The Control Panel is a component of Microsoft Windows that provides the ability to view and change system settings. It consists of a set of

applets In computing, an applet is any small application (computing), application that performs one specific task that runs within the scope of a dedicated widget engine or a larger program (computing), program, often as a plug-in (computing), plug-in. T ...

that include adding or removing hardware and

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

, controlling user accounts, changing accessibility options, and accessing networking settings. Additional applets are provided by third parties, such as audio and video drivers, VPN tools, input devices, and networking tools.

Overview

The Control Panel has been part of Microsoft Windows since

Windows 1.0 Windows 1.0 is the first major release of Microsoft Windows, a family of graphical operating systems for personal computers developed by Microsoft. It was first released to manufacturing in the United States on November 20, 1985, while the Euro ...

, with each successive version introducing new applets. Beginning with

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...

, the Control Panel is implemented as a special folder, i.e. the folder does not physically exist, but only contains shortcuts to various applets such as ''Add or Remove Programs'' and ''Internet Options''. Physically, these applets are stored as ''.cpl'' files. For example, the ''Add or Remove Programs'' applet is stored under the name ''appwiz.cpl'' in the ''SYSTEM32'' folder.

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

, the Control Panel home screen was changed to present a categorized navigation structure reminiscent of navigating a web page. Users can switch between this ''Category View'' and the grid-based ''Classic View'' through an option that appears on either the left side or top of the window. In

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

and

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

, additional layers of navigation were introduced, and the Control Panel window itself became the main interface for editing settings, as opposed to launching separate dialogs. Many of the individual Control Panel applets can be accessed in other ways. For instance, ''Display Properties'' can be accessed by right-clicking on an empty area of the desktop and choosing ''Properties''. The Control Panel can be accessed from a command prompt by typing ''control''; optional parameters are available to open specific control panels. On

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...

, Control Panel is deprecated in favor of Settings app, which was originally introduced on

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...

as "PC settings" to provide a touchscreen-optimized settings area using its

Metro-style app Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps (formerly Windows Store apps and Metro-style apps) are Application software, applications that can be used across all compatible Microsoft Windows devices, including personal computers (PCs), tablets, smar ...

platform. Some functions, particularly the ability to add and remove user accounts, were moved exclusively to this app on Windows 8 and cannot be performed from Control Panel. As of the October 2020 update to Windows 10, trying to open the ''System'' applet in Control Panel will redirect users to the Windows 10 Settings application. While the page for the applet still exists in current versions of Windows 10, Microsoft is actively trying to block shortcuts and third party applications that could have been used to get into the old ''System'' page, potentially leading to a permanent removal of said page from Control Panel in future versions of Windows.

List of Control Panel applets

The applets listed below are components of the Microsoft Windows control panel, which allows users to define a range of settings for their computer, monitor the status of devices such as printers and modems, and set up new hardware, programs and network connections. Each applet is stored individually as a separate file (usually a .cpl file), folder or DLL, the locations of which are stored in the registry under the following keys: #HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\Cpls
This contains the string format locations of all .cpl files on the hard drive used within the control panel. #HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel\Namespace
This contains the location of the CLSID variables for all the panels not included as cpl files. These are commonly folders or shell applets, though

allows physical programs themselves to be registered as well. The CLSID then allows items such as the icon, infobox and category to be set and gives the location of the file to be used. The control panel then uses these lists to locate the applets and load them into the control panel program (control.exe) when started by the user. In addition to using the control panel, a user can also invoke the applets manually via the

command processor A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

. For instance, the syntax "''Control.exe inetcpl.cpl''" or "''control.exe /name Microsoft.InternetOptions''" will run the internet properties applet in Windows XP or Vista respectively. While both syntax examples are accepted on Windows Vista, only the former one is accepted on Windows XP.

Standard applets

Peripheral devices

These are options in the control panel that show devices connected to the computer. They do not actually offer a direct interface to control these devices, but rather offer basic tasks such as removal procedures and links to wizards (Printers & Faxes is an exception). Such applets include Scanners and Cameras, Game Controllers, and Portable Media Devices.

Other Microsoft-distributed applets

Third-party applets

Third-party software vendors have released many applets. Although it is impossible to mention all of them, some of them are listed here:

References

External links

How to run Control Panel tools by typing a command
at Microsoft.com {{Windows Components Computer configuration Windows components