Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

Many Roads to Control Panel

There are two ways to change a setting in the Control Panel. There’s the traditional way, which begins with opening the Control Panel and drilling down from there. And there’s the Search way. That’s when you jump directly to the setting you want, using the Start screen’s Search mechanism.

Opening the Control Panel Itself

You can reach the main Control Panel window in a number of ways. Here are the three fastest:

• Fast. From the Start screen, type control. (That, of course, opens the Search panel and conducts a search.) Control Panel is the first result; press Enter (or select it) to open it.

• Faster. Open the Charms bar; click Settings; click Control Panel. (Weirdly enough, that Control Panel link appears only when you’re at the desktop—not in TileWorld.)

• Fastest. Right-click the menu; in the secret Start menu, click Control Panel.

Tip

Wouldn’t it be great if the Control Panel’s icon were right on the Start screen, so you could open it with one click, just like any other program? Yes, it would. See the box on Control Panel on the Start Screen.

In each case, the Control Panel window opens (Figure 12-1). The “View by” pop-up menu (upper right) shows that there are a few ways to view the complete collection of control panels: by category or as a list of small or large icons.

Figure 12-1. The Control Panel categories have been expanded and rearranged to make it even ...