Microsoft has a tool called Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) that lets you control Windows servers from a distance, like from your computer. Before, you needed to install RSAT on your Windows computer. But starting with the October 2018 version of Windows 10, Microsoft made it more accessible.
They included RSAT as a choice you can turn on in Windows 10 instead of installing it separately. Until the beginning of 2018, RSAT tools had to be used as separate installation packages to be downloaded and installed.
Enable RSAT as a feature on Windows 10
In the current versions of Windows 10, remote server administration tools can be added or activated as a feature. You can find the optional features in the Windows 10 settings:
- Open the Ideas with Windows + “I” (or by clicking on the start button and then on the gear symbol).
- Click on “apartments.”
- Click on “Optional Features.”
- Click on “add features.”
Select and install RSAT modules
In the window add feature, you can now install the required RSAT tools individually. In this way, you can differentiate which administration options should be available on the computer. (If the installation fails, you can find one below Tip)
The following RSAT tools can be activated:
- Remote Desktop Services tools
- Shielded VM tools
- Data Center Bridging LLDP tools
- DHCP server tools
- DNS server tools
- failover clustering tools
- IP Address Management Client (IPAM)
- Network Controller Management Tools
- Storage Replica Engine for Windows PowerShell
- Storage Migration Service Management tools
- System Insights Module for Windows PowerShell
- Active Directory Domain Services and Lightweight Directory Services tools
- Active Directory Certificate Services Tools
- File Services Tools
- Remote access management tools
- Network Load Balancing Tools
- Group Policy Management Tools
- BitLocker Drive Encryption administration utilities
- Volume Activation Tools
- Windows Server Update Services tools
Open RSAT in Windows 10
After you have installed all the required modules, you can open them from the Windows 10 start menu. The individual consoles are in the start menu under the “Windows administration programs folder.”
By default, you will only have read access and cannot make any changes. To get writing rights for the RSAT tools, the programs must be run with the necessary authorizations (eg, as domain administrator). You must select the option “Run as a different user.”
Possible installation problems
When activating the RSAT components, you may get a message that the installation failed and that you should contact the administrator. You can of course, do a lot with such error messages. In my case, it helped to set the group policy “Specify settings for installing optional components and repairing components” to activate.
To do this, go to the local group policy editor (gpedit.msc) and activate the above policy under the path Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System. Important: This policy must be selected to download content directly from Windows Update instead of WSUS. Then update the group policies (gpupdate /force) or restart the computer. After that, installing RSAT in Windows 10 should work.
