FabricShieldedTools	N
Windows Defender Features	Windows-Defender-Features	Y
Windows Defender	Windows-Defender	Y
Windows Internal Database	Windows-Internal-Database	N
Windows PowerShell	PowerShellRoot	Y
Windows PowerShell 5.1	PowerShell	Y
Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine	PowerShell-V2	(removed)
Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration Service	DSC-Service	N
Windows PowerShell Web Access	WindowsPowerShellWebAccess	N
Windows Process Activation Service	WAS	N
Process Model	WAS-Process-Model	N
.NET Environment 3.5	WAS-NET-Environment	N
Configuration APIs	WAS-Config-APIs	N
Windows Server Backup	Windows-Server-Backup	N
Windows Server Migration Tools	Migration	N
Windows Standards-Based Storage Management	WindowsStorageManagementService	N
WinRM IIS Extension	WinRM-IIS-Ext	N
WINS Server	WINS	N
WoW64 Support	WoW64-Support	Y

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Roles, Role Services, and Features included in Windows Server - Server Core

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