Running control panel applets directly
I find it a lot easier to run the control panel applets from the Start > Run option, or from the cmd prompt rather than having to navigate Start > Control Panel and then locate the applet I wish to use.
My usual one on Vista and Windows 7 is ncpa.cpl - very useful for quickly accessing your network card without having to go through the Network and Sharing Center front-end.
I’ve had a few requests on how to launch these tools, what’s available, and what they link to.
These should run from the Start > Run, or from the Windows\system32 directory. If not, then your .CPL file association may need to be fixed. In case your .CPL file association isn’t working as expected, then you can run them as: rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL NAMEOFCPLFILE.CPL [substituting NAMEOFCPLFILE.CPL as appropriate].
A control panel applet can have more than one “personality”. To access these, you’d add a comma, then an @ symbol, and then the referenced personality which is zero indexed [see main.cpl, below]. To open up particular tabs, add another comma and the referenced tab number which is also zero indexed.
On with the list!
access.cpl – Accessibility controlsappwiz.cpl – Add/Remove Programsbthprops.cpl – Bluetooth propertiescollab.cpl – People Near Medesk.cpl – Display propertieshdwwiz.cpl – Add hardwareFirewall.cpl – Firewall configurationinetcpl.cpl – Configure Internet Explorer and Internet propertiesintl.cpl – Regional settingsjoy.cpl – Game controllersmain.cpl – Mouse properties and settingsmain.cpl,@1 – Keyboard propertiesmmsys.cpl – Sounds and Audioncpa.cpl – Network propertiesnusrmgr.cpl - User accountspowercfg.cpl – Power configurationsysdm.cpl – System propertiestelephon.cpl – Phone and modem optionstimedate.cpl – Date and time propertieswscui.cpl – Windows Security Center
That wraps it up for this entry. If you have any more, please leave them in the comments.
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