Adding / removing icons in

Windows

Control Panel.

Issue:

Adding / removing icons

in Windows

Control Panel.

Cause:

Missing Control Panel

icons can be

caused by any of the below

possibilities.

1. Control Panel icon was
   
   deleted or
   
   has become corrupt.





2. Related software program or hardware
   
   device has been
   
   uninstalled or is no
   
   longer being detected by Windows.

Solution:

Adding Windows 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 below steps.

1. Reinstall the
   
   software program or hardware device
   
   associated
   
   with the program. This
   
   should copy the the necessary .CPL file
   
   
   
   back onto the computer.





2. Manually copy,
   href="http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/e/expa
   
   nd.htm">expand,
   
   and/or
   href="http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/e/extr
   
   act.htm">extract the .cpl
   
   file
   
   back into the Windows System or System 32
   
   directory.

Note: 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 testing or

running a Windows

Control panel .cpl file

If you are

unfamiliar with what each .CPL file does,

1. Users can use the MS-DOS
   
   control file to execute many of the
   
   
   
   .CPL files by typing "control <name of
   
   .cpl file>.cpl".
   
   See our
   href="http://www.computerhope.com/control.htm"
   
   >control command page for
   
   
   
   additional information and help with this
   
   command.



2. 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
   
   wish to run an alternate .cpl
   
   file, replace the TimeDate.cpl
   
   with a
   
   different .cpl.

rundll32.exe

shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL TimeDate.cpl

Hiding Windows Control

Panel

icons

If you wish to simply hide an icon from

being displayed in the

Control Panel you can delete

or move the icon as explained in the

below steps or

hide the icon by editing the control.ini file.



Additional information and help with this file

can be found on


href="http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch0008

75.htm">document

CH000875.

Removing Windows Control

Panel icons

Using the Microsoft Find utility, users can

locate all .cpl files

on their computer. Additional

information about the find utility can

be found in
href="http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chfind

.htm">document CHFIND.

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.

Windows Control Panel icons

and their

associated files

Below is a

small chart of the available files and

their associated Control

Panel icons. Please keep in mind

that not all of the below files or

icons are available

in all versions of Microsoft Windows and may

be

missing because the associated hardware

device, software program, or

other setting is not

installed. In the below chart we have also

listed

which icons are listed in each of the

Windows Operating Systems.

Icons that have an
href="http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/a/aste

risk.htm">asterisks in

the availability section

indicate that a third-party software

program not

available through the Microsoft Windows CD must

be

installed before the icon is displayed.

Additional

information:

Microsoft Windows stores

information

about each of the icons that are shown in

the Control Panel in files

with the extension .CPL.

If these files are present and not

corrupted,

Microsoft Windows will display these icons,

otherwise, these

icons will not be visible. The

Control Panel files are often

found in the

C:\Windows\System, C:\Windows\System32, or

C:\Winnt\system32

directories once the hardware device

or software program related to

the icon has been

installed.

• Additional information
  
  about the
  
  Microsoft Windows Control Panel
  
  as well as related dictionary
  
  definitions
  
  can be found on our
  href="http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/cont
  
  rolp.htm">
  
  Control Panel dictionary
  
  definition.