DISM - "optional feature" vs "capability" vs "package"

2020-10-29, nulya

From my encounters with DISM in PowerShell, it seems that it deals with 3 different types of "features" (packages). When I first explored them, I couldn't figure out the difference, so I did some testing and came to the following:

Optional feature

• listed with Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online
• shown in "Turn Windows features on or off" control panel
• contains "deep" system-level features like Hyper-V, containers, ISS, Application Guard,...
  • but also a few random features like "Print to PDF" (probably because it needs a system printer driver?)
• doesn't deal with versions, just features (automatically finds and keeps latest version)

Capability

• listed with Get-WindowsCapability -Online
• shown in "Optional features" section in new Settings (huh, wtf?)
• contains mostly user-level features - MS Paint, Notepad, OpenSSH Client/Server, IE 11, RSAT, ..., and also some fonts
• doesn't deal with versions, just features (automatically finds and keeps latest version)

Package

• listed with Get-WindowsPackage -Online
• seems like the backing mechanism behind capabilities, but unrelated to "Optional features"
• from what I understand, it is a system-wide way to manage internal Windows packages
• deals with versions
• single capability often corresponds to multiple packages