Bill Detwiler: For IT pros and power users the Windows Control Panel is often a starting point for troubleshooting or tweaking their systems. But for the novice user, it can be a Pandora's box.
I'm Bill Detwiler, and during this episode of TR Dojo, I'll show you how to lock down the Control Panel by removing individual icons or picking the ones that are displayed.
Today, I'll show you two methods of controlling the icons (or applets) that appear in the Windows Control Panel. The first method involves removing individual icons. And, the second involves showing only the icons that you specify.
Now to make these changes, I'm going use the Local Group Policy Editor, which is a Microsoft Management Console snap-in is available on Windows Professional and Ultimate editions. For those running Windows Home, Home Premium, or Media Center editions, you can make these changes using the Registry Editor. And while I won't have time to go over those edits during this video, I will provide a link to the instructions in the TR Dojo blog.
One last warning before we get to the tips, using the Local Group Policy Editor improperly can cause a whole host of problems with your Windows installation -- including preventing it from booting. Make sure you have an up-to-date back up of the registry and your important data before making any changes to your system.
With that warning out of the way, here's how to remove an icon from the Control Panel.
First, open the editor by clicking Start, typing gpedit.msc into the Search box, and pressing Enter.
From the editor's left-hand navigation pane, select the User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Control Panel branch.
Double-click the Hide Specified Control Panel Items policy.
Click the Enabled option.
Click the Show button to open the Show Contents dialog box.
For each Control Panel icon you want to hide, type the icon name in the Value box (one name per line) and press Enter.
Unfortunately, this is where things get a bit tricky.
Windows 7 users will need to enter the icon's canonical name, which is basically the icon's display name without spaces, preceded by the word Microsoft and a period.
For example, i you wanted to hide the Administrative Tool icons, you would type Microsoft.AdministrativeTools in the value box. I'll post a link to a list of all the Windows Control Panel icon canonical names on the TR Dojo blog.
Unfortunately, those of you running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or earlier Windows versions like XP don't have it so easy.
First, once you click the Show button in the Group Policy Editor, you'll need to click an Add button before you can enter the name of the item you want to hide.
Second, you can't use the icon's canonical name. Instead, you must enter the actual module name (with the extension).
For example, to hide the Windows Firewall icon you would enter firewall.cpl. To hide the Add/Remove Programs icon you would enter Appwiz.cpl.
I'll link to a list of common Windows .cpl files in the TR Dojo blog. To find them on your own, you can also search for files with the .cpl extension in the Windows System or System32 directory.
To complicate matters even further, .cpl files aren't always standard across Windows versions.
And in Vista, Control Panel items may not have a .cpl file, or the .cpl file may contain multiple applets. In this case, you'll need to enter the item's module name and string resource ID number. For example, on Vista machines, you would enter @systemcpl.dll,-1 to hide the System item.
Lastly, you can also hide Control Panel folders, such as Fonts, by entering the folder's name.
Regardless of which Windows version you're using, once you've entered the name for the icons or folders you want to hide, click OK to return to the Hide Specified Control Panel Items dialog box.
Then, Click OK again to put the policy into effect.
As you can see here, the Administrative Tools icon no longer appears in this machine's Control Panel.
While great for individual Control Panel items, this method isn't the most efficient if you want to hide all or most icons.
Luckily, there's another Group Policy that allows us to specify which icons are displayed instead of which aren't.
So, open the Local Group Policy Editor again and select the User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Control Panel branch.
Double-click the Show Only Specified Control Panel Items policy.
Click the Enabled Option.
Click the Show button to open the Show Contents dialog box.
For each Control Panel icon you want to show, type the icon's canonical name or module name and press Enter.
Once you've entered the appropriate values for your system, click OK to return to the Show Only Specified Control Panel Items dialog box.
And, click OK to put the policy into effect.
These are just a few of the Windows tweaks that Paul McFedries discussed in his TechRepublic article, "10 ways to tweak Windows 7 using the Local Group Policy Editor." For more Windows tips and tricks, check out the TechRepublic Windows blog or McFedries' book -- "Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed," available from Sams Publishing. I'll link to both from the TR Dojo blog.
As always, for more teachings on your path to becoming an IT Ninja, visit trdojo.techrepublic.com, or you can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/billdetwiler.
Thanks for visiting the TR Dojo.
