Windows Features on Demand (FOD)
What Features on Demand are and how NTLite downloads and integrates them into a Windows image or a running system, with the offline route for a blocked network.
Features on Demand (FOD) are the optional Windows parts Microsoft keeps out of the installation ISO: display language packs, N-edition media support, management tools, and the legacy components that used to ship in the box. Windows fetches them from Windows Update on a connected machine, which is exactly what fails on an offline image, a metered network, or a build you want identical on every deployment. NTLite lists them for the loaded image, downloads the packages a tick needs from Microsoft and integrates them, so there is no Features on Demand ISO to hunt down first.
What Features on Demand Are
A Windows installation ISO carries the base operating system. Anything optional is published separately as a FOD package and pulled in on demand, either when you tick a box in Windows Settings or when an app asks for it. Typical contents:
- Display language packs and the smaller Language Interface Packs
- Media support for N editions of Windows, sold without the media stack in the EU
- Remote administration and management tooling (RSAT, OpenSSH, SNMP)
- Speech, handwriting, and optical character recognition components
- Legacy and compatibility components carried forward from older releases
Each release has its own matching FOD set. A package built for one Windows version will not integrate into another, which is the single most common reason a manual FOD add fails. NTLite picks the set by the loaded image's version and architecture, so that mismatch cannot happen.
Add Features on Demand With NTLite
- Load your Windows image in NTLite (Windows 10 or newer)
- Go to the Features page; the Features on Demand tab is in front
- Tick the capabilities you want. The search box filters the list, and whatever a capability depends on comes with it
- Queue the latest cumulative update on the Updates page, so the added parts are brought up to the image's patch level in the same run
- Go to Apply → Process
Apply downloads what each tick still lacks right before enabling it; a row waiting on a download is marked [Download] on the Apply page. Every package is checked for a valid Microsoft signature before it is used.
The Installed column states what each capability costs on disk, and a group row shows the net change of what you ticked, so the size of the result is known before the run. Unticking an installed capability removes it from the image.
Because the state lives in the image, every machine installed from it comes up with those features already on, with no per-machine step and no download at first boot. Save it as a preset and the same set applies to next month's rebuild.
Download Ahead of TimePremium
Download on the Features toolbar fetches the packages of every ticked row into the update cache without applying anything. The Downloaded column shows each row's progress and marks it once its packages are cached.
The cache is reusable. Every later image of the same Windows version finds the packages there, so a monthly rebuild downloads nothing twice.
Add Features to a Running Windows
The same flow works against a system that is already installed. On the Image page, load the live install (C:\Windows) instead of an image file, then tick and process as above. A deployed Windows lists the full catalog of its build. This is the answer when one machine is missing a component and reinstalling it is not worth the disruption.
Changes to a live install apply to the operating system you are running. Read the popup warnings before processing, and have a restore point or backup for anything you cannot rebuild.
See the Image page for the full loading reference.
Language Packs and the Media Feature Pack
Both live on the same tab. Each language is a group whose first row is its display language pack, and the Media Feature Pack is an ordinary row on an N edition. The Language Packs and Media Feature Pack guides cover them in full.
Offline or Blocked Downloads
When a download is blocked, NTLite asks whether to retry and names a firewall or proxy as the likely cause. Allow the connection and retry, or go offline. The report after the run names the Features on Demand ISO for the image, its download link, and the folder to extract it into: the FOD folder of that Windows version under the update cache (File → Settings).
- Download the ISO the report names on a machine that can reach it
- Extract the whole ISO into the folder the report names; nothing needs picking out by hand
- Process again, or answer Retry if the prompt is still open
No published disc: for Windows 10 versions before 1809 and Windows Server 2016, Microsoft publishes no Features on Demand ISO link. Enabling a capability on such an image asks for the folder that holds its packages, so get that ISO from your volume licensing or Visual Studio subscription downloads first.
Without NTLite: DISM
On a single running machine with the matching FOD ISO mounted as E:, Windows' own servicing tool adds one capability at a time: DISM /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:Rsat.ActiveDirectory.DS-LDS.Tools~~~~0.0.1.0 /Source:E:\LanguagesAndOptionalFeatures /LimitAccess. List the names with DISM /Online /Get-Capabilities. The ISO has to match the running build exactly.
Troubleshooting
A Capability Is Not Listed
The list comes from the image. A mounted image file lists fewer rows than the same build once deployed, and a row the loaded edition cannot install is hidden - the Media Feature Pack shows on N editions only.
Not Installed After the Run
Read the report: it names the capabilities that were skipped and why. A blocked download is cured by the offline steps above; anything else is Windows servicing refusing the package, covered next.
Integration Fails on a Serviced Image
Add optional features and language packs before the image is finished rather than after a heavy component removal, and integrate cumulative updates in the same pass so the servicing stack sees a consistent set.