SharePoint 2016 Central Admin - System Settings - Manage Farm Features

When you click Manage Farm Feature link, you will land on Manage Farm features page. This page will give an option to activate / deactivate the features at SharePoint Farm level.

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Manage Farm Features page’s direct link: /_admin/ManageFarmFeatures.aspx

We all know about the packaged functionality feature, which you can activate or deactivate in SharePoint. The features can be scoped to Farm level, Web Application level, Site collection level or Site level.

In SharePoint, we have OOTB features, which are deployed with the installation of SharePoint. It would be great, if we could have custom features, which are developed by our developer or if we could have any 3rd party product installed in SharePoint.

SharePoint Central Admin gives us control to activate the given features or deactivate the given feature.


Here is the list of OOTB features, which are deployed to SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise Farm.

Name of FeatureDescriptionStatus
Connect to Office" Ribbon ControlsAdds the entry points in the ribbon user interface for creating library shortcuts in the user's SharePoint Sites list, if they have a recent version of Office installed. Office will periodically cache the templates available in those libraries on the user's local machine.Active 
Access Service Add Access Application Feature StaplerEnables the Access Services Add Access Application feature in each site, which is created.Active 
Access Services 2010 Farm FeatureAdds Farm-level Access Services 2010 features to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation framework.Active 
Access Services Farm FeatureAdds Farm-level Access Services Features to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation framework.Active 
Cloud Video Thumbnail ProviderProvides the functions to generate thumbnails for the videos.Active 
Data Connection LibraryAdds Data Connection Library feature.Active 
Excel Services Application View Farm FeatureAdds Farm-level Excel Services Application viewing features to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation framework.Active 
Excel Services Application Web Part Farm FeatureAdds Farm-level Excel Services Application Web part features to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation framework.Active 
Farm Level Exchange Tasks SyncEnables Exchange Sync Timer Job for Work Management Service Application. Customizes the ribbon for SharePoint Server Tasks lists in addition to enabling the users to opt in and out of the Work Management synchronization with Exchange Server.Not
Global Web PartsInstalls the additional Web parts, which are common to all the types of sites.Active 
Office.com Entry Points from SharePointThis feature enables entry points from the SharePoint user interface that allow users to browse SharePoint solutions from Office.comActive 
Offline Synchronization for External ListsEnables offline synchronization for external lists with Outlook and SharePoint Workspace.Active 
SharePoint Server to Server AuthenticationThis feature provides server to server authentication capabilities.Active 
Site MailboxesEnables the provisioning of an Exchange mailbox for the sites on this Farm and connects the documents from the site to Outlook.Not
Social Tags and Note Board Ribbon ControlsAdds the entry points for social tagging and note board commenting to the ribbon user interface.Active 
Spell CheckingEnables the Spell Checking in te list-item edit forms.Active 
User Profile User Settings ProviderThis feature provisions the User Profile User Settings provider.Active 
Visio Process RepositoryVisio Process Repository document library feature.Active 
Visio Web AccessView Visio Web Drawings in the BrowserActive

To activate a feature

Please follow the steps given below to activate a feature.

  • Login to Central Admin with an account member of Farm administrator group and also local admin on the Server.
  • Go to the System Settings > Manage Farm feature.
  • On this page, click Activate Button in front of the feature. i.e. Access Services Farm feature.

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  • It will refresh the page and now the status changes to Active.

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To deactivate a feature

Please follow the steps given below to deactivate a feature.

  • Login to Central Admin with an account member of Farm administrator group and also local admin on the Server.
  • Go to System Settings > Manage Farm feature.
  • On this page, click Activate Button in front of the feature. i.e. Access Services Farm feature.

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  • It will show a warning page on the page click. Deactivate this feature

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  • It will return to Manage feature page and status of the feature is now deactivated.

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In this article, we learnt how to activate/ deactivate the features, using Central Admin.