The Control Panel is one of the most important parts of your Microsoft Windows system. If you’d like to customize which icons appear in your Control Panel, continue reading for suggested methods.

TweakUI

Microsoft Windows XP and later revisions of Windows users can enable and remove Control Panel icons with the TweakUI program.

If you’re running Windows ME, XP or later, we recommend that you do not customize your Control Panel icons. Instead, we suggest that Control Panel be configured to show icons in Classic View, see: Unable to find icons in Windows Control Panel.

  • TweakUI.
  • Adding Control Panel icons.
  • Manually running a Windows Control Panel .cpl file.
  • Hiding Control Panel icons.
  • Removing Control Panel icons.
  • Files associated with Control Panel icons.

After TweakUI has been installed, check and uncheck the icons you want or do not want to display in the Windows Control Panel under the Control Panel section.

Adding Control Panel icons

Users can add a Windows Control Panel icon by installing the software program or hardware device related to the icon. If doing this does not install an icon into the Windows Control Panel that is either listed in the below chart or has been present in the past, follow the steps below.

  • Reinstall the software program or hardware device associated with the program. During reinstallation, the necessary .CPL file is copied back onto the computer.
  • Manually copy, expand, and extract the .cpl file back into the Windows System or System 32 directory.

Manually running a Windows Control Panel .cpl file

If you are unfamiliar with what each .CPL file does, try one of the following suggestions.

Unless your software program or hardware device has a .cpl file associated with it, the program will not create an icon in your Control Panel.

  • Manually execute many of the .CPL files by typing control <name of .cpl file>.cpl. See the control command page for additional information and help with this command.
  • Users can also use the rundll32 file to open the Control Panel icons. Below is an example of how a user would open the Date/Time Properties window using the rundll32 file. If you want to run an alternate .cpl file, replace the TimeDate.cpl with a different .cpl file.

rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL TimeDate.cpl

Hiding Control Panel icons

If you want to hide an icon from being displayed in the Control Panel, you can delete or move the icon as explained in the steps below or hide the icon by editing the control.ini file.

  • Information and help with the Windows control.ini file.

Removing Control Panel icons

Using the Microsoft find utility, users can locate all .cpl files on their computer.

  • How to find a file on a computer.

Once all the .cpl files have been found, locate the file associated with your icon and delete the file or move it to an alternate location.

Files associated with Control Panel icons

Below is a small chart of the available files and their associated Control Panel icons. Note that not all of the files or icons below are available in all versions of Microsoft Windows. They may be missing because the associated hardware device, software program, or other setting is not installed. Icons that have an asterisk in the availability section indicate that third-party software must be installed before the icon is displayed.

Microsoft Windows stores information about each of the icons that are shown in the Control Panel in files with the .CPL extension. If these files are present and not corrupted, Microsoft Windows displays these icons, otherwise, these icons will not be visible. The Control Panel files can be in the C:\Windows\System, C:\Windows\System32, or C:\Winnt\system32 folders once new hardware or software is installed.

Accessibility Options

access.cpl

Add/Remove Programs

appwiz.cpl

MS-DOS Console

console.cpl

Date/Time

timedate.cpl

Display

desk.cpl

Find Fast

findfast.cpl

Fonts / Mouse / Keyboard / Printers Properties

main.cpl

GSNW

nwc.cpl

Intel Pro Set

proset.cpl

Internet properties

intelcpl.cpl

Licensing

liccpa.cpl

Macfile

sfmmgr.cpl

Mail and Fax

mlcfg32.cpl

Modems

modem.cpl

  • See our Control Panel definition for further information and related links.
  • Microsoft Windows help and support.