Why isn't there a list of all of the features in Vivetool, & what they do?

Precisely as the title says. I'm using Vivetool to change a few things, & I'm treading VERY carefully, but I'm still wary of the majority of the modifiable features. The reason for this, is that the feature names are too vague, or are only made of numbers, & don't explain what they do. For instance, what does EmbeddedFetch or EffectSupport do?

To wit, why isn't there a complete list of all of the modifiable features in Vivetool, & what they enable/disable? Such a list would be great for first- or only-time users like me!

Hello,

If it may help, the FeatureDictionary.pfs file from ViVeTool is a list of all available feature IDs. It has some feature names with them, but no explanation of what they are for.

Googling the vivetool command with a feature ID will usually help find out what's it for though.

EX: vivetool /enable /id:41040327

Brink said:

Hello,

If it may help, the FeatureDictionary.pfs file from ViVeTool is a list of all available feature IDs. It has some feature names with them, but no explanation of what they are for.

Googling the vivetool command with a feature ID will usually help find out what's it for though.

EX: vivetool /enable /id:41040327

Enable or Disable Hidden Feature Flags in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable hidden experimental feature flags in Windows 11. ViVeTool is an open source tool that can be used to enable hidden features that are part of controlled feature roll-outs or A/B testing in Insider builds of Windows 11. Starting with Windows...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

That might work a little. A list would still be much more helpful, though. I propose we make one!

EDIT: This website gives some examples: Vive Tool Commands: Explanation in details-ViveTool .

.https://github.com/PeterStrick/ViVeTool-GUI

also read through:

.https://www.elevenforum.com/t/vivetool-and-how-to-use-it.13016/

Brink said:

Hello,

If it may help, the FeatureDictionary.pfs file from ViVeTool is a list of all available feature IDs. It has some feature names with them, but no explanation of what they are for.

Googling the vivetool command with a feature ID will usually help find out what's it for though.

EX: vivetool /enable /id:41040327

Enable or Disable Hidden Feature Flags in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable hidden experimental feature flags in Windows 11. ViVeTool is an open source tool that can be used to enable hidden features that are part of controlled feature roll-outs or A/B testing in Insider builds of Windows 11. Starting with Windows...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

Also, how do I open a PFS file?

TheMouseAvenger said:

Also, how do I open a PFS file?

Click to expand...

The blue note box under step 7 below shows you how to.

TheMouseAvenger said:

Also, how do I open a PFS file?

Click to expand...

ah just use open with and select notepad r if windows 11 right clin edit in notepad
notepad can open most text files , .nfo .json .xml .js .html .csv .eml .md .lst and others
there are thons of those that are plain text files
or download notepad++ that is used for coding so if it cant open by default for shore exist an add-in

From my understanding there did used to be a repo for tracking the new features IDs, and there was a tool that went along with it: GitHub - riverar/mach2: Windows Feature Control Multi-tool (In the 'features' folder specifically)

But the creator has since discontinued it because "it has unfortunately led to an unhealthy 'race to post' dynamic on social and traditional media platforms".

If I understand it right, he was not happy that people were eager to post the new features lists . Dumb reason if you ask me. Also it says due to "lack of meaningful community contributions" but not sure how that can be true if he said people were literally racing to post the new features.

Anyway the successor to actually enabling and changing the features is Vive Tool, but I'm not aware of anywhere that tracks the changes for new feature IDs.

Apparently GitHub actions now supports Windows (at least on Arm) so maybe there could be a way to automate it: GitHub Actions now supports Windows on Arm runners for all public repos

Not a dumb reason. While you can scan the registry for new FeatureID's, just knowing they exist doesn't inform you what they do. Even the existing dictionaries aren't helpful if you're not a Windows Insider guru or security researcher.

For example, what the heck does "DesktopSpotlightImprovementsXRFixes" actually fix? You know it's in Spotlight, but what exactly? How much time are you going to invest in trying to figure this out? Do you need to fire up a debugger, or disassemble some DLL's?

And when you do share a new discovery, 1000 Twitter/X/Reddit/Windows site metoo's suddenly cross-post your discovery without credit. I would be annoyed too if that was happening all the time. It is unhealthy because everyone wants to be first/second, but very few cross-posters really take the time to try understanding what's being shared.

Be grateful for what's been provided. Because finding new FeatureID's is a highly specialized art and very few experts are around to give us an early preview. That's my two cents.

ThioJoe said:

From my understanding there did used to be a repo for tracking the new features IDs, and there was a tool that went along with it: GitHub - riverar/mach2: Windows Feature Control Multi-tool (In the 'features' folder specifically)

But the creator has since discontinued it because "it has unfortunately led to an unhealthy 'race to post' dynamic on social and traditional media platforms".

If I understand it right, he was not happy that people were eager to post the new features lists . Dumb reason if you ask me. Also it says due to "lack of meaningful community contributions" but not sure how that can be true if he said people were literally racing to post the new features.

Anyway the successor to actually enabling and changing the features is Vive Tool, but I'm not aware of anywhere that tracks the changes for new feature IDs.

Apparently GitHub actions now supports Windows (at least on Arm) so maybe there could be a way to automate it: GitHub Actions now supports Windows on Arm runners for all public repos

Click to expand...

ask and you shall receive lol. run with powershell. select 2 .pfs (in the vivetool zips) and it'll output the differences to a .txt on your desktop

garlin said:

For example, what the heck does "DesktopSpotlightImprovementsXRFixes" actually fix? You know it's in Spotlight, but what exactly? How much time are you going to invest in trying to figure this out? Do you need to fire up a debugger, or disassemble some DLL's?

Click to expand...

I was just thinking of literally just publishing the raw data, meaning the feature IDs as outputted by the scan tools, not try and figure out what each one does. Because my thinking is there are definitely people who might be interested to fire up a sandbox and mess around with new features that appear after some update and see if they make any difference. It gives people the opportunity to tinker.

Or in the case of an update that microsoft releases but has annoying staged rollout, it would be a lot easier to figure out how to enable those with a diff since the last version.

dacrone said:

ask and you shall receive lol. run with powershell. select 2 .pfs (in the vivetool zips) and it'll output the differences to a .txt on your desktop

Click to expand...

That's nifty Though the problem is the .pfs dictionaries apparently being updated regularly. From my understanding for example the 25H2 feature IDs are not available as pfs.

At one point I tried generating my own feature list using Mach2, but it requires ensuring you have all the symbols downloaded. I thought I did but I couldn't get it to work. The github page does say it doesn't support more recent versions of Windows so I guess that's true.