HOW TO: Install RSAT on Windows 10 Build 1809

If you administrator systems with a Microsoft operating system, then you are very familiar with Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows operating systems. For those of you who are new to this tool, remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) enables IT administrators to remotely manage roles and features in Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2 from a computer that is running Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, or Windows Vista. You cannot install RSAT on computers that are running Home or Standard editions of Windows. You can install RSAT only on Professional or Enterprise editions of the Windows client operating system.

In the past, you would follow this article to either install a package or use the Add Windows Feature. The problem is those instructions are no longer relevant with the latest build of 1809. (Even though Microsoft says that it Applies to: Windows 10, version 1809, Windows Server 2019, all versions, Windows 10, version 1607)

Which begs the questions (and why I assume you reader are here looking at this information) How do I install RSAT on 1809?

As you might be aware, every time we update the build for Windows 10, the installed RSAT tools will disappear along with Server Manager.

Here is my current build from both winver

So, let’s check out the Control Panel to see if we can add the RSAT feature. Here is what it looks like:

As you can see it is no longer listed in Build 1809. To install RSAT in Windows 10 1809, go to Settings -> Apps -> Manage Optional Features.

-> Add a feature.

Here you can select and install specific tools from the RSAT package

As you can see that is a little bit tedious to perform that task in the GUI, so how can we check in PowerShell?

1. This will provide a verbose output for RSAT features: Get-WindowsCapability -Name RSAT* -Online
2. You can view the status of installed RSAT components in a more convenient table: Get-WindowsCapability -Name RSAT* -Online | Select-Object -Property DisplayName, State
3. To install all the available RSAT tools at once, run: Get-WindowsCapability -Name RSAT* -Online | Add-WindowsCapability –Online
4. To install only disabled RSAT components, run: Get-WindowsCapability -Online |? {$_.Name -like “*RSAT*” -and $_.State -eq “NotPresent”} | Add-WindowsCapability -Online

Here is the new status of installed RSAT components: Get-WindowsCapability -Name RSAT* -Online | Select-Object -Property DisplayName, State

Note: If installing RSAT you encounter an error Add-WindowsCapability failed. Error code = 0x800f0954, most likely your computer is configured to receive updates from the internal WSUS or SUP server.

To install RSAT components, you need to temporarily disable the update from the WSUS server in the registry (open the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU and change the UseWUServer to 0) and restart the Update Service.

Here is a quick way to perform that task in PowerShell:

$currentWU = Get-ItemProperty -Path “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU” -Name “UseWUServer” | select -ExpandProperty UseWUServer

Set-ItemProperty -Path “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU” -Name “UseWUServer” -Value 0

Restart-Service wuauserv

Get-WindowsCapability -Name RSAT* -Online | Add-WindowsCapability –Online

Set-ItemProperty -Path “HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU” -Name “UseWUServer” -Value $currentWU

Restart-Service wuauserv