ViVeTool is a free command-line tool that enables you to enable, disable and search for new hidden Features and functions in Windows 11. After installing the tool, you are required to use Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell to enable or disable hidden features.
However, if you are tired of using the Command-line tool, ViVeTool now offers a graphical version of the tool called ‘ViVeTool GUI’ which helps you enable or disable hidden Windows features.
Enable or Disable Hidden Features using ViVeTool GUI (Graphical Version)
If you don’t have the ViVeTool GUI tool on your computer, you need to download the latest ViveTool GUI release from GitHub. First, go to the GitHub website, scroll down the webpage and click ‘ViVeTool.GUI.X.X.X.Portable.zip’ (Portable) or ‘ViVeTool.GUI.Setup.exe’ (Installer) to download the app.
If you downloaded a portable version, extract the file and launch the app. If you downloaded the setup, double-click the installer to install the tool.
If you see Windows protected your PC screen, click the ‘More info’ link. This warning is shown because you are trying to install a third-party app. After that, click the ‘Run anyway’ button.
When the UAC dialog box appears, click ‘Yes’ to continue. Then, follow the on-screen instructions to install the app and launch it.
Once the tool launches, you will see an empty window.
Microsoft releases new builds every month, so each build has different hidden features. Hence, you need to select whatever build you have installed on your computer.
To find out what build you are currently using, open the Settings (Windows+I), and select the ‘System’ tab on the left. Then, scroll down and click the ‘About’ at the bottom.
On the About settings page, scroll down to the Windows Specifications section, and note down the build number under ‘OS build’.
Now, head back to the ViveTool GUI, and select the Windows build number from the dropdown on the top left side.
Once you select the build, the tool will scan for all the available features which you can enable or disable on your Windows 11 PC.
After the scan is complete, ViVeTool will group the hidden features into the following categories:
- Features that are: Always disabled
- Features that are: Always enabled
- Features that are: Disabled by default
- Features that are: Enabled by default
- Features that are: Modifiable
You can expand each category to view the available features under the category. You can’t get details about the features but you can see the Feature name, ID, and Status. You can find a specific feature with the name or ID using the search bar above.
Now, select the feature you want to activate or deactivate, and click the ‘Perform Action’ drop-down at the menu bar above.
From the drop-down, select ‘Activate Feature’ to enable the selected feature or ‘Deactivate Feature’ to disable it.
If you already know the feature code or ID, you can just click the ‘Manually change a Feature (F12)’ button or press F12.
Then, enter the Feature ID in the text field, and choose ‘Activate Feature’ or ‘Deactivate Feature’ from the drop-down.
If you want to load the available features for the latest build every time you launch the app, click the ‘About & Settings’ at the top right corner.
On the About & Setting dialog box, switch to the ‘Settings’ tab and turn on the ‘Automatically load the latest Build’ option.
Hidden Features usually give you a preview of the upcoming features before it is released to the general public.
Use ViveTool Command-line Tool to Enable/Disable Hidden Features
If you prefer to use the old ViveTool tool via Command Prompt or PowerShell, follow these steps:
To use ViVeTool commands, you will need a different setup. You can download the ViveTool command-line tool from this website.
After downloading the ‘ViveTool-vx.x.x.zip’ file, right-click the zip file and select the ‘Extract All’ option from the context menu to extract the files.
Next, choose the desired location where you want to extract the tool using the ‘Browse’ button, and then click ‘Extract’.
To add or remove a feature, you will need to know the correct Feature ID. You can get the list of features on every build from here.
Scroll down the page and click the OS built you have installed on your computer. The most recent build will be at the bottom of the website.
On the next page, you will see the list of available features and their IDs as shown below. Now, note down the corresponding ID of the feature you want to enable or disable.
Next, launch Command Prompt or PowerShell with administrator access. To do that, press the Windows key, type ‘cmd’ or ‘PowerShell’ in the search bar at the top, and then click ‘Run as administrator’ on the right pane.
When the elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell launches, type the below command to navigate to the extracted ViveTool folder:
cd C:\Users\rajst\Documents\New folder\ViVeTool-v0.2.1Where replace C:\Users\rajst\Documents\New folder\ViVeTool-v0.2.1 with the path to your extracted folder.
Next, run the following commands to enable the feature:
vivetool addconfig <feature_ID> 2In the above command replace <feature_ID> with the ID of the feature you want to enable or disable.
For example, to enable tabs for the File Explorer feature on Windows 11, run the below command:
vivetool addconfig 34370472 2Here, 34370472 is feature ID for File Explorer tabs feature.
After running the above command, restart your PC. After restarting, you will have the enabled feature on your computer.
If you want to remove or disable a feature, run the following commands and restart your computer.
vivetool delconfig 34370472 2That’s it.
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