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In Windows 10 version 20H2 it seems that MSPaint.exe has become an "Optional Feature" but it's not found in the legacy optional features. It's only visible in the new Settings app.

Likewise, when you run Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online | Format-Table you don't see the new optional features.

I have tried running:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName "Microsoft Paint" -All -LogLevel WarningsInfo

and I get

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature : Feature name Microsoft Paint is unknown.

I can enable the optional feature manually through the GUI but what if I want to push paint out to a group of computers? We need a new PowerShell command? Or Are we waiting for Microsoft to add the new optional features to the cmdlet?

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  • Actually dism in cmd works fine here, all the PowerShell commands mentioned here are provided by dism, so why don't you just use dism in cmd? And as far as I know, PowerShell takes a short while to initialize on first execution since last shutdown, using cmd seems to be quicker...
    – Ξένη Γήινος
    Commented Jan 2, 2021 at 10:13

2 Answers 2

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Since this is technically considered a "Capability" rather than an "Optional Feature", thus the correct native PowerShell command is Add-WindowsCapability.

The current full command for adding the MSPaint capability is:

Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name Microsoft.Windows.MSPaint~~~~0.0.1.0

Now, obviously that ends up being rather tied to the version, so you may wish to use wildcards. Unfortunately, Add-WindowsCapability does not appear to accept wildcards, but Get-WindowsCapability does:

Get-WindowsCapability -Online -Name Microsoft.Windows.MSPaint* | Add-WindowsCapability -Online

(NB: I don't know how this will react if it turns out multiple versions/packages are available at the same time.)

You can, of course, get a full list of available capabilities with just the command:

Get-WindowsCapability -Online

Or a filtered list of MSPaint-related ones:

Get-WindowsCapability -Online -Name *MSPaint*
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4

You can use DISM to install (or uninstall) mspaint.exe in newer versions of Windows 10.

To install Microsoft Paint open an admin elevated command prompt or PowerShell and run:

DISM /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:Microsoft.Windows.MSPaint~~~~0.0.1.0

To uninstall Microsoft Paint open an admin elevated command prompt or PowerShell and run:

DISM /Online /Remove-Capability /CapabilityName:Microsoft.Windows.MSPaint~~~~0.0.1.0

Supporting Resources

  • Enable or Disable Windows Features Using DISM

    The Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool is a command-line tool that is used to modify Windows® images. You can use DISM to enable or disable Windows features directly from the command prompt, or by applying an answer file to the image. You can enable or disable Windows features offline on a WIM or VHD file, or online on a running operating system.

    To find available Windows features in an image

    List all of the features available in the operating system from an admin elevated command prompt or PowerShell run:

    Dism /online /Get-Features

  • DISM

  • How to Install or Uninstall Microsoft Paint (mspaint) in Windows 10

  • Features and functionality removed in Windows 10

    The following features and functionalities have been removed from the installed product image for Windows 10. Applications or code that depend on these features won't function in the release when it was removed, or in later releases.

    • Feature: Microsoft Paint

    • Details and mitigation: This application will not be available for languages that are not on the full localization list.

    • Removed in version: 1703

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