Enabling the telnet client for all Windows 7 PCs on a domain

Question

The telnet client is disabled by default in Windows 7. I would like to enable the telnet client for all Windows 7 PCs in our domain. I know how to enable it manually:

Start
Control Panel
Programs And Features
Turn Windows features on or off
Check Telnet Client
Hit OK

How can I do this for all Windows 7 PCs in the domain? All the Windows 7 PCs are in a separate OU.

Can this be enabled by a registry setting that I can apply to all Windows 7 PCs?

Can it be done by a Group Policy?

To whomever voted to move this to superuser, questions regarding group policy definitely belong here. Just because it is about putting some software on a client PC, doesn't mean it belongs on superuser. — Sam Cogan, Mar 15 '10 at 16:35
@Sam The words "Group Policy" doesn't mean that this question must be here. In that case, the words "registry setting" will mean that this must belong to SU. And as I know, one of the shortest ways solve this is using CMD and dism (not GPO or registry)... — Jet, Oct 01 '13 at 19:57

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 15 '10 at 15:02

5

You can do this by creating a GPO and linking it to the OU where your Windows 7 PCs are.

Create a script (e.g. \\domain.com\netlogon\enable-telnet-client.cmd) with the following command in it:

dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:TelnetClient

Assign that script as a computer startup script in your GPO.

answered Mar 15 '10 at 15:02

ThatGraemeGuy

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Does the "/online" word mean that the PC will need connection to internet? – Jet Oct 01 '13 at 19:59
1

No. DISM is used to modify deployment images or the O/S that's currently running. /online means "please do this in this O/S, not on an image file." See: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744382(v=ws.10).aspx – ThatGraemeGuy Oct 02 '13 at 11:07

score -2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 15 '10 at 12:45

-2

You can not. GPO's dont install / uninstall windows features.

You could roll out a MSI package (software install) the shells out the proper command line to install the telnet client, though. And put that into the group policy of the appropriate OU(s).

answered Mar 15 '10 at 12:45

TomTom

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You don't need an MSI package to run a simple command. Batch files still have their place in 2010. ;-) – ThatGraemeGuy Mar 15 '10 at 15:05
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Yeah, but you need elevated priviledges ;) Normal users may not be able to. – TomTom Mar 15 '10 at 15:15
4

You assign it as a computer startup script, you don't ask users to run it manually. – ThatGraemeGuy Mar 15 '10 at 15:29
yeah, ok - that makes sense. – TomTom Mar 15 '10 at 15:45

Enabling the telnet client for all Windows 7 PCs on a domain

2 Answers2