Installing Windows Server roles and features from PowerShell without stacking pending reboots

Goal

Install a server role or feature — including its management tools — from a remote PowerShell session, and know afterward whether a reboot is still pending.

Prerequisites

Administrator rights on the target; the ServerManager module (built into Windows Server 2019/2022/2025); network or local access to feature source files if they were stripped from the image.

Steps

1. Discover exact names first: Get-WindowsFeature -ComputerName SRV1 | Where-Object InstallState -ne 'Installed' — Get-WindowsFeature lists every role/feature with its Name and InstallState.
2. Install with management tools included: Install-WindowsFeature -Name Web-Server, Web-Mgmt-Console -IncludeManagementTools -ComputerName SRV1. -IncludeManagementTools installs the associated admin tools, not just the runtime.
3. If the feature files are missing from the local image — common on a minimal or Features-on-Demand-trimmed install — supply a source: -Source \\server\share\sxs. The documentation for -Source states it "specifies the path to feature files if the files are not available in the local feature store of the target computer or VHD."
4. Only pass -Restart when an unattended reboot is acceptable right now: Install-WindowsFeature -Name ... -IncludeManagementTools -Restart. Otherwise capture the result and act on it deliberately.
5. Inspect the result object rather than assuming success: $r = Install-WindowsFeature -Name Web-Server; $r.Success; $r.ExitCode; $r.RestartNeeded.

Expected result

$r.Success -eq $true, Get-WindowsFeature -Name Web-Server reports Installed, and $r.RestartNeeded tells the caller whether to schedule Restart-Computer -Force before the feature is fully active.

Limits and test basis

Install-WindowsFeature needs a working component store or an explicit -Source; without either, installation fails with a source-not-found error rather than silently succeeding. To undo, Uninstall-WindowsFeature -Name Web-Server -IncludeManagementTools removes the same set — run it with -WhatIf first to confirm scope, since it also removes dependent sub-features unless retained elsewhere. Because the cmdlets do not prompt by themselves, no -Confirm:$false is needed for non-interactive use; the only interactive risk is an unplanned reboot from -Restart, which is why step 4 makes it opt-in.