This base set consists of programs and capabilities that Microsoft feels the average user would require or want when running Windows Vista. Now that you understand what a Windows Vista Feature is, you may be wondering why people would need to enable or disable them? When you install Windows Vista, it installs a base set of features. On the other hand, by disabling a feature you may gain an increase in performance due to memory and processor utilization no longer being allocated towards the particular feature. Therefore disabling a feature should not be used as a method of freeing up hard drive space. It is important to note that in Windows Vista, when you remove or disable a feature, you are not actually removing files from your hard drive, but rather just deactivating them. How to enable or disable Windows Vista FeaturesĪ Windows Vista feature is simply a set of programs or a particular capability of the operating system that can be enabled or disabled by an administrator.