Windows

Windows 2016 FAQ

4. Roles and Features

Updated: 21 Dec 2022

a) List of Roles that Windows 2016 Standard supports

Role Description Step by Step Guides
Active Directory Certificate Services Create a Certificate authority to manage certificates for users and computers Certificate Services
Active Directory Domain Services Create a Domain Controller for a domain to manage users, groups, computers for an organisation Domain Services
Active Directory Federation Services Create a simple federation and single sign on service to access web sites and applications Federation Services
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Service Create an LDAP database to store application specific attributes and values LDS
Active Directory Rights Management Service Create a secure rights management datastore to authorize users to certain information RMS
Device Health Attestation New role added in final release Device Health
DHCP Server Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - Provide IP addresses to local subnets DHCP
DNS Server Domain Name Service - Provide name resolution for TCP/IP networks DNS
Fax Server Provide facsimile services on this computer over a telephone network Fax Server
File and Storage Services Manage and store documents and files on this server File and Storage
File and iSCSI Services

Manage file servers and storage using File server, Branchcache, Data deduplication, DFS namespace and replication, File Server Resource Manager,
VSS Agent Service,iSCSI and Server for NFS.

iSCSI
Storage Services Storage management functionality Storage
Host Guardian Service Enables shielded virtual machines using Attestation and Key Protection services (New for 2016) Guardian Service
Hyper-V Server Virtualisation Hyper-V
Mulitpoint Services Allow multiple users, with independant desktop experience, to share one computer (New for 2016) Multipoint
Network Policy and Access Service Provide NPA, R&RA, HRA and HCAP services to protect and maintain your network NPAS Services
Print and Document Services Provide central printing and remote scanning services Printing
Remote Access Seamless connectibity and Always on or manager experience with DirectAccess, VPN and Web application proxy (updated for 2016) Remote Access
Remote Desktop Services Provide remote login facilities to applications RDS
Volume Activation Services Key Management service for Windows and Office application activation Activation
Web Server (IIS) Web server including ASP, ASP.Net CGI Web Server
Windows Deployment Services Deploy windows to clients Deployment Services
Windows Server Essentials Experience PC Backups, Dashboard and Remote Web Services. Features of Windows Essentials. Essentials
Windows Server Update Services Deploy regular security and bug fixes to clients Update Services

