CONTROL PANEL 8 best ways to use it

Launch tools by typing, turn Control Panel into a menu and create shortcuts for your favourite options

Make shortcuts for favourite controls

You can turn your most-used Control Panel tools into Windows Desktop shortcuts, so they’re to hand when you need them. First, switch to one of the Control Panel’s icon views by clicking Category next to ‘View by’, then choose either ‘Large icons’ or ‘Small icons’. Now find the tool you want, right-click it, choose ‘Create shortcut’ (or ‘Pin to Start’ in Windows 8 and later). You can even add a shortcut for Control Panel itself. Click Start then right-click Control Panel and click ‘Show on Desktop’.

Find controls with search

Control Panel is sprawling (and rather all over the place in Window 8.1 and 10), so use search to find what you want quickly. Launch Control Panel as usual then click in the Search box at the top right, and type whatever you’re looking for. This is also a really good way to find things when you’re not entirely sure what you need – this is because items related to your search term are also shown. So, for example, searching for ‘battery’ will show Power Options, and ‘monitor’ will list display-related tools.

Launch Control Panel tools by typing

For some people, typing is quicker than clicking, so it’s good to know that many elements of Control Panel can be accessed by entering a command in the Start menu or Start screen. For example, type desk.cpl and press Enter to be immediately directed to Control Panel’s display settings. There are loads more commands like this. See Microsoft’s own list at www.snipca.com/17449.

Find Control Panel quickly in Windows 10

If you’re struggling to hunt down the traditional Control Panel in Windows 10 (or Windows 8/8.1) for that matter, just press Windows key+x to open what Microsoft calls the Quick Link menu. Here you’ll see an entry for Control Panel – just click it.

Turn Control Panel into a menu

If you use Windows Vista or 7 then Control Panel can be turned into a submenu of the Start menu. Click Start, then right-click any blank part of the menu and choose Properties. On the Start Menu tab click the Customize button followed by the ‘Display as a menu’ button under Control Panel. Click OK. To reverse this change, repeat but this time choose the ‘Display as a link’ button.

Open multiple Control Panels

If you’re working in Category view (see the first tip) and have clicked to drill down through a category, you can open each subsequent panel in its own window – useful for juggling multiple Control Panel tools. Right-click a Control Panel category heading (such as Power Options or Action Center) then choose ‘Open in new window’.

Explore Control Panel with Windows Explorer

If you’re still using Windows XP, there’s a trick just for you: you can navigate and launch important Control Panel items from within Windows Explorer (Windows key+e to launch that). Click the Folders button at the top then, in the left-hand pane, click My Computer followed by Control Panel. Now click the relevant heading to find what you want.