Control Panel is a folder that contains a large
number of icons—there are nearly 60 icons in the Classic view
(depending on your version of Windows 7) of a default Windows 7 setup,
but depending on your system configuration, even more icons could be
available. Each of these icons deals with a specific area of the
Windows 7 configuration: hardware, applications, fonts, printers,
multimedia, and much more.
Opening
an icon displays a window or dialog box containing various properties
related to that area of Windows. For example, launching the Programs
and Features icon enables you to install or uninstall third-party
applications and to activate or deactivate Windows 7 components.
To display the Control Panel folder, select Start, Control Panel.
By default, Windows 7 displays the Control Panel Category view, shown in Figure 1,
which displays icons for eight different categories (System and
Security, Network and Internet, and so on), as well as two or three
links to common tasks under each category icon. Windows XP’s version of
Control Panel offered a similar Category view, which was designed to
help novice users, but it just delayed the rest of us unnecessarily and
I always counseled my students to switch to Classic View as soon as
possible.
I
didn’t do that with Windows Vista, and I don’t do it with Windows 7,
either. After I got used to the layout of the home page and its
offshoots, I can find what I want quite quickly. However, when I switch
to the Small Icons view (by selecting Small Icons in the View By list),
I find that trying to pick out the one icon I want out of the nearly
five dozen plus icons (see Figure 2) is frustrating and time-consuming.
Tip
If
you prefer the All Control Panel Items window, but you find that the
Small Icons view makes the icons too small, you can make it a tad
easier to manage by switching to the Large Icons view, which still
enables you to see every icon if you enlarge or maximize the Control
Panel window. In the View By list, click Large Icons.
