Full Guide | How to Download and Install RSAT in Windows 11

What is RSAT in Windows 

What is RSAT? RSAT, short for Remote Server Administration Tools, is an essential tool introduced since Windows Server 2008 R2. It helps Windows administrators manage and maintain servers from remote location, or simply put, handle Windows Server roles and features from desktop computers such as Windows 11 and Windows 10.

Then how to access Remote Server Administration Tools on client OS? Do you need to download and install it?

If you search it on Google, you may find that you can directly download RSAT for Windows 10 in Microsoft website. And there’s a notice stating an easier option: Starting with Windows 10 October 2018 Update, you can get the list of available RSAT tools within the OS.

This means if you’ve upgraded to later versions, like Windows 10 20H2 or Windows 11, you will no longer see a RSAT download link from the official page, because the option is already built in the system.

In this article, I will cover 3 methods to install and enable RSAT in Windows 11. Keep reading to get what you need to know.

How to install and enable RSAT in Windows 11 (3 methods)

RSAT (Remote Server Management Tools) for Windows 11 includes Server Manager, Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-ins, consoles, as well as Windows PowerShell cmdlets and providers, command-line tools for managing roles and features running on Windows Server.

You can try the following 3 methods to enable RSAT in Windows 11.

Note: RSAT can only be installed on Professional or Enterprise editions of Windows client OS, so you cannot apply these methods to Windows Home or Standard editions.

Method 1. Install RSAT from Windows optional features

Just as mentioned above, RSAT is included as a set of Features on Demand since Windows 10 October 2018 Update, so the easiest way to access RSAT Windows 11 download is also within the OS.

1. Right-click on Windows logo and choose Settings -> Apps -> Optional features.

Or you can directly search for “optional” and open click “See optional feature history” from the result.

2. In the Optional features page, click Add a feature option, and type “rsat” in the pop-up window to view all related optional features.

3. Select the RSAT tools you want to install on Windows 11, and hit Install. Then the downloading will start, and you can see the download progress of the features in the Recent actions section.

When the installation finishes, these features will be listed in the Installed features section instead. If you want to uninstall the RSAT tools sometime, just select the ones you don’t need in the Installed features section, and click on the Uninstall button.

Method 2. Install RSAT tools in Windows 11 via PowerShell

You can also use PowerShell to get RSAT download in Windows 11, just make sure you run the correct commands and everything will be easy.

1. Directly search for “powershell” in Windows and choose Run as Administrator on the right pane.

2. In the PowerShell window, type the following command and press Enter to get the list of available RSAT features in Windows 11:

Get-WindowsCapability -Online | Where-Object {$_.Name -like "RSAT*"}

3. Then you can install RSAT features from the list, type the command below and press Enter. PowerShell will start installing the specified RSAT feature.

Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name xxxx ~~~~0.0.1.0

*“xxxx” refers to the name of the feature you want to install. For example, to install Rsat.FileServices.Tools, the command will be: Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name Rsat.FileServices.Tools~~~~0.0.1.0

4. When it’s complete, there’s a prompt to show you the result. And if the “RestartNeeded” reads “True”, you will need to restart the computer to make the installation take effect.

Method 3. Install RSAT tools in Windows 11 via CMD

Besides PowerShell, you can install Windows 11 RSAT via DISM Command in a similar way. Try the following steps:

1. Type “cmd” in the Windows Search bar, and run Command Prompt as Administrator.

2. In the popping out window, run the following command to show the list of all available RSAT tools you can install:

DISM.exe /Online /Get-Capabilities | find "Rsat"

3. Then enter the following DISM command to install the optional feature you want:

DISM /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:xxxxx~~~~0.0.1.0

*Replace “xxxx” with the tool you want to install. For example, if you want to install DHCP tools, then the command will be: DISM /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:Rsat.DHCP.Tools~~~~0.0.1.0

4. When the installation is complete, it will prompt you with “The operation completed successfully”.

What to do if you couldn't install RSAT in Windows 11?

Sometimes you encounter the "RSAT installing failure" issue and you may get an error code like "0x800f0955", "Installer encountered an error:0x8024001d", etc. If you have this problem, you can try the following solution to fix it.

Solution 1. Restart the PC. Many Windows problems can be resolved after a device restart. It could be a temporary glitch. Just restart your computer and see if you can install RSAT successfully.

