Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

I finally am running Vista on my main laptop which I use whenever I'm on the road. One thing I almost immediately noticed is that if I open a a command prompt and try to use telnet, I get informed that 'telnet' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. This has been annoying me to no end for a couple of weeks now – telnet is one of the first tools I use to troubleshoot a problem … telnet server port to see if it's even listening and I can connect. I figured out this evening that Telnet is an optional feature which you can enable in the control panel:

  1. Start> Control Panel
  2. Programs and Features
  3. Click "Turn Windows features on or off" on left.
  4. Scroll down and check "Telnet Client"

There's a bunch of other interesting stuff I didn't know was in Vista in the list in case you're feeling adventurous.

Posted Saturday, March 10 2007 10:42 PM by Brian Desmond | 27 Comments
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#1 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Thursday, May 03 2007 2:26 PM by Mo

Thanks a lot for the info Brain.

Never would have figured this on my own.

#2 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Friday, June 15 2007 12:26 AM by Oren

I am testing Vista and was not able to find it!

Thanks for this tip!

#3 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Monday, June 25 2007 9:44 PM by shabana

It was one hell of a good tip. Im having trouble using vista for the past 2 months. Thx for the tip by the way =)

#4 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Monday, July 02 2007 12:10 PM by bddownen

Holy Cow Brian.....this was HUGE.....I Really needed TelNet, among other things.

Thank you!!!

#5 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Friday, July 27 2007 2:43 PM by Sergio Souza

Thanks for the tip....so much on VIsta that we can't manage and guys like you are a great help.

#6 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Friday, July 27 2007 2:43 PM by Sergio

Thanks for the tip....so much on VIsta that we can't manage and guys like you are a great help.

#7 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Tuesday, August 14 2007 4:16 PM by Brian

One  great replacement for MS telnet is AbsoluteTelnet from Celestial Software.

It supports telnet, ssh, serial, dialup, plus plenty of emulation options.

http://www.celestialsoftware.net

Brian

#8 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Monday, September 24 2007 11:37 PM by Sergio diaz

thanks for your help I really need it

#9 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Thursday, October 25 2007 1:29 PM by Johnny

http://www.vandyke.com/products/securecrt/ is an awesome terminal emulation program, light years away from telnet.exe and even better than PuTTY. I was at Cisco's HQ in San Jose and all the engineers that I saw there used SecureCRT.

#10 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Saturday, February 02 2008 7:21 AM by natty

this info has been so help full, i have never attempted using telnet feature before but today i needed to use it at a site and the feature not available.

thanks to this info i am using this feature. I am soo grateful

#11 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Thursday, February 14 2008 8:23 AM by b fefey

thanks a lot buddy

#12 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Wednesday, March 12 2008 3:23 PM by Stevee

Really usable tip! Thanks

#13 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Tuesday, April 01 2008 11:42 PM by Balaji

Thanks a lot Brian

#14 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Wednesday, May 07 2008 6:54 AM by Dysan

Thanks a lot brian, i was planning to uninstall my vista cause of the Telnet tool. Once again, thanks

#15 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Thursday, August 21 2008 12:48 PM by TJ

THANK YOU!!!!!

#16 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Tuesday, February 17 2009 12:20 PM by HK

thanks for the tip!

#17 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Tuesday, February 24 2009 2:52 PM by n

cheers

#18 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Sunday, March 22 2009 8:27 PM by Soldier Boy

Most definitely appreciated

#19 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Friday, June 12 2009 5:30 PM by Amon

Thanks old chap, very useful find this post!

#20 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Thursday, August 06 2009 9:51 AM by John Galvin

Thanks, that was driving me crazy

#21 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Thursday, September 24 2009 10:25 PM by Harsh

Thank You.

#22 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Wednesday, October 28 2009 8:46 PM by joelle

I have vista and am trying to gain access to telnet. I am able to click the box and then the computer configurees the changes. Then nothing! I still cannot access telnet and I need it in order to connect to my clients' email server. HELP.

Thanks.

#23 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Sunday, January 03 2010 1:30 PM by moses akin

u are great. u ave saved my time

#24 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Tuesday, January 26 2010 4:56 PM by defender

Thank u so much u r wonderful

#25 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Friday, March 05 2010 3:41 AM by Warui

Thank you Sir. Much appreciated.

#26 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Thursday, April 15 2010 7:21 AM by surendra

thanks

#27 re: Enabling the Telnet Client on Windows Vista

Tuesday, July 20 2010 7:50 PM by Tony

Thanks, big help

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