Install and Enable Telnet in Windows 8 & 8.1 – Use The Telnet Client Utility

Telnet is one of the famous network protocol widely used to manage network and other equipment. If you are a system or network administrator, I’m sure that you know the importance of having telnet client utility on your Windows 8.1 or 8 computer. For some strange security reasons,Windows 8 or 8.1 did not come telnet client installed. By default you can’t use Windows 8 or 8.1 to connect other devices with telnet protocol. But you can enable this feature easily.  Here is a  simple guide about how to install and enable telnet in Windows 8 and 8.1.

By default if you search telnet in apps or type ’telnet’ in command prompt, it will return an error message as ’not recognized as an internal or external command’. Installing the telnet client from control panel in Windows 8.1 or 8 will solve this issue.
Installation medium such as CD/DVD, ISO or any other downloads are not required for this purpose, we can simply enable it from control panel.

To Enable Telnet in Windows 8 & Windows 8.1, Follow the Steps.

1) Access Control Panel from Windows charm bar or pressing Windows key + I   from desktop.




2) In ‘Category’ control panel view, click ‘Programs’.



3) Click ‘Turn Windows features on or off’ in next screen as shown below.

 

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5) Earlier step will bring a dialog box where you can select extra features. Select  ‘Telnet Client’ by ticking the box. A small installation will run once you have pressed OK.


That’s it, restarting PC not required here. You have successfully installed telnet on Windows 8 or 8.1.
Now if you try telnet command in command prompt or search in Apps, you will get the correct telnet prompt as below.



If you are a professional network admin, Windows telnet client utility will not be suitable for you. You can try some other professional telnet client utilities.
My favorite is, PuTYY which works fine on Windows 8.1 and 8.