I regularly find myself working with (web) services and applications of different kinds and it’s often useful being able to just “telnet” these services as part of error diagnosis. Making sure if or what a service actually responds on a very low level can be helpful.

Unfortunately, Windows does not come with an installed Telnet client any more by default. But this can be fixed in literally a single step.

The Fast Way

Open up a command prompt of your choice. I prefer ConEmu running Powershell, but a simple cmd.exe will do as well. Make sure you are running elevated or have administrative permissions, though.

Then type:

dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:TelnetClient

That’s all. You are done.

The Slightly Slower but more Colorful Way

If for some reason command prompts make you uncomfortable, you can also go the “GUI way”.

• Start Control Panel and open the Programs applet.
  
• Click Turn Windows Features on or off.
  
• In the dialog the opens, select Telnet Client and click OK.