Windows XP Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 9 Control the Control Panel

Whether you're a fan of the
new Control Panel or not, there's a lot you can do
to make it more palatablelike hiding applets you never use,
re-categorizing the ones you do use, and displaying all applets in a
simple-to-use cascading menu.

When I
first started using XP, one of the things that annoyed me most was
its new Control Panel. Yes, the big new icons for running applets are
certainly pretty, but the Control Panel's
several-layer organization forces you to click far too many times in
order to get to the applet that you want. And its clutter of applets
that I rarely if ever use make it even more difficult and confusing.

My first reaction was to click on the Switch to Classic View button,
to do away with the new design, but the Classic View has its problems
as well: its long, alphabetized list of thumbnails is just as
difficult to navigate as the new Control Panel.

The solution? Start by cleaning up the Control Panel, hiding applets
that you rarely if ever use. Note that when you hide the applets, you
can still use them; you just won't see their icons
in the Control Panel.

In this hack, you'll not only find out ways that you
can control the Control Panelyou'll also see
how you can apply that knowledge to create different customized
Control Panels.

2.3.1 Hide Unused Applets with the Registry

To hide unused applets using the
Registry, run the Registry Editor [Hack #68] and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control
Panel\don't load.

The key, as its name implies, determines which Control Panel applet
icons are not loaded into the Control Panel. You'll
still be able to run those applets from the command line after you
hide them (as explained later in this hack); you just
won't be able to see their icons in the Control
Panel.

To hide an applet, create a new String value whose
name is the filename of the applet that you want to hide. For
example, to hide the Mouse Control dialog box, the
String value would be
main.cpl. See Table 2-1 for a
list of Control Panel applets and their filenames.

Create separate String values for each applet you
want to hide, then exit the Registry. The applets will vanish from
the Control Panel. To make hidden applets appear again, delete its
string value from this same registry key.

2.3.2 Hide Unused Applets with XP Pro's Group Policy Editor

If you have XP Professional, you
don't need to get your hands dirty with the Registry
to hide unused applets; you can instead use XP
Professional's exceedingly useful
Group
Policy Editor to accomplish the same task. The Group Policy Editor is
primarily used for setting
network and multiuser policies and
rights, but it can also be used to customize the way that XP looks
and works. (For example, to use it to hack away at the Start Menu and
Taskbar, see [Hack #10].) Run
the Group Policy Editor by typing
gpedit.msc at the Run prompt or command line.

Once you've run it, go to User
Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel, the
section that handles the Control Panel. As you can see when you get
there, you can do a lot more than hide the Control
Panel's unused applets in this section of the Group
Policy Editor; you can also control many other aspects of how the
Control Panel looks and functions.

Now right-click on "Show only specified Control
Panel applets," and choose Properties.
You'll see the screen pictured in Figure 2-3.

Figure 2-3. Disabling Control Panel applets in the Group Policy Editor

Get ready for a bit of counterintuitive selecting. To disable Control
Panel applets, you must choose the Enabled radio button, because
you're enabling the feature to show only certain
Control Panel applets. Strange, but true.

When you do this, you'll hide all
applets in the Control Panel, which is a bit draconian. If
you don't want to see any applets at all for some
odd reason, you're now done; just click OK. But
you'll most likely want to show some applets, so to
add them, click the Show button. The Show Contents screen appears.
Click Add, and you're ready to list all the Control
Panel applets that you want to appear. For each item that you want to
appear, type in its Control Panel filename, which you can find in
Table 2-1. For example, if you want the Date and
Time dialog box to appear, type in timedate.cpl.

You can also use TweakUI [Hack #8] to hide Control Panel
applets.

When you've listed all the Control Panel applets
that you want to appear, click OK and exit the Group Policy Editor.
Only the applets that you've chosen to display will
now appear in the Control Panel.

This technique is most useful when you're hiding
most applets in the Control Panel and want to display only a few.
There's another way to use the Group Policy Editor
to hide applets, and it's better suited for when you
want to hide only a few applets. In User
Configuration\Administrative
Templates\Control Panel,
double-click on "Hide specified Control Panel
applets" and choose Enabled. After you click on
Enabled, choose Show Add and type in its Control Panel
filename (which you can find in Table 2-1) for
each applet that you want to hide. Click OK on each dialog box that
appears. When you exit the Group Policy Editor, the specified applets
will no longer appear in the Control Panel.

