For those of us out there that have been missing the telnet command on Vista, here is how you enable it on MS Windows Vista.  No reboot is required.

Telnet isn’t your only option though.  If you prefer to log in to hosts via ssh, you can simply download Putty which is a free terminal emulator that supports ssh and telnet.  I use telnet more for a troubleshooting and don’t recommend that you use it for remote log in.  It’s just not as secure.

To Enable Telnet on Vista

First step is to open your Vista Control Panel and then click the “Progams” icon.

Click on “Start”, then “Control Panel” to bring up this screen…

Next, click on “Turn Windows Features on or off”.

Click highlighted area…

Find the “Telnet Client” item and make sure it is checked before clicking “OK”.

“Telnet Client” is checked…

You will then see a progress window that won’t seem to be doing much for a minute or two,  but it will eventually start moving, so be patient.

Progress bar – wait a few minutes indeed…

Finally – we’re done…

Once the installation is finished, you now have access to the telnet command.  Just type telnet <host> in the search bar of Vista, or if you prefer, run in it from a command prompt.

The shell now doesn’t complain about not finding telnet…

I hope this was helpful. Don’t forget to check out all the other features you can turn on and off while you’re enabling telnet.