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CTOnews.com, December 8, do you want to unlock new features / features hidden or not fully promoted by Microsoft Win11? You need to know about the open source command line tool ViveTool. With this tool, you can not only enable the new API, but also unlock some features that Microsoft has not yet made public, or that have been made public but not fully open for testing.

A typical example is the tabbing feature of the file manager, which is only available to a small number of Dev channel Windows Insider project members at the beginning of its launch, but the average Dev channel user can also unlock this feature through this tool.

And with more and more hidden functions to unlock, the user scale of ViveTool tools is expanding rapidly. CTOnews.com would also like to take this opportunity to introduce this open source tool to new and old readers, hoping to provide some help to your daily use of Win11.

What is Windows Feature Store? We also take the tab function of the file manager as an example, from the first Microsoft function launch to Windows 11 22H2 function update officially launched, which experienced a long time of testing.

First of all, Microsoft will add the tab function of the file manager to the Windows code base, and then enter the Windows Insider channel through the update channel, server-side A / B test and other factors, and then officially put it online after being tested by project members.

Most of these experimental functions are controlled by a core system component called Windows Feature Store. This core component is called "Velocity" within Microsoft, and controls the testing progress of server-side A / B and other functions on Win10 and Win11 systems.

This core component belongs to the core component of Windows Notification Facility (WNF), which is used to schedule system processes including kernel components, system services and user-space applications.

Building a modular infrastructure with various functions is essentially a way to design a controllable rollout model. For example, Windows Insider Program is used to provide ongoing functionality to early updates, which are gradually patched and then enabled for each user once a stable milestone is reached. If a particular feature contains a catastrophic error or a security vulnerability, it can be seamlessly disabled by the kernel.

For security reasons, Windows Feature Store is closely protected by the Windows kernel by default, and ordinary users cannot use traditional binary patch technology to force these features.

Can we bypass the server-side A / B test? Microsoft provides a large number of "features" in both the Win11 preview version and the stable version, some of which have been provided to users and some of which are put into hibernation by means of "comments".

Remotely coordinated A / B testing (also known as split testing) ensures continuous improvement and a quick feedback loop in a variety of configurations. Windows Feature Store ensures the randomization process by switching states.

Fortunately, developers have found that they can manipulate the data stored in Windows Feature Store. Through reverse development, these talented developers discovered the internal function control API in the Windows system.

By visiting Windows Feature Store, you can get your computer to bypass the server A / B test. At present, the main applications in this area are Mach2 of Rafael Rivera and ViVeTool of Lucas (also known as thebookisclosed). This article focuses on ViVeTool tools, interested CTOnews.com users can click on the above link to learn.

In some cases, you may be able to modify the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ FeatureManagement\ Overrides\ to change the Windows Feature Store variable. However, the editor recommends that CTOnews.com netizens should choose the above tools to avoid unforeseen situations.

Feature ID and considerations before formally introducing the ViveTool tool, we also need to understand the concept of Feature ID. Each feature in Windows Feature Store has a separate Feature ID number, such as 26008830 corresponding to the tablet-optimized taskbar. Each Feature ID has three states.

Default state (0): this is the normal behavior of a particular function.

Disable (1): this disables the feature completely.

Enable (2): this will force the feature to be enabled.

Mach2 developers maintain a list of Feature ID for each Insider preview. Repo also includes changes between different versions, which is useful for identifying new hidden features. You can also use ViVeTool's graphical bifurcation (ViVeTool GUI) to search for available Feature ID in any version of Windows.

It is important to note that modifying Feature ID may cause system instability / crash and may even damage core operating system modules and make the Windows system completely unusable. Permanent changes that cannot be recovered may occur after some Feature ID is enabled. Therefore, please CTOnews.com netizens before deciding to modify, please properly protect your data, please bear the relevant risks.

Because Windows Update is directly related to Windows Feature Store, some changes may cause your device to be in an unsupported state. So make a backup before confirming the ViveTool operation, and do not use it on productivity devices.

Here are some of the mainstream Windows features and corresponding Feature ID:

Function description

Feature IDWindows threshold version

Tab function in File Manager

3763438521536 taskbar optimized for tablet

2600883025197 redesigned Widgets UI4077249925227, 22623.746 brand new system fruit tray

3876404525211Widgets Settings menu

New search function in 3865291625217 Task Manager

3942042425231 search bar on the desktop

Animated navigation panel icon 3487815225197 more modern open menu in 3796911525120 settings

3630209025151, 22622.290 how can Win10 / Win11 concealment be enabled through the ViveTool tool? ViveTool is an open source CLI tool provided by a C # software library called ViVe. If you want to unlock the hidden feature on your Win11 device, follow these steps:

1. Download the ViveTool tool from the Github official website

two。 Decompress to any location

3. Open the extracted folder and you will see 4 files

4. In the blank area of the folder page, right-click the Shift button.

5. Select "Open Command Line Mode here" or "Open PowerShell window here" from the menu

6. Find the Feature ID where you want to enable a hidden feature

7. Then enter the vivetool / enable/ id:xxx (here changed to Feature ID) command, such as the "vivetool / enable/ id:39263329 / variant:1" command, which is a short button with a magnifying glass and the words "search".

8. If enabled successfully, a prompt for "Successfully set feature configuration" should be returned.

9. Close the command line window, restart the system, and these changes should take effect.

If you want to recover, just change the command line from "/ enable" to "/ disable".

In addition to the above general operations, ViVeTool also supports the addition of other feature options, including:

/ enable enables a feature. You will need a Feature ID to enable a specific feature.

/ disable disable a feature

/ query lists all existing feature configurations. You can check all Feature ID and status (including enabled, disabled, or default), priority of ID (service or user), and type (Experiment or Override) in Windows Feature Store.

/ addsub add feature usage subscription

/ notifyusage unsubscribe for feature usage

/ reset removes custom configurations for specific features that you enable

/ delsub removes a feature using subscription

/ import Import Custom feature configuration

/ appupdate check the new version of this tool

/ export output custom feature configuration

/ fullreset removes all custom feature configurations, which helps undo all features that you enable / disable, and so on.

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