To customize other aspects of how the Control Panel works, follow the
same instructions as outlined previouslyright-clicking on the
item you want to change, choosing Properties, and then picking your


options.

2.3.3 Recategorize Control Panel Applets

Hiding
applets goes only partway toward cleaning up the Control Panel. You
can also recategorize applets and put them in any category you want.
For example, by default, the Mouse Properties applet can be found in
the Printers and Other Hardware category, but if
you'd prefer that it instead be found in
Accessibility Options, you can move it there.

To put any applet into any category you want, you need two pieces of
information: the filename of the applet (for example,
main.cpl for the Mouse Properties dialog box),
and the Registry value for each
Control Panel category (for example, 0x00000007
(7) for Accessibility Options.) For filenames of
each applet, see Table 2-1. For the Registry value
for each Control Panel category, see Table 2-2.
With these two pieces of information in hand, you can recategorize
any or all Control Panel applets.

0x00000007 (7)

0x00000008 (8)

0x00000001 (1)

0x00000006 (6)

0x00000003 (3)

0x00000000 (0)

0x00000005 (5)

0x00000002 (2)

0x00000004 (4)

0x00000009 (9)

0xffffffff

To recategorize a Control Panel applet, run the Registry Editor
[Hack #68] and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control
Panel\Extended
Properties\{305CA226-D286-468e-B848-2B2E8E697B74}2.
The key {305CA226-D286-468e-B848-2B2E8E697B74}2 is
the container that holds all Control Panel categories. (Remember that
it's safest to back up your Registry first [Hack #71].

Now find the Registry key of the applet that you want to
recategorize. The filename of the applet will appear on the end of
the key; for example,
%SystemRoot%\system32\main.cpl is the Mouse
Properties dialog box. Turn to trusty Table 2-1
for a list of other filenames for Control Panel applets.

Change the key's DWORD value to
the value of the Control Panel category into which you want the
applet to appear, as detailed in Table 2-2. For
example, if you want the applet to appear in the Performance and
Maintenance category, give it a value of 5. The
value will then be displayed in the Registry as
0x00000005(5).

When you're done, exit the Registry. The applet will
now appear in the new category.

2.3.4 Display Control Panel Applets in a Cascading Menu

If you're a
"just the facts
ma'am" type, then
you'll want to bypass the Control Panel altogether.
Rather than clicking on effete icons, you can instead force XP to
display Control Panel applets in a cascading menu when you choose
Control Panel from the Start button, as shown in Figure 2-4.

Figure 2-4. Turning the Control Panel into a cascading menu for quick access to applets

To force the Control Panel to display as a cascading menu,
right-click on the Taskbar and choose Properties Start
Menu. Click the Customize button and choose the Advanced tab. In the
Control Panel heading, choose "Display as a
menu." Press OK twice.

2.3.5 Build Customized Control Panels

Armed with all this Control Panel
hackery, you can build customized Control Panels. For example, you
can build a Control Panel for computer newbies, which would hide the
more technical applets and categories. Hide the
applets in the Network and Internet
Connections category, the Performance and Maintenance category, and
the Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices categorythat way,
newbies can't get into trouble by making changes
that will affect the system in unexpected ways.

For system administrators, group
all system-type applets into a single category, such as Network and
Internet Connections. You'd probably want to keep
all the existing applets there, but also add the Administrative
Tools, Scheduled Tasks, and System applets to it, as well as the
Printers and Faxes applet. (If the administrator has to handle other
hardware, such as scanners, add the Scanners and Cameras applet as
well.)

For those who like to hack their systems and want instant,
stripped-down access to customization tools, take all the applets
that are now in Network and Internet Connections, and all those in
Performance and Maintenance, and group them into the Appearance and
Themes category. Then force the Control Panel to display as a
cascading menu, and all of the hackery-type applets will be available
instantly, because the Appearance and Themes category is at the top
of the cascading menu and all the relevant applets will be available
directly from it.