Roles, Role Services, and Features included in Windows Server - Server Core
We generally talk about what's not in Server Core - now we're going to try a different approach and tell you what's included and whether something is installed by default. The following roles, role services, and features are in the Server Core installation option of Windows Server. Use this information to help figure out if the Server Core option works for your environment. Because this is a large list, consider searching for the specific role or feature you're interested in - if that search doesn't return what you're looking for, it's not included in Server Core.
For example, if you search for "Remote Desktop Session Host" - you won't find it on this page. That's because the RD Session Host is NOT included in the Server Core image.
Remember that you can always look at what's not included. This is just a different way to look at things.
Roles included in Server Core
The Server Core installation option includes the following server roles.
| Role | Name | Installed by default? |
|---|---|---|
| Active Directory Certificate Services | AD-Certificate | N |
| Active Directory Domain Services | AD-Domain-Services | N |
| Active Directory Federation Services | ADFS-Federation | N |
| Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services | ADLDS | N |
| Active Directory Rights Management Services | ADRMS | N |
| Device Health Attestation | DeviceHealthAttestationService | N |
| DHCP Server | DHCP | N |
| DNS Server | DNS | N |
| File and Storage Services | FileAndStorage-Services | Y |
| Host Guardian Service | HostGuardianServiceRole | N |
| Hyper-V | Hyper-V | N |
| Print and Document Services | Print-Services | N |
| Remote Access | RemoteAccess | N |
| Remote Desktop Services | Remote-Desktop-Services | N |
| Volume Activation Services | VolumeActivation | N |
| Web Server IIS | Web-Server | N |
| Windows Server Essentials Experience | ServerEssentialsRole | N |
| Windows Server Update Services | UpdateServices | N |
Role services included in Server Core
The Server Core installation option includes the following role services.
| Role | Role service | Name | Installed by default? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active Directory Certificate Services | Certification Authority | ADCS-Cert-Authority | N |
| Certificate Enrollment Policy Web Service | ADCS-Enroll-Web-Pol | N | |
| Certificate Enrollment Web Service | ADCS-Enroll-Web-Svc | N | |
| Certification Authority Web Enrollment | ADCS-Web-Enrollment | N | |
| Network Device Enrollment Service | ADCS-Device-Enrollment | N | |
| Online Responder | ADCS-Online-Cert | N | |
| Active Directory Rights Management | Active Directory Rights Management Server | ADRMS-Server | N |
| Identity Federation Support | ADRMS-Identity | N | |
| File and Storage Services | File and iSCSI Services | File-Services | N |
| File Server | FS-FileServer | N | |
| BranchCache for Network Files | FS-BranchCache | N | |
| Data Deduplication | FS-Data-Deduplication | N | |
| DFS Namespaces | FS-DFS-Namespace | N | |
| DFS Replication | FS-DFS-Replication | N | |
| File Server Resource Manager | FS-Resource-Manager | N | |
| File Server VSS Agent Service | FS-VSS-Agent | N | |
| iSCSI Target Server | iSCSITarget-Server | N | |
| iSCSI Target Storage Provider (VDS and VSS hardware providers) | iSCSITarget-VSS-VDS | N | |
| Server for NFS | FS-NFS-Service | N | |
| Work Folders | FS-SyncShareService | N | |
| Storage Services | Storage-Services | Y | |
| Print and Document Services | Print Server | Print-Server | N |
| LPD Service | Print-LPD-Service | N | |
| Remote Access | DirectAccess and VPN (RAS) | DirectAccess-VPN | N |
| Routing | Routing | N | |
| Web Application Proxy | Web-Application-Proxy | N | |
| Remote Desktop Services | Remote Desktop Connection Broker* | RDS-Connection-Broker | N |
| Remote Desktop Licensing | RDS-Licensing | N | |
| Remote Desktop Virtualization Host | RDS-Virtualization | N | |
| Web Server (IIS) | Web Server | Web-WebServer | N |