Solution 2. Update Windows. An outdated Windows version can cause some issues when you enable RSAT. You can click the Start button > click Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update to check if there is any newer Windows version.

Solution 3. Try Windows optional feature. Some users found they couldn't reinstall RSAT after uninstalling it via PowerShell or Command Prompt. And reinstalling successfully with Windows optional feature that is guided in Method 1. 

Can you use RSAT to remotely manage WSB in Windows 11?

We see this kind of topics in forums from time to time, namely trying to manage or monitor Windows Server Backup (WSB) from Window Client OS (Windows 11/10/8/7/etc.) by installing RSAT. But as the user said in this case, WSB does not have an RSAT module.

WSB isn't a component in Windows client, so there‘s no WSB MMC (Microsoft Management Console), which enables remote management of other WSB-capable servers. Frankly speaking, remote WSB is only possible server to server.

Then how can you create and monitor remote server backup from client OS such as Windows 11? Don’t worry, there are still available ways.

Alternative to remotely backup servers from Windows 11/10/8/7

One thing you can try is an agent-based centralized backup solution. It enables you to use any Windows PC or Server as a central console, and register any computer in the network as client, thus you can easily backup and monitor servers from a desktop PC.

The example I use here is AOMEI Cyber Backup, it could be installed on any computer running Windows 11/10/8/7 or Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012(R2)/2008(R2)/etc. as the central console, from where you can gain control over client PCs or servers in the LAN for backup and monitor.

👉 With it, you can create Disk Backup, System Backup, Partition Backup, VM backup and SQL backup.

👉Uses an intuitive console for execution and view. You can centrally backup all added Windows servers and PCs, and view, restore, manage backups on the console.

👉 Support multiple backup destinations, local path, external storage, NAS drive. And you can archive backup to an cloud storage like AWS S3.

👉Support auto backup and management. set up backup schedule to backup data daily, weekly, or monthly. And you can setan auto cleanup retention to automatically remove outdated backup versions to free up storage.

You can download and install the 30-day free trial of AOMEI Cyber Backupper to experience all the features. And we will guide you how to use this tool.

Step 1. Please download and install AOMEI Cyber Backup Agent on the remote server. You can click "Source Device" > "Agents" > "Download Agent" to download the installation file to local computer and copy it to the corresponding device for installation.

Step 2. Access to "Source Device" > "Windows" > "Add Windows Device". Input the IP address and user information. Click Confirm to add the device.

Step 3. Click "Backup Task" > "Create New Task" > Choose a backup type. If you want to backup the whole server, select "Disk Backup". Then specify the backup details, such as: Task Name, Device Name, Target, Archive, and Schedule as you want.

Step 4. Click "Start Backup" to start the process, you can select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.

Appendix: List of available RSAT components in Windows 11

Here’s a list of available Windows 11 RSAT tools, you can decide whether you need to install RSAT according to this.

• RSAT: Active Directory Domain Services and Lightweight Directory Services Tools
• RSAT: BitLocker Drive Encryption Administration Utilities
• RSAT: Active Directory Certificate Services Tools
• RSAT: DHCP Server Tools (used to configure and manage DHCP server on Windows Server)
• RSAT: DNS Server Tools
• RSAT: Failover Clustering Tools
• RSAT: File Services Tools
• RSAT: Group Policy Management Tools
• RSAT: IP Address Management (IPAM) Client
• RSAT: Data Center Bridging LLDP Tools
• RSAT: Network Controller Management Tools
• RSAT: Network Load Balancing Tools
• RSAT: Remote Access Management Tools
• RSAT: Remote Desktop Services Tools
• RSAT: Server Manager
• RSAT: Shielded VM Tools
• RSAT: Storage Migration Service Management Tools
• RSAT: Storage Replica Module for Windows PowerShell
• RSAT: System Insights Module for Windows PowerShell
• RSAT: Volume Activation Tools (KMS server console)
• RSAT: Windows Server Update Services Tools

Conclusion

RSAT helps administrators to handle Windows Server roles and features from desktop computers, and this article introduces how to install RSAT on Windows 11 as the method has changed a bit compared to earlier versions of windows 10.

Note that even with the RSAT tools installed, you cannot remotely manage Windows Server Backup on Windows 11. To do this, you may need centralized backup software that can centrally backup servers from a desktop computer.