This is usually not a big thing; but say you have 100 virtual servers. All of them set up as you want them; and the odds are slim that you’ll want to add significant features.
Prior to server 2012, those servers would have binaries for all of the roles available; with no means to remove them (officially). For an average server, that would be about 2GBs wasted, dead data which you’ll never use.
With a one-liner in powershell, you can now reclaim that space. It may not be much, but if it’ll save your SAN a few hundred GB’s; why the hell not?
Get-WindowsFeature | where {$_.installstate -like “Available”} | Uninstall-WindowsFeature -Remove
If you feel bold, you can run this with remote powershell and it’ll be done before lunch. No hassle for you at all.
Now you can ofcourse still add features, you just have to make sure that you have a Server2012 source folder available. UNC works fine. Install-WindowsFeature –Source WIM:(path to .wim file) sets you up.
Cool, huh? At least slightly.