InfoPath Forms Services Support Hidden Feature Not Activated

When you log into your SharePoint site, open a Form Library and click New to create a new InfoPath form item, you may see the error message “Activation could not be completed because the InfoPath Forms Services support feature is not present.”
This is a hidden feature and one that does not appear in the Central Administration user inferface.

Some forums out there suggest running the following stsadm commands:

• STSADM.EXE -o deactivatefeature -filename IPFSSiteFeatures\feature.xml -force -url %SITE_COLLECTION_URL%
• STSADM.EXE -o deactivatefeature -filename IPFSWebFeatures\feature.xml -force -url %SITE_COLLECTION_URL%
• STSADM.EXE -o activatefeature -filename IPFSSiteFeatures\feature.xml -url %Sitecollection_URL% -force
• STSADM.EXE -o activatefeature -filename IPFSWebFeatures\feature.xml -url %sitecollection_URL% -force

In general, you don’t need to run the commands above as the InfoPath Forms Services support feature is a hidden feature and is present by default unless someone turns them off manually.

For me, the solution was to turn on a different feature found at the Site Collection level called “Open Documents in Client Applications by Default” which can be found under Site Actions > Site Settings > Modify All Settings > Site Collection Features. Turning this feature ON opened the InfoPath forms in the InfoPath Filler program which is standard across the organisation.

So, if the above STSADM commands don’t do it for you, try turning on the “Open Documents in Client Applications by Default” feature.

Questions, comments welcome.

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