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Enable Windows Features using Group Policy

Hi,

I need to turn on the Windows Media Player Feature in Windows 10 for a large number of domain joined computers.

I know how to do it manually via 'Control Panel - Add Windows Features' and have found articles describing how to enable this feature via PowerShell or Command Prompt.

My question is how to do this via Group Policy. I've tried a number of different ways eg. creating a batch file and adding it to the Logon GPO, running PowerShell via GPO etc but nothing seems to be working. Not sure if this is because users are not local admins?

Has anyone done something like this before and can you please point me in the right direction?
Thanks

oBdA

You need to run it as a Computer Startup script applied to the computers in question, not as a logon script. Adding features requires elevation.
The script should be as easy as

If ((Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName WindowsMediaPlayer).State -ne 'Enabled')
	Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName WindowsMediaPlayer -Online
}

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ASKER

Hi, that's similar to what I was trying but it still doesn't work i'm afraid. I'm not sure if it's becasue of an execution policy restriction?

oBdA

If this has never been configured, then that could be a reason, yes.
Save this as Whatever.cmd and deploy it as batch (you could optionally set the executionpolicy as well, while you're at it ...):

@PowerShell.exe -Command "Invoke-Expression -Command ((Get-Content -Path '%~f0' | Select-Object -Skip 2) -join [environment]::NewLine)"
@exit /b %Errorlevel%

If ((Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName WindowsMediaPlayer).State -ne 'Enabled')
	Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName WindowsMediaPlayer -Online
}

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Michal Dsousa