To some it may seem incredible that there are many people who have never opened the Windows Control Panel and who have never changed an option to customize the system and optimize it for their computer. The control panel is the nerve center of Windows configurations, from which you can remove software, add hardware, administer user accounts, manage security settings, change the way Windows appears and much more.
Although it is designed intuitively and with a division into categories, for all its variety and complexity, the Control Panel is fun for the geeks and, at the same time, a nightmare for non-computer scientists.
The control panel, always present from Windows 95 until the next Windows 10, is nothing but a folder full of icons, each one that opens a panel of options of various types.
In this blog we talk about the Control Panel almost every day, and it seems that you never stop discovering the various options in detail.
Starting from the basics, let's see here the secrets of the Windows Control Panel, how to open it and how to find each of its sections and tools more easily .
Open the Control Panel
In Windows 7 you can enter the control panel from the Start menu, easily.
Alternatively, you can press the Windows-C key shortcut.
In Windows 8 / 8.1, there are several ways to access the control panel.
The simplest is by right-clicking on the Windows flag in the lower left.
Another quick one is by pressing the Windows-I keys and then clicking on Control Panel in the right column.
From the Windows 8 Start screen, you can write " Panel " and press enter to open the Control Panel
The best way however is by putting the Panel icon on the desktop.
To do this, right click on the desktop, click on Personalize and then, in the window that opens, press on Change desktop icons .
You can then put the cross next to the control panel to display its icon on the desktop.
If you prefer, this icon can also be dragged onto the taskbar.
You can also access the Control Panel from the Run box with the control command
Organization of tools
Once you open the Control Panel, you will find the various tools organized by category.
This configuration makes it quite easy to navigate through all the various settings and can be considered a simplified mode.
Opening the title of each section opens a window with the main options in the center with a menu on the left that reports to all the subsections of the category.
Most experts prefer, in this simplified mode, the organization of the tools in icons, one for each of them.
From the Control Panel, change in the View menu as at the top right of the window from " by category " to icons, large or small.
This is the classic way in which the control panel is presented in versions of Windows before Windows 7.
In this screen you will see the configuration panels also of external programs installed such as Quicktime, Flash Player or iCloud.
Search for each tool or setting by name in the Control Panel
The fastest way to find a control panel configuration tool, however, is not to search for it with your eyes among the various menus, but to search for it using the keyboard.
From the search box at the top of the control panel window or from the Windows 8 applications screen.
If you already know which section of options you want to manage, you can type the name of the instrument on the keyboard to search for it.
For example, type the word "virus" on the Windows 8 Start screen to open the Windows Defender antivirus options.
You can also run each tool in the control panel from the Run box with the list of commands on this page
GodMode
As seen in another article, on Windows 7 and Windows 8 you can activate a folder with all the administration settings of the computer .
This folder contains all hundreds of Control Panel tools, where each icon opens a different options screen.
From this folder so full of elements, you can copy the tools you use most often to another folder so you can always find them easily.
For example the settings of the network card, the utility to uninstall the programs, the search for updates or the one you prefer.
To activate this folder you have to create a new one on the desktop and give it this exact name create the folder and the name this:
God Mode. {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
Everything that cannot be done from the Windows Control Panel can be changed, for those who know how to do it, in the registry keys or by using easier external programs.
Of these I had talked in another article, with the best Tweaker to change hidden system settings in Windows 7 and Windows 8 .
