Microsoft accidentally revealed an internal “StagingTool” tool that can be used to enable hidden features or Moments in Windows 11.
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When developing new features, Microsoft adds them to public preview builds of Windows in a hidden and disabled state. These features, or Moments, can be enabled when they want to run public A/B tests or internal testing.
For years, Windows enthusiasts have been looking for hidden features in new Insider preview builds and using specialized third-party tools, like ViveTool, to get a sneak peek at what's coming in the future.
Now, Microsoft has revealed its own tool used to enable these hidden features.
Microsoft accidentally reveals StagingTool
As first discovered by Windows researcher XenoPanther, Microsoft has a utility for enabling hidden development features in Windows 11 called “StagingTool.
While the tool was previously only used internally, Microsoft accidentally revealed its existence in a Feedback Hub search during the August 2023 Bug Bash, an event Microsoft hosts to find the most bugs in the operating system.
In this quest, Microsoft wanted users in China to try out a new password-less login feature and offered instructions on how to use and download StagingTool.exe to enable the feature.
While Microsoft has since made the tool unavailable, it has now become widely available among Windows enthusiasts, allowing them to use a Microsoft-approved tool to enable hidden features.
How to use Windows StagingTool to enable hidden features
Microsoft's StagingTool is a command-line program that allows you to enable hidden features, also known as Moment features, in Windows 11.
To enable a hidden feature, you need to know the feature's numeric ID, which is used internally by Microsoft developers.
However, it is possible to find new feature IDs and their associated name by scanning the Windows 11 debug symbols (PDBs) that are released with new preview builds. A tool called ViVeTool GUI Feature Scanner can be used to help find new feature IDs in preview builds.
Once you have a feature ID for a hidden feature you want to test, you can use Microsoft's StagingTool to enable or disable it.
To use StagingTool, you will need administrator privileges, so the tool must be run from a command line in a console, such as Command Prompt or Windows Terminal.
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StagingTool includes a built-in help file that can be displayed by entering the command StagingTool.exe /?, which displays the following help text:
[StagingTool.exe] Controls the feature configurations for this device Usage: StagingTool.exe [/enable<featureId> ] [/disable<featureId> ] [/query [featureId]] [/reset<featureId> ] [/testmode] [/setvariant<featureId><variantId> [payload]] [/serialize] [/setlkg] [/restorelkg] [/trace<featureId1> [<featureId2> ...<featureIdN> ]] [/setbootconfigs<jsonFile><registryPath> ] /enable Enable the specified feature /disable Disable the specified feature /query Query the specified feature (or all features, if featureId is omitted) for enablement and variant information /v Optional parameter to also print ImageDefault and ImageOverride features /reset Reset the specified feature to its default state<featureId> Specifies a feature by its feature Id Example: Enable features with Id 1 StagingTool.exe /enable 1 /testmode Used in conjunction with /enable /disable /reset Applied feature configs will revert after reboot /telemetry Used in conjunction with /enable /disable /reset Enables sending additional telemetry /setvariant Select a feature variant to use (note: the feature must be enabled for variants to be expressed). Use /query to list configured variants.<featureId> Specifies a feature by its feature Id<variantId> Specifies a feature variant by id. [payload] (Optional) Unsigned int payload for the variant (for variants that support fixed payload) /serialize Rather than apply changes to the local machine, use this option to print out (in reg.exe/hex format) a new config with all of the requested changes. This can be used for offline updates to VHDs prior to first boot. /setlkg Set Boot time feature override states as LKG Configurations /restorelkg Restore Boot time LKG configurations states Feature Configurations /trace Realtime ETW trace for the specified feature(s) usage in code Eg enable trace for the feature with ID 1235441: StagingTool.exe /trace 1235441 /? Show command usageBefore continuing, it should be noted that these are experimental, under-development features that may cause system instability in Windows 11. Therefore, it is recommended that you try these features in a virtual machine so that you can easily revert to a previous snapshot if something goes wrong.
With this caveat in mind, you can use the StagingTool.exe /query command to see a list of available feature IDs. However, this command will only list the feature ID numbers and an internal Microsoft link to information about the experiment, which isn't very helpful.
If you can't figure out what a particular feature ID means, you can follow Windows enthusiasts on Twitter, who sometimes share new hidden features. Some recommended ones to follow include Albacore, XenoPanther, Rafael Rivera, and PhantomOcean3.
To enable a hidden feature, you can use the StagingTool.exe /enable command.<ID χαρακτηριστικού> For example, to enable feature ID 33001637, you would use the command StagingTool.exe /enable 33001637 from a command prompt.
To disable a feature, you would use the StagingTool.exe /disable command.<ID χαρακτηριστικού> For example, StagingTool.exe /disable 33001637.
So, if you enable a hidden feature and find that it breaks something in Windows 11, you can disable it to resolve the conflict.
For some features, you must restart Windows 11 after enabling or disabling a new feature.
Many other StagingTool commands are intended for more advanced use, possibly enabling feature variations, specifically payloads or telemetry.
Two interesting commands are the /serialize and /trace command line arguments.
The trace option will debug an enabled feature using Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), while the serialize option will create a new configuration to enable/disable features via the registry as offline updates to a VHD.
However, most of these advanced features are intended for internal use by Microsoft and do not need to be used.
Playing with these tools to test hidden features can be fun for Windows enthusiasts, but as mentioned above, it can also cause instability in the operating system.
Therefore, it is not recommended to use ViveTool or StagingTool on your primary Windows 11 computer. Instead, play with them on installations that you can reinstall or restore.
Read also: Windows 11: The 23H2 update will be released in the fall
source of information:bleepingcomputer.com
