How to Activate a feature to the sub sites automatically

You can plugin your feature to the site definition used for the site collection by "Feature Stapling".

You can define a feature at scope of Web application. It will automatically activate the stapled feature(which is your feature) within every site (in web application) that is based on the site definition you provide in like below sample.

If you want to activate the feature for all kind of sites in web application, you can associate stapling a feature to global site definition(TemplateName=" GLOBAL") and blank site (TemplateName=" STS#1").

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<FeatureSiteTemplateAssociation
Id="edcdcd75-dff2-479d-ac32-b37f8fa9d459"
TemplateName=" GLOBAL" />
<FeatureSiteTemplateAssociation
Id="edcdcd75-dff2-479d-ac32-b37f8fa9d459"
TemplateName=" STS#1" />
Elements>

Change the Id to your feature Id in above sample.

The scope of the feature that does the stapling must be higher than the features being stapled. For example, a feature at the site collection scope can staple only features at site-level scope. So, you can fine tune the your feature scope accordingly

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Ramesh Palaniappan9y ago
You can plugin your feature to the site definition used for the site collection by "Feature Stapling".
You can define a feature at scope of Web application. It will automatically activate the stapled feature(which is your feature) within every site (in web application) that is based on the site definition you provide in like below sample.
If you want to activate the feature for all kind of sites in web application, you can associate stapling a feature to global site definition(TemplateName=" GLOBAL") and blank site (TemplateName=" STS#1").
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<FeatureSiteTemplateAssociation
Id="edcdcd75-dff2-479d-ac32-b37f8fa9d459"
TemplateName=" GLOBAL" />
<FeatureSiteTemplateAssociation
Id="edcdcd75-dff2-479d-ac32-b37f8fa9d459"
TemplateName=" STS#1" />
Elements>
Change the Id to your feature Id in above sample.
The scope of the feature that does the stapling must be higher than the features being stapled. For example, a feature at the site collection scope can staple only features at site-level scope. So, you can fine tune the your feature scope accordingly