Curiousity killed the cat: Getting distracted by the File Server role feature

Note: "File and Printer Sharing" firewall rules are disabled by default on a new install of 2012. This article assumes that these rules have been enabled.  I'll cover more about that in the next article.

While working on the 2.1 study notes, I've been distracted by a couple of quirks of windows. The first has to do with the File Server role feature in 2012. 

The first thing to note is the File and Storage Services (FileAndStorage-Services) role itself, and the Storage Services (Storage-Services) role feature, are installed by default, and as far as I can tell cannot be removed.

Now, say you want to share a folder. A lot of documentation will tell you that you that you need to install the File Server (FS-Fileserver) first. I don't think you actually do(more on that in a bit) as long as you've enabled the File and Printer Sharing firewall rules. However, if you don't have it installed, and you attempt to share out a folder, the feature will be "automagically" installed(along with its parent feature role: File and iSCSI Services)! (This feature also adds some new firewall rules in the "File and Remote Management" group I'll also cover these in the next article). In the following example, I use new-smbshare but you could also create one in the gui.

File Server not installed, make folder, share folder, file server now installed!

(Note that even without fs-fileserver installed, the admin shares installed by default are still available remotely. For instance, you can still get to \\server\C$)

I don't yet know if there is a way to disable this automatic install process, but I think you can trick it into not installing.  Use the -remove switch with uninstall-windowsfeature. (Note: before removing file server feature role, you will have to remove any non-system shares). But as outlined in 1.1.5 regarding features on demand, shouldn't it just use Windows Update as source to reinstall when you create a share? I'm actually not sure about this, since I'm using the MS virtual labs right now with no internet access.

File Server removed from SxS, mkdir folder, share folder, File Server still removed

 Look Ma, no File Server role feature and i can share out folders!. But wait, File and iSCSI Services now shows as installed! What kind of trickery is this? I really have no idea.  What I do know is that without the FS-Fileserver role installed, you won't be able to view the share in Server Manager, and I'm sure some other advanced functionality is missing.  You can still browse to it from other computers, change settings in explorer, and use get-smbshare to see it.

Of course the real mystery here might be why I spent so much time on this!