On Windows Portable PCs and, as we will see, also on fixed PCs, there is a very useful and very little known integrated tool that provides fast access to the main functions of the computer. This is called Windows Mobility Center (WMC) or Portable PC Center in Italian and is a menu of buttons, very similar to that of a smartphone, from which you can activate, deactivate and control all the hardware settings of the laptop. In particular, the display settings, volume, battery status and energy saving, wireless connection, synchronization center and presentation settings can be quickly checked. Other buttons may be available on some computers, depending on the brand.
The Portable PC Center is not found on every computer and is available in Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 and in all editions of Windows 8 and Windows 10. To find the Portable PC Center you must use a computer portable, unless you want to activate it on your desktop PC with a simple modification (explained at the end of this article).
There are several ways to start the Laptop Center in Windows 7 and Windows 10 .
The simplest is by using the Start menu search, writing the word mobility .
The Portable PC Center can also be found in the Control Panel or, in Windows 10, by pressing the Windows-X keys together and using the left side menu which also appears by pressing the right key on the Windows flag.
You can also open the laptop center by pressing the Windows-R keys together and then running the mblctr.exe command
The power of this tool lies in its simple interface. You can quickly reduce the brightness of the screen, useful in the evening to not tire the eyes and also to save battery.
Energy saving to optimize the battery life of the laptop is immediately accessible from this menu. If activated, you can also check the wireless connection to quickly switch it off with a single click. The option to manage other screens is useful when connecting the laptop to an external monitor or TV, to decide which screen to see, whether to disable the main one and to manage the resolution of the image.
The Windows Sync Center was explained in another article and is used to keep files from other computers connected to the network in memory. Finally, the presentation settings are used to configure the computer with a projector.
If you like this menu, you can create a shortcut on the desktop or set a custom key combination to open it. From the Control Panel in Windows 7 you can drag it to the desktop. In Windows 10, the file that starts the portable PC center is located in the % LocalAppdata% \ Microsoft \ Windows \ WinX \ Group3 folder. By right-clicking on the link, go to the properties to choose a possible combination of keys with which to call the center Laptop PC at any time from the keyboard. In Windows 10 you can find it in the already in the Windows-X menu, by pressing the right mouse button on the Start.
Unfortunately it is not possible to add new buttons or controls to the menu of the Portable PC Center.
It is also possible to enable the Windows Portable PC Center on desktop PCs where it is hidden by default. To do this, all you need to do is edit a registry key. Then open the registry by looking for it from the Start menu (or press the Windows-X keys together)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ MobilePC \ and create two new keys (in the left part) with the name AdaptableSettings and MobilityCenter Then select AdaptableSettings, right click on the empty space in the right part of the window and create a new DWORD32 value with the name SkipBatteryCheck and value 1 . Then select MobilityCenter and at the same time create a DWORD 32 value with name RunOnDesktop and value 1.
The file that starts the Notebook PC Center in Windows 10 is located in % LocalAppdata% \ Microsoft \ Windows \ WinX \ Group3 .
NOTE: In Windows 10 the Notebook PC Center still exists, but has been practically replaced in its functions by the Notification Center.
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