HackerReposA FIELD GUIDE TO OPEN SOURCE
ProSponsor the shelf♧ 0
← Back to top all-time
riverar
mach2
C++2018–2020
riverar / mach2 · Archived

mach2

Windows Feature Control Multi-tool

Mobile & Desktop
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
5Distinct people
7Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
1.1KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Windows Feature Control Multi-tool

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:03:16 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by month7 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2018-04-16 03:27:30 UTC to 2020-09-22 06:48:53 UTC.

012342018-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 commentsApr 20182018-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2018-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2018-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2018-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2018-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2018-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2018-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2018-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 comments2019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 commentsJun 20192019-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-10-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-11-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-11-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-12-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2019-12-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-02-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 1 submissions, 3 comments2020-02-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-03-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-03-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-04-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-04-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-05-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-05-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-06-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-06-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-07-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-07-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-08-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-08-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-09-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-09-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-10-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsSep 2020

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
Apr 20182018-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-05-01 00:00:00 UTC110
May 20182018-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-06-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 20182018-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-07-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 20182018-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20182018-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-09-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 20182018-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20182018-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-11-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Nov 20182018-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-12-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Dec 20182018-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jan 20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-02-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Feb 20192019-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Mar 20192019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20192019-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC110
May 20192019-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-06-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 20192019-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-07-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 20192019-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20192019-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-09-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 20192019-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-10-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Oct 20192019-10-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-11-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Nov 20192019-11-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-12-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Dec 20192019-12-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jan 20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-02-01 00:00:00 UTC413
Feb 20202020-02-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-03-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Mar 20202020-03-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-04-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Apr 20202020-04-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-05-01 00:00:00 UTC000
May 20202020-05-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-06-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jun 20202020-06-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-07-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Jul 20202020-07-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-08-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 20202020-08-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-09-01 00:00:00 UTC000
Sep 20202020-09-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-10-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

7 sources
withinrafael·Sep 22, 2020
I found this post to be a great complement to my hobby of collecting/documenting all the feature flags used in the Windows operating system for the past three years. [1] It's proven to be a reliable source of what's to come in future builds of Windows, sometimes to the chagrin of teams unfamiliar with the public facing artifacts generated by their experimentation <grin>. Windows (what ships inbox, that is), as of last week (Sep 14) [2], has roughly 2500 feature flags. Some are permanently jammed into the on position, some off position, and the rest are configurable by its experimentation frameworks and hackers. (Apps are a separate beast, have their own experimentation tooling, their own flags, etc.) I don't understand why the jammed-on features still exist in the OS. I'd imagine there will (eventually?) be a measurable impact to leaving
Read the rest
all this trash behind. I suspect, like the author noted, it's non-zero risk work that no one wants to complete. [1] https://github.com/riverar/mach2/tree/master/features [2] https://github.com/riverar/mach2/blob/master/features/20215....
In When feature flags do and don’t make sense (2019)
withinrafael·Jan 21, 2020
I regularly download pre-release builds, their symbols, scan/diff for features, then upload the results to the repository [1]. For some background, highly recommend listening to Alex Ionescu + Gabrielle Viala talk about the undocumented Windows Notification Facility at Blackhat 2018 [2]. A friend of mine, Albacore, is doing the research and building tools around the next version of this system worth checking out too [3]. [1] https://github.com/riverar/mach2/tree/master/features [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MybmgE95weo [3] https://medium.com/@thebookisclosed/visiting-vibranium-veloc...
In Mach2 – Windows Feature Control Multi-Tool
rzzzt·Jan 21, 2020
I saw a mention of this tool when searching for how to disable the expansion of the Start menu's sidebar (where your user icon/power off/logout/etc. buttons are). It was a non-expanding piece of UI before a recent Windows 10 update, and I don't really need a written explanation of what each button does. Edit: it was also a winaero article, https://winaero.com/blog/disable-start-menu-auto-expand-on-m... Also seen in project issues with a completely different feature ID: https://github.com/riverar/mach2/issues/14 Didn't try to toggle any of them so far.
In Mach2 – Windows Feature Control Multi-Tool
withinrafael·Jan 21, 2020
Original tweet owner here. This functionality is locked behind a feature control mechanism, in a pre-release version of Windows 10. The feature is named BlankDocOfficeUpsell. The feature control mechanism is used by Microsoft to gate potential features in public builds for various reasons (e.g. experimentation). Using tools I wrote (https://github.com/riverar/mach2), and public debugging symbols, they can be manipulated on/off and is usually a good indicator at what's coming in a future Windows release. This particular feature upsells Office online via a yellow bar, not unlike the Message Bar in full Office applications. The Message Bar is typically used for important security warnings and alerts [1], presumably one reason this particular design was chosen. At this time, the upsell notification can be closed but that action is not persist
Read the rest
ed -- the ad will re-appear at next WordPad launch. This could change but that's not a guaranteed pattern (see: permanent PowerShell Core ad in PowerShell). [1] https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Enable-or-disable-s...
In WordPad Is Gettings Ads in Windows 10

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

A few shortcuts

/
Search the collection
?
Open this guide
Esc
Close dialogs and navigation

Your saved repositories and interests stay in this browser.