| Common HTTP Features | Web-Common-Http | N | |
| Default Document | Web-Default-Doc | N | |
| Directory Browsing | Web-Dir-Browsing | N | |
| HTTP Errors | Web-Http-Errors | N | |
| Static Content | Web-Static-Content | N | |
| HTTP Redirection | Web-Http-Redirect | N | |
| WebDAV Publishing | Web-DAV-Publishing | N | |
| Health and Diagnostics | Web-Health | N | |
| HTTP Logging | Web-Http-Logging | N | |
| Custom Logging | Web-Custom-Logging | N | |
| Logging Tools | Web-Log-Libraries | N | |
| ODBC Logging | Web-ODBC-Logging | N | |
| Request Monitor | Web-Request-Monitor | N | |
| Tracing | Web-Http-Tracing | N | |
| Performance | Web-Performance | N | |
| Static Content Compression | Web-Stat-Compression | N | |
| Dynamic Content Compression | Web-Dyn-Compression | N | |
| Security | Web-Security | N | |
| Request Filtering | Web-Filtering | N | |
| Basic Authentication | Web-Basic-Auth | N | |
| Centralized SSL Certificate Support | Web-CertProvider | N | |
| Client Certificate Mapping Authentication | Web-Client-Auth | N | |
| Digest Authentication | Web-Digest-Auth | N | |
| IIS Client Certificate Mapping Authentication | Web-Cert-Auth | N | |
| IP and Domain Restrictions | Web-IP-Security | N | |
| URL Authorization | Web-Url-Auth | N | |
| Windows Authentication | Web-Windows-Auth | N | |
| Application Development | Web-App-Dev | N | |
| .NET Extensibility 3.5 | Web-Net-Ext | N | |
| .NET Extensibility 4.6 | Web-Net-Ext45 | N | |
| Application Initialization | Web-AppInit | N | |
| ASP | Web-ASP | N | |
| ASP.NET 3.5 | Web-Asp-Net | N | |
| ASP.NET 4.6 | Web-Asp-Net45 | N | |
| CGI | Web-CGI | N | |
| ISAPI Extensions | Web-ISAPI-Ext | N | |
| ISAPI Filters | Web-ISAPI-Filter | N | |
| Server Side Includes | Web-Includes | N | |
| WebSocket Protocol | Web-WebSockets | N | |
| FTP Server | Web-Ftp-Server | N | |
| FTP Service | Web-Ftp-Service | N | |
| FTP Extensibility | Web-Ftp-Ext | N | |
| Management Tools | Web-Mgmt-Tools | N | |
| IIS 6 Management Compatibility | Web-Mgmt-Compat | N | |
| IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility | Web-Metabase | N | |
| IIS 6 Scripting Tools | Web-Lgcy-Scripting | N | |
| IIS 6 WMI Compatibility | Web-WMI | N | |
| IIS Management Scripts and Tools | Web-Scripting-Tools | N | |
| Management Service | Web-Mgmt-Service | N | |
| Windows Server Update Services | WID Connectivity | UpdateServices-WidDB | N |
| WSUS Services | UpdateServices-Services | N | |
| SQL Server Connectivity | UpdateServices-DB | N |
Features included in Server Core
The Server Core installation option includes the following features.
| Feature | Name | Installed by default? |
|---|---|---|
| .NET Framework 3.5 Features | NET-Framework-Features | N |
| .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) | NET-Framework-Core | (removed) |
| HTTP Activation | NET-HTTP-Activation | N |
| Non-HTTP Activation | NET-Non-HTTP-Activ | N |
| .NET Framework 4.6 Features | NET-Framework-45-Features | Y |
| .NET Framework 4.6 | NET-Framework-45-Core | Y |
| ASP.NET 4.6 | NET-Framework-45-ASPNET | N |
| WCF Services | NET-WCF-Services45 | Y |
| HTTP Activation | NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45 | N |
| Message Queuing (MSMQ) Activation | NET-WCF-MSMQ-Activation45 | N |
| Named Pipe Activation | NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45 | N |
| TCP Activation | NET-WCF-TCP-Activation45 | N |
| TCP Port Sharing | NET-WCF-TCP-PortSharing45 | Y |
| Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) | BITS | N |
| Compact Server | BITS-Compact-Server | N |
| BitLocker Drive Encryption | BitLocker | N |
| BranchCache | BranchCache | N |
| Client for NFS | NFS-Client | N |
| Containers | Containers | N |
| Data Center Bridging | Data-Center-Bridging | N |
| Enhanced Storage | EnhancedStorage | N |
| Failover Clustering | Failover-Clustering | N |
| Group Policy Management | GPMC | N |
| I/O Quality of Service | DiskIo-QoS | N |
| IIS Hostable Web Core | Web-WHC | N |
| IP Address Management (IPAM) Server | IPAM | N |
| iSNS Server service | ISNS | N |
