What is the control panel: important information

Everyone who has at least some computer literacy knows about the control panel. With it, you can perform a full configuration of the operating system. The control panel allows:

- Add and configure various devices (printers, scanners, modems, etc.);

- install and uninstall programs;

- include special features;

- manage accounts (add and remove users, set passwords for logging on to the system);

- perform many other actions.

To open the Windows Control Panel, you can do one of the following:

1. Click the "Start" button, go to the "Settings" tab and select "Control Panel".

2. In the open folder "My Computer" select the control panel icon.

3. Press "Start", then "Run", and enter "Control" in the field for the commands, then confirm the entry with the Enter key or press the OK button.

4. In the "Explorer" mode, select "My Computer" on the left, and "Control Panel" on the right.

5. If you have the XP theme for the Start menu and not the classic one, you can open the corresponding window directly from it.

So, the window is open. What can you see? Before us - more than two dozen different icons. They allow you to change OS parameters through dialog boxes. To understand what is hidden behind each icon, choose the "Table" row in the "View" menu.

By the way, these "pictures" are called applets, and they represent separate files with the extension .cpl. Each of them causes the start of the system utility, and it already, in turn, performs certain actions. The control panel of Windows 7 can contain applets that relate not only to the utilities of the Microsoft family, but also to third-party programs.

It is worth noting that not always the user can immediately see the full list of possible functions of the control panel. If, for example, you have a Windows XP theme on your computer, then after opening the window, you must select one of several categories ("Appearance and Themes", "Special Features", "Sound, Speech and Audio Devices" and others). If for you this option is inconvenient, then you can easily switch to the classic control panel.

Note that it is not always necessary to go into this folder, in order to change something in the system. For example, if you want to install another picture on the desktop, you can call the "Screen" menu by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting "Properties". As you can see, it is not necessary to open the control panel. By the way, in this menu you can not only replace the background of the desktop, but also set the screen saver, select the theme of the design, define the color scheme, the screen resolution and much more.

In the category "Date, time, language and regional standards" is the menu "Date and time". It can also be called by double-clicking the left mouse button on the clock located on the taskbar. Here you can change the current date and time, select a time zone or even set up synchronization of this data with an Internet resource.

Well, the control panel is not such a complicated tool as it might seem at first glance. It scares a huge number of functions, but it takes quite a bit of time to deal with each of them and feel much more confident when working with the system.