Windows 7 Control Panel Features. Computers. Operating Systems. Windows 7. Windows 7 Control Panel Features. By Greg Harvey The Control Panel in Windows 7 is the place to go when you need to make changes to various settings of your computer system. You can control most Windows commands and features using the various options and sliders in the Control Panel. To open the Control Panel, click the Start button on the taskbar and then click Control Panel on the Start menu. Windows 7 gives you three different views for looking at your computer’s Control Panel: To switch views, click the View By drop- down button (labeled Category by default) in the upper- right corner of the Control Panel and then choose one of the views from the button’s drop- down menu. Category view. By default, the Control Panel is displayed in Category view, which is separated into eight categories, ranging from System and Security to Ease of Access. To open a window with the Control Panel options for any one of these categories, simply click the category’s hyperlink. The following table gives you a description of all the Control Panel categories, including the various programs you can find by clicking each category’s hyperlink. Click This Category Link . To Display These Groups of Links. System and Security. Action Center, Windows Firewall, System, Windows Update, Power. Options, Backup and Restore, Bit. Locker Drive Encryption, and. Administrative Tools. User Accounts. User Accounts, Windows Cardspace, Credential Manager, and Mail(3. Doing some spring cleaning on your computer and accidentally delete the Recycle Bin icon in Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8? If your Recycle Bin icon is missing. Registry Tips: Windows Vista registry: How to create and edit a.Reg File. Explanation of the syntax, worked examples of.reg files. Network and Internet. Network and Sharing Center, Homegroup, and Internet. Options. Appearance and Personalization. Personalization, Display, Desktop Gadgets, Taskbar and Start. Menu, Ease of Access Center, Folder Options, and Fonts. Hardware and Sound. Devices and Printers, Auto. Play, Sound, Power Options, Display,and Windows Mobility Center. Clock, Language, and Region. Date and Time, and Region and Language. Programs. Programs and Features, Default Programs, and Desktop. Gadgets. Ease of Access. Ease of Access Center and Speech Recognition. The Control Panel centralises access to Windows’ multitudinous settings. From the Control Panel you can adjust and tweak Windows’ appearance, performance, network. PC Hell offers information on BIOS Error Codes, IRQ help, Computer Tips, Spyware and Virus Information. When opening the Java Control Panel, it appears to be gray or blank. The problem lies with the video card setting. Change the video card setting to turn off anti. You’ll notice that some Control Panel windows and dialog boxes can be accessed in more than one way. You can also find most Control Panel programs by doing a Start Menu search. Icon views. The Control Panel’s other two views are Large Icons view and Small Icons view. When the Control Panel is in one of the icon views, Windows displays an alphabetical listing of the more than 5. Control Panel programs on your system, ranging from Action Center to Windows Update. To view (and possibly change) the settings for a particular Control Panel option in one of the icon view modes, you need to double- click the Control Panel program icon. Windows XP Control Panel shortcuts. The Control Panel centralises access to Windows’ multitudinous settings. From the Control Panel you can adjust and tweak Windows’ appearance, performance, network connections, hardware settings and a whole lot more. While many of the settings in the Control Panel are also accessible in other ways – for instance, you can change the desktop appearance by right- clicking the desktop and choosing Properties from the pop- up menu or by opening the Display applet in the Control Panel – the Control Panel makes it easy to keep tabs on all your Windows settings. Control Panel categories. In Windows XP, the Control Panel has two modes. The default mode, in the Home Edition, is the colourful and friendly Category View, which divvies up the Control Panel applets into nine categories: Appearance and Themes; Network and Internet Connections; Add or Remove Programs; Sounds, Speech, And Audio Devices; Performance and Maintenance; Printers and Other Hardware; User Accounts; Date, Time, Language and Regional Options; and Accessibility Options. There’s actually a tenth category – easy to miss as it is only available via the task pane – called Other Control Panel Options. This is where Windows puts Control Panel applets installed by third- party applications, such as a Quick. Time control or a special display control for your video card. The Control Panel in Windows 7 is the place to go when you need to make changes to various settings of your computer system. You can control most Windows commands and. Windows 8, 7 and Vista Recording Input Source selections for recording streaming audio, sound from media players or just about anything you can hear coming through. Control Panel Icon Associated file 95/98/ME NT 2000/XP Vista/7/8; AC3 Filter: ac3filter.cpl * Accessibility Options. Yes: Yes: Yes : Add/Remove Hardware. This post will tell you how to hide, show, add, remove Specified Control Panel Applets in Windows 10/8/7, using Group Policy Editor or Windows Registry. The other way to view the Control Panel is by the Classic View, familiar to anyone who has used the Control Panel in previous versions of Windows. In Classic View, all the applets are dumped into the one folder. It may be a little intimidating to start with, but it makes it much easier to track down all the Control Panel items and reduces the number of clicks required to access them. You open the Control Panel by clicking Start - > Control Panel. If it’s not on your Start Menu, it’s easy to add: Right- click the Start button and choose Properties from the pop- up menu. On the Start Menu tab, make sure the first (non- classic) Start Menu option is selected and click Customize. Click the Advanced tab. In the Start Menu Items list under the Control Panel section, select either Display As Link or Display As Menu. The former (the default) simply displays a Control Panel option on the Start Menu; the latter displays the Control Panel option with a cascading menu providing direct access to each Control Panel applet. I prefer the former because I like to create shortcuts to only those applets I use often – I’ll show you how soon; I can do without the others cluttering up my Start Menu. Click OK twice to exit the dialogs. Note, if you use the Display As Menu option for the Control Panel, you can still open the standard Control Panel window by clicking Start and then right- clicking the Control Panel option in the Start Menu and selecting Open from the pop- up menu. Quick access. Some Control Panel applets are pretty esoteric and you’re unlikely to call on them often, if at all. For example, the Java Plug- in control, which makes an appearance in the Control Panel if you install any version of the Java Runtime Engine, is something most of us never need to touch. Other applets, though, are so useful you’ll want to make them as easy to get at as possible. In last month’s column, I showed you how to create shortcuts to Control Panel applets such as Add Or Remove Programs by dragging them onto your Quick Launch bar. That gives you single- click access to your favourite applets. If you have half a dozen Control Panel favourites, instead of cluttering up your Quick Launch bar you can always create a custom Control Panel folder which you can access either by the Start Menu or via the Quick Launch bar. This works much like the Display As Menu option described above, but in this case you get to pick and choose which applets appear in the menu (see the section Roll your own Control Panel below). Want to see the Control Panel in My Computer? You can add it via the Folder Options dialog: open any folder, choose Folder Options from the Tools Menu, click the View tab and select the option. Tab hopping. Another way to burrow down quickly to out- of- the- way Control Panel settings is to make a direct call to the specific Control Panel applet. Using this technique you can even open a Control Panel applet to a specific tab. For instance, if you frequently tinker with the sounds events on your system, normally you get to these settings by clicking Start - > Control Panel - > Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices - > Change the Sound Scheme. Using a direct call, you can get there much faster. First, a bit of background. Control Panel applets are stored in files with a . If you take a look in your Windows\System. Table 1 shows a list of the most common ones. Simply typing control by itself opens the Control Panel. Table 1. Common Control Panel applets. Accessibility Optionsaccess. Add New Hardware Wizardhdwwiz. Add/Remove Programsappwiz. Date and Time Propertiestimedate. Display Propertiesdesk. Find. Fastfindfast. Folder Properties *folders. Fonts Folder *fonts. Internet Propertiesinetcpl. Joystick Propertiesjoy. Keyboard Propertiesmain. Mouse Propertiesmain. Network Propertiesncpa. Password Propertiespassword. Phone and Modem optionstelephon. Power Management powercfg. Printers Folder *printers. Regional settingsintl. Scanners and Camerassticpl. Sound Propertiesmmsys. Sounds and Audio Device Propertiesmmsys. System Propertiessysdm. User settingsnusrmgr. Tweak. UI tweakui. Note options marked with an * have special shortcut names which may be used instead of the usual control applet. You use an extended form of the Control command: control applet. There are a couple of cpl files which give access to multiple applets and in those cases you use the applet. For example, main. Mouse and the Keyboard properties. The numbering starts at 0, so control main. Mouse Properties, control main. Keyboard Properties. If you don’t include an applet. Thus: control main. Mouse Properties dialog to its fourth tab. So to open the Sounds and Audio Device Properties dialog with the Sounds tab already selected, click Start - > Run and enter the command: control mmsys. Tab shortcuts. Instead of typing these commands each time, create a desktop shortcut for your favourites and then stick them in the Quick Launch bar or wherever else you choose: Right- click the desktop and choose New - > Shortcut. Type the appropriate command in the Create Shortcut dialog and click Next. For example: control appwiz. Add Or Remove Programs dialog with the Add/Remove Windows Components section selected). Give your shortcut a descriptive name, such as Remove Windows Components, and click Finish. Step- by- step: Roll your own Control Panel. It’s easy to create a Control Panel which contains only your most frequently used applets. Start by right- clicking the Start button and choosing Open. This opens the \Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu folder (where username is your Windows logon name). Create a new folder within this folder and call it whatever you like – My Controls, for example. Then click Start - > Control Panel to open the original Control Panel and click Switch To Classic View if you’re not already in that mode. Position the two folders side by side. Right- click- and- drag your favourite applets from the Control Panel folder into your My Controls folder and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here when prompted, then close both folders. You can access the applets in this folder by clicking Start - > All Programs - > My Controls. You can also stick the folder on your Quick Launch bar: Click Start - > All Programs. Hold down the Ctrl key and drag the My Controls item onto the Quick Launch bar. In this way, you can gain quick access to all your favourite applets while adding only a single icon to the Quick Launch bar.
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