| Management OData IIS Extension | ManagementOdata | N |
| Media Foundation | Server-Media-Foundation | N |
| Message Queuing | MSMQ | N |
| Message Queuing Services | MSMQ-Services | N |
| Message Queuing Server | MSMQ-Server | N |
| Directory Service Integration | MSMQ-Directory | N |
| HTTP Support | MSMQ-HTTP-Support | N |
| Message Queuing Triggers | MSMQ-Triggers | N |
| Routing Service | MSMQ-Routing | N |
| Message Queuing DCOM Proxy | MSMQ-DCOM | N |
| Multipath I/O | Multipath-IO | N |
| MultiPoint Connector | MultiPoint-Connector | N |
| MultiPoint Connector Services | MultiPoint-Connector-Services | N |
| MultiPoint Manager and MultiPoint Dashboard | MultiPoint-Tools | N |
| Network Load Balancing | NLB | N |
| Peer Name Resolution Protocol | PNRP | N |
| Quality Windows Audio Video Experience | qWave | N |
| Remote Differential Compression | RDC | N |
| Remote Server Administration Tools | RSAT | N |
| Feature Administration Tools | RSAT-Feature-Tools | N |
| BitLocker Drive Encryption Administration Utilities | RSAT-Feature-Tools-BitLocker | N |
| DataCenterBridging LLDP Tools | RSAT-DataCenterBridging-LLDP-Tools | N |
| Failover Clustering Tools | RSAT-Clustering | N |
| Failover Cluster Module for Windows PowerShell | RSAT-Clustering-PowerShell | N |
| Failover Cluster Automation Server | RSAT-Clustering-AutomationServer | N |
| Failover Cluster Command Interface | RSAT-Clustering-CmdInterface | N |
| IP Address Management (IPAM) Client | IPAM-Client-Feature | N |
| Shielded VM Tools | RSAT-Shielded-VM-Tools | N |
| Storage Replica Module for Windows PowerShell | RSAT-Storage-Replica | N |
| Role Administration Tools | RSAT-Role-Tools | N |
| AD DS and AD LDS Tools | RSAT-AD-Tools | N |
| Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell | RSAT-AD-PowerShell | N |
| AD DS Tools | RSAT-ADDS | N |
| Active Directory Administrative Center | RSAT-AD-AdminCenter | N |
| AD DS Snap-Ins and Command-Line Tools | RSAT-ADDS-Tools | N |
| AD LDS Snap-Ins and Command-Line Tools | RSAT-ADLDS | N |
| Hyper-V Management Tools | RSAT-Hyper-V-Tools | N |
| Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell | Hyper-V-PowerShell | N |
| Windows Server Update Services Tools | UpdateServices-RSAT | N |
| API and PowerShell cmdlets | UpdateServices-API | N |
| DHCP Server Tools | RSAT-DHCP | N |
| DNS Server Tools | RSAT-DNS-Server | N |
| Remote Access Management Tools | RSAT-RemoteAccess | N |
| Remote Access module for Windows PowerShell | RSAT-RemoteAccess-PowerShell | N |
| RPC over HTTP Proxy | RPC-over-HTTP-Proxy | N |
| Setup and Boot Event Collection | Setup-and-Boot-Event-Collection | N |
| Simple TCP/IP Services | Simple-TCPIP | N |
| SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support | FS-SMB1 | Y |
| SMB Bandwidth Limit | FS-SMBBW | N |
| SNMP Service | SNMP-Service | N |
| SNMP WMI Provider | SNMP-WMI-Provider | N |
| Telnet Client | Telnet-Client | N |
| VM Shielding Tools for Fabric Management | FabricShieldedTools | N |
| Windows Defender Features | Windows-Defender-Features | Y |
| Windows Defender | Windows-Defender | Y |
| Windows Internal Database | Windows-Internal-Database | N |
| Windows PowerShell | PowerShellRoot | Y |
| Windows PowerShell 5.1 | PowerShell | Y |
| Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine | PowerShell-V2 | (removed) |
| Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration Service | DSC-Service | N |
| Windows PowerShell Web Access | WindowsPowerShellWebAccess | N |
| Windows Process Activation Service | WAS | N |
| Process Model | WAS-Process-Model | N |
| .NET Environment 3.5 | WAS-NET-Environment | N |
| Configuration APIs | WAS-Config-APIs | N |
| Windows Server Backup | Windows-Server-Backup | N |
| Windows Server Migration Tools | Migration | N |
| Windows Standards-Based Storage Management | WindowsStorageManagementService | N |
| WinRM IIS Extension | WinRM-IIS-Ext | N |
| WINS Server | WINS | N |
| WoW64 Support | WoW64-Support | Y |
*Services indicated with a * are no longer available in server core starting with Server 2019 1803.