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How to Use ViVeTool to Enable or Disable Hidden Features in Windows 11

Microsoft frequently adds many new features and options to regular and insider builds. However, most of those features and options are not enabled (hidden) for all users thanks to the A/B testing methodology. The good thing is, using a free and open-source tool called ViVeTool, you can quickly enable or disable those hidden features with just a single-line command. For example, I recently wanted to enable the option that hides the notification bell icon on the taskbar. Since it is not available in my build, I used the ViVeTool to quickly enable the hidden feature and removed the notification bell icon from the taskbar.

In this quick and easy tutorial, I will show you how to use the ViVeTool app to enable or disable hidden features in Windows 11. Let’s get started.

Before You Begin

  • You need administrator rights to enable or disable a hidden feature in Windows.
  • You need to know the feature ID of the feature you want to enable or disable using ViVetool.

Use ViVeTool to Enable or Disable Hidden Features in Windows 11

  1. Get the ViVeTool zip file from this page.
  2. Right-click the ViVeTool zip file and select “Extract All“.
  3. Click the “Extract” button.
  4. Right-click the extracted folder and select “Copy as path“.
  5. Right-click the Start button and select “Terminal (Admin)“.
  6. Navigate to the ViVeTool folder using the below command. You can paste the copied folder path next to “cd” by pressing “Ctrl + V”.
    cd "path\to\vivetool\folder"
  7. Run the following command while replacing “FeatureID” with the actual ID.
    1. Enable hidden feature: .\ViveTool.exe /enable /id:FeatureID
    2. Disable hidden feature:.\ViveTool.exe /disable /id:FeatureID
  8. Close the Terminal window.
  9. Restart your computer.
  10. With that, you’ve used ViVeTool to manage a hidden feature.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

First, go to this page, scroll down to the “Assets” section, and download the “ViVeTool-vX.X.zip” file.

Note: If you are using Windows 11 on ARM, download the “ViVeTool-vX.X-ARM64CLR.zip” file.

download vivetool

Once the file is downloaded, find it, right-click on it, and select the “Extract All” button.

select extract all

Click the “Extract” button to extract the contents to a new folder.

click extract

Once extracted, open the folder, click the address bar, right-click, and select “Copy” to copy the folder path to the clipboard. Alternatively, you can also right-click the extracted folder and select “Copy as path“. This action also copies the folder path to your clipboard. In case you are wondering, this path helps you navigate to the ViVeTool folder in the Terminal.

copy vivetool folder path

Next, right-click the Start button and select the “Terminal (Admin)” option. This will open Windows Terminal with admin rights.

open terminal as admin

In the terminal window, type “cd“, press the “Space” button on your keyboard, and press “Ctrl + V” to paste the path you copied earlier. The entire command looks like below. Click the “Enter” button. This action takes you to the ViVeTool folder.

cd "path\to\vivetool\folder\"

navigate to vivetool folder in terminal

Next, run the below command to enable or disable a hidden feature in Windows 11. Don’t forget to replace “FeatureID” with the actual feature ID you want to enable or disable.

  1. Enable hidden feature: .\ViveTool.exe /enable /id:FeatureID
  2. Disable hidden feature:.\ViveTool.exe /disable /id:FeatureID

For example, I want to enable the “Show bell icon on the taskbar” toggle option in the Settings app. For that, I need to run the command with the feature ID “49082522”. Here’s the full command:

.\ViveTool.exe /enable /id:49082522

enable feature vivetool command

To disable, the command looks like this:

.\ViveTool.exe /disable /id:49082522

disable feature vivetool command

Reset All Changes Made Using ViVeTool

In addition to selectively enabling and disabling, there might be times when you need to reset all the changes made using ViVeTool. In that case, navigate to the ViVeTool folder in the Terminal (using the CD command) and run the following command.

.\ViVeTool.exe /fullreset

That is all. It is that simple to enable or disable any Windows 11 hidden feature using ViVeTool.

Wrapping Up — Using ViVeTool to Manage Hidden Features in Windows 11

If you are someone who likes to run insider builds or try out new features and options before anyone else, having ViVeTool on your computer and learning how to use it to enable or disable hidden features in Windows 11 is pretty important. Thankfully, the entire process is pretty simple and straightforward as long as you follow the steps I’ve shown above.

If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.

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