b) List of Features in Windows 2016

Feature Description
.NET Framework 3.5 Features Microsoft .NET Framework, XPS Viewer and WCF Activation
.NET Framework 4.6 Features Microsoft .NET Framework. See also DotNet.
Background Intelligent Transfer Service Recieve files from clients using BITS
Bitlocker Drive Encryption Encrypt entire drives for data protection
Bitlocker Network Unlock Use a network based key protector for auto unlock system drives in a domain.
Branch Cache Configure a hosted cache or branch cache content server for HTTP or BITS.
Client for NFS Enable access to files on Unix based NFS file systems.
Containers To create and manage Windows Server Containers
Data Center Bridging Provide standards for hardware based bandwidth and transport reliability.
Direct Play Direct play features. Part of DirectX for network communication.
Enhanced Storage For access to additional functions for Enhanced Storage devices.
Failover Clustering Provide high availability for servers. See link.
Group Policy Management Enable GPMC tool for group policy management
I/O Quality of Service New feature to configure QoS settings such as max I/O and bandwidth limits on applications
IIS Hostable Web Core A cut down web server.
Internet Printing Client Enable IPP printing via the web
IP Address Management Server Provide central framework for managing IP such as DHCP and DNS.
iSNS Server service Provide Internet Storage Name Server for discovering iSCSI SANs.
LPR Port Monitor Enable Line Printer Remote port monitoring used by Unix devices
Management oData IIS Extension Provide Powershell cmdlets through ODATA based web service under IIS.
Media Foundation Windows Media foundation, Media SDK and DirectShow for media files.
Message Queuing Enable message queuing between computers, http, DCOM and remotely.
Multipath I/O Provide muliple support paths to devices using a Device Specific Module.
Multipoint Connector Allows your machine to be managed by a Multipoint Manager and Dashboard apps
Network Load Balancing Provide IP load balancing across 2 or more computers for services such as IIS
Peer Name Resolution Protocol Provide name resolution for applications across computers
Quality Windows Audio Visual Experience Provides QoS for streaming audio and video files over network
RAS Connection Manager Admin Kit Tool to create profiles for remote services and networks.
Remote Assistance Enable remote assistance tools to allow other users help to resolve problems
Remote Differential Compression Computes and transmits differences between objects over the network
Remote Server Administration Tools Enables tools to manage Domain, DNS, DHCP and other roles and features
RPC over HTTP Protocol Enables Remote Procedure Calls over HTTP for access to Exchange using Outlook over internet
Setup and Boot Event Collection Collection and logging of setup and boot events from other computers
Simple TCP/IP Services Provides some simple TCP/IP services e.g. Char Gen, Daytime, Discard, Echo, Quote of the Day
SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support Support for SMB 1.0, CIFS and Computer Browsing
SMB Bandwidth Limit To track SMB traffic per category and limit traffic for those categories.
SMTP Server Simple Mail Transport Protocol server for delivering email for another application
SNMP Services Simple Network Management Protocol for providing system information over network
Telnet client Command line telnet tool to remote systems
TFTP Client Trivial File Transfer Protocol client to access TFTP servers
VM Shielding Tools for Fabric Management Provide Shielded VM utilities
WebDAV Redirector New feature to enable Windows programs to manage Internet-based files.
Windows Biometric Framework Allows fingerprint devices to be used to logon to Windows
Windows Defender Features New feature to protect Windows from Malware.
Windows Identity Foundation 3.5 Provides a set of .NET Framework classes for claims based identity in .NET apps.
Windows Internal Database Relational data store used by UDDI, AD RMS, Windows Update service etc
Windows Powershell Install Powershell command line and scripting tool
Windows Process Activation Service Generalises the IIS process model for WCF applications
Windows Search Service Provides fast file searches on a server.
Windows Server Backup Install new Windows Backup tool. See link
Windows Server Migration Tools Tools to allow migration of roles, settings, files, shares from earlier versions of Windows to 2016.
Windows Standards-Based Storage Management Ability to discover and manager storeage devices using the SMI-S standard.
Windows TIFF Filter Perform OCR on TIFF 6.0 compliant files for indexing and searching
WinRM IIS Extension Allow management requests via WinRM from clients
WINS Server Windows Internet Naming Service for Netbios names
Wireless LAN Service Configures and starts the WLAN service
WoW64 Support Allows Wow64 to support 32 bit applications on Server Core installations.
XPS Viewer Install XPS Viewer application to view XPS files
   
DataCenter only features  
Host Guardian Hyper-V Support Features for Shielded Virtual Machines on Hyper-V
Software Load Balancer New feature to provide Software based load balancing of network resources.
Storage Replica Provide facility replicate data for storage
   

Roles and features removed or changed since Preview edition:

Feature Description
Canary Network Diagnostics Enables validation of the physical network
Ink and Handwriting Services Ink support and handwriting recognition
Isolated User Mode Isolated user mode
Network Controller Provide continual configuration, monitoring and diagnostics of various networks (New for 2016)
Service Fabric A platform to make it easier to build scalable, reliable applications through public APIs
Telnet Server Provide telnet server for clients to access. See OpenSSH on Windows.
NB: Try OpenSSH for Windows instead or use PowerShell remote access features.
User Interfaces and Infrastructure

Provides user experience and infrastructure options including Desktop Experience.
NB: Now built into Windows server.

Windows Server Antimalware Features Protects machine from malware. NB See Windows Defender

c) Additional Server Applications

Application Description Step by Step Guides
SQL Server Full relational database application Install SQL
MDT server Windows deployment toolkit Install MDT
Exchange Server Full On premise E-mail service Install Exch 2016
Sharepoint Server Document and sharing content system Install Sharepoint
System Center Suite of products for configuration, operation, service, VMs, and endpoint protection. System Center 2016
Azure AD Connect Hybrid connection between on premise setup and Microsoft's Azure AD and Office 365. AD Connect
Open SSH Server/Client Secure Shell server and client (OpenSSH). OpenSSH
.NET Framework 4.8 Latest .NET Framework. See also Dotnet. NET Framework 4.8
.NET 5,6 or 7 Current .NET developer platform for applications. NET Core

Other Windows features