Windows Home Server 2011 : Getting More Out of Control Panel (part 2) - Alternative Methods for Opening Control Panel Icons

3. Alternative Methods for Opening Control Panel Icons

Access to many Control Panel icons is scattered throughout the Windows Home Server interface, meaning that there’s more than one way to launch an icon. Many of these alternative methods are faster and more direct than using the Control Panel folder. Here’s a summary:

• Computer Management— Click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Manage.

• Date and Time— Click the clock in the taskbar’s notification area, and then click Change Date and Time Settings.

• Default Programs— Select Start, Default Programs.

• Devices and Printers— Select Start, Devices and Printers.

• Folder Options— In Windows Explorer, either select Organize, Folder and Search Options, or press Alt and then select Tools, Folder Options.

• Fonts— In Windows Explorer, open the %SystemRoot%\Fonts folder.

• Internet Options— In Internet Explorer, select Tools, Internet Options.

• Network and Sharing Center— Right-click the notification area’s Network icon, and then click Open Network and Sharing Center.

• Notification Area Icons— Right-click an empty section of the taskbar’s notification area, and then click Customize Notification Area.

• Personalization— Right-click the desktop, and then click Personalize.

• Scheduled Tasks— Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Task Scheduler. Alternatively, in Windows Explorer, open the %SystemRoot%\Tasks folder.

• Sound— Right-click the Volume icon in the notification area, and then click Sounds.

• System— Click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Properties. You can also press Windows Logo+Pause/Break.

• Taskbar and Start Menu— Right-click an empty section of the taskbar or Start button, and then click Properties.

• Troubleshooting— Right-click the Action Center icon in the notification area, and then click Troubleshoot a Problem.

• Windows Update— Click Start, All Programs, Windows Update, or right-click the Action Center icon in the notification area and then click Open Windows Update.

Another relatively easy way to get at a Control Panel icon is to use the Windows Home Server search engine, which indexes the Control Panel. Select Start, type some or all of the Control Panel icon name, and then click the icon that appears in the Control Panel section of the search results. For example, in Figure 2 I typed ease in the Search box, and you can see that Ease of Access Center shows up at the top of the results. Several other related Control Panel items also appear in the results.

4. Putting a Control Panel Submenu on the Start Menu

You can turn the Start menu’s Control Panel command into a menu that displays the Control Panel icons by following these steps:

Figure 3 shows the Start menu with the Control Panel item configured as a menu. Depending on the screen resolution you are using, some of the Control Panel icons might not fit on the screen. In that case, hover the mouse pointer over the downward-pointing arrow at the bottom of the menu to scroll through the rest of the icons. (To scroll up, hover the pointer over the upward-pointing arrow that appears at the top of the menu.)

Figure 3. The Start menu’s Control Panel item configured as a menu.

5. Removing an Icon from Control Panel

You might find that you don’t use some Control Panel icons. For example, if your Windows Home Server computer doesn’t have any iSCSI devices, you’ll never need to use Control Panel’s iSCSI Initiator icon. Because Control Panel contains so many icons, it makes sense to remove those you never use. Doing that makes it easier to find the icon you want and faster to navigate the icons.

Here are the steps for using a group policy to remove icons from Control Panel:

6. Showing Only Specified Control Panel Icons

Control Panel is so useful that you’ll probably use most of the icons at least some of the time. However, it’s possible that you may only use a few of the icons most of the time. In that case, you might want to really streamline the Control Panel view by displaying only those few icons you use. Here’s how to do this using a group policy: