How to add or remove icons in Windows Control Panel

The Control Panel is one of the most important parts of your Microsoft Windows system. If you’d like to customize which icons appear in your Control Panel, continue reading for suggested methods.

If you’re running Windows ME, XP or later, we recommend that you do not customize your Control Panel icons. Instead, we suggest that Control Panel be configured to show icons in Classic View, see: Unable to find icons in Windows Control Panel.

TweakUI

Microsoft Windows XP and later revisions of Windows users can enable and remove Control Panel icons with the TweakUI program.

After TweakUI has been installed, check and uncheck the icons you want or do not want to display in the Windows Control Panel under the Control Panel section.

Adding 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 steps below.

1. Reinstall the software program or hardware device associated with the program. During reinstallation, the necessary .CPL file is copied back onto the computer.
2. Manually copy, expand, and extract the .cpl file back into the Windows System or System 32 directory.

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 running a Windows Control Panel .cpl file

If you are unfamiliar with what each .CPL file does, try one of the following suggestions.

1. Manually execute many of the .CPL files by typing control .cpl. See the 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 want to run an alternate .cpl file, replace the TimeDate.cpl with a different .cpl file.

Hiding Control Panel icons

If you want to hide an icon from being displayed in the Control Panel, you can delete or move the icon as explained in the steps below or hide the icon by editing the control.ini file.

Removing Control Panel icons

Using the Microsoft find utility, users can locate all .cpl files on their computer.

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.

Files associated with Control Panel icons

Below is a small chart of the available files and their associated Control Panel icons. Note that not all of the files or icons below are available in all versions of Microsoft Windows. They may be missing because the associated hardware device, software program, or other setting is not installed. Icons that have an asterisk in the availability section indicate that third-party software must be installed before the icon is displayed.

Control Panel Icon	Associated file	95/98/ME	NT	2000/XP	Vista/7/8
AC3 Filter	ac3filter.cpl	‌	‌	*	‌
Yes	Yes	Yes	‌
Add/Remove Hardware	hdwwiz.cpl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Adobe Gamma	adobe gamma.cpl	*	*	*	‌
Automatic Updates	wuaucpl.cpl	‌	‌	Yes	‌
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fax	fax.cpl	Yes	Yes	‌
Yes	Yes
Firewall	firewall.cpl	‌	‌	Yes	Yes
Yes	Yes	Yes	‌
Infrared Settings properties	irprops.cpl	Yes	‌
Java Control Panel	jpicpl32.cpl	*	‌
Java plug-in x.x.x — This icon and its associated file changes by version.	plugincplx_x.cpl	*	*	*	*
Joystick Properties or Game Controllers.	joy.cpl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yes
Microsoft Mail Post Office	wgpocpl.cpl	Yes
Yes	Yes
Multimedia / Sounds	mmsys.cpl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Network Connections properties	ncpa.cpl	Yes	Yes	Yes
Network Properties	netcpl.cpl	Yes
Nview Desktop Manager	nvtuicpl.cpl	‌	*
ODBC32	odbc32.cpl	Yes	Yes	Yes	‌
Passwords	password.cpl	Yes	Yes	Yes
PCCard	devapps.cpl	Yes
Ports	ports.cpl	Yes
Power Options properties	powercfg.cpl	Yes	Yes
QuickTime	quicktime.cpl	*	*	*	‌
Regional Settings	intl.cpl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scanners and Cameras	sticpl.cpl	‌	‌	Yes	‌
Security Center	wscui.cpl	‌	Yes	Yes
Services and Devices	srvmgr.cpl	Yes
SCSI Adapters	devapps.cpl	Yes
Server	srvmgr.cpl	Yes
Speech Properties	sapi.cpl	Yes	‌
System Properties	sysdm.cpl	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tape Devices	devapps.cpl	Yes
Telephony or Phone and Modem Options Properties.	telephon.cpl	Yes	Yes	Yes
TweakUI	tweakui.cpl	*	*	*	‌
UPS	ups.cpl	Yes
User Accounts properties	nusrmgr.cpl	Yes	‌
VirusScan	avsmcpa.cpl	*	*	*	*

Microsoft Windows stores information about each of the icons that are shown in the Control Panel in files with the .CPL extension. If these files are present and not corrupted, Microsoft Windows displays these icons, otherwise, these icons will not be visible. The Control Panel files can be in the C:\Windows\System, C:\Windows\System32, or C:\Winnt\system32 folders once new hardware or software is installed.

Missing Notification area Icon in Windows 10 control Panel

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Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Please follow the steps below and see If it helps

1. Type notification and actions in search bar

2. Select notification and actions

3. Click on select which icons appear on the task bar

4. under the options turn on which icons you want to see in the notification area.

Hope this helps. If the issue remains unresolved, please get back to us and we would be happy to help.

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thanks , but you did not understand the problem.

I have since found the solution wlsewhere:

Click the arrow next to the notification area, and then drag the icon you want to move to the notification area. You can drag as many hidden icons to the notification area as you want.

Right-click an empty area on the taskbar, and then click Properties .

Under Notification area , click Customize .

Select the Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar check box, and then click OK .

17 people found this reply helpful

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How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Thank you for sharing the information with us.

Please revert back to us if you have any other queries related to windows 10.

Was this reply helpful?

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Thank you for sharing the information with us.

Please revert back to us if you have any other queries related to windows 10.

Is there a reason we should revert back to you with an issue when it’s apparent you either do not read what the issue is and you cut and paste a generic elementary solution OR you just don’t care. MS was very articulate about the issue and your reply was not remotely relevant whch may suggest this was above your techinical expertise or the title Support engineer is actually support person with the required BSEE degree and not a direct Microsoft employee but an outsourced contracting service.

If you feel I’m being hard on you, I am. We are the customers who purchase these products as such we expect an expert who can solve the issues caused by your program which affects our daily lives.When my vehicle has an issue I take it to the manufacturer who solves the issue. If it’s their defect it’s covered under warranty. Windows 10 is the same, it’s covered by Microsoft.

Understand that we’re very technical and know how to troubleshoot so when we require assistance it’s more than basic troubleshooting techniques.

Deepak this is not personal but I do believe this forum should be attended to by someone with experience and the capability to address these issues at a higher level. You just have not aquired enough experience and lack basic comprehensive skills which results in frustration to the customer that is responsible for paying your salary. Without customers you’re out of employment.

The fact that MS and others had to search and find the solution on their own is proof enough that you should not be participating in this forum. You’re causing more frustration than if no one was here advising. I’m sure you have good intentions and are trying but we don’t need someone to try, we need someone who knows and can solve issues.

I’ve elected to send a copy of this string to a couple of Microsofts Executive Vice presidents as it warrants their interest.

I too am having an issue where I have no notification arrow, icons and the under the Notification and Actions area the show which icons appear in taskbar nothing appears whether it’s turned on or off. Under tutn system icons on or off everything is greyed out.

When I look in the registry (and I’m looking in the right place) in the folder Tray icons missing are the two registry keys PastIconsStream and Iconstreams

I tried resetting, system restore, restoring a system image to no avail. The icons that were there are operating I just can’t see anything. There is no notification arrow in the taskbar either. Only the notification icon is there where you can select all settings or the quick settings.

I need someone who knows Windows to assist me with this.

Change Control Panel Icon in Windows 10

Control Panel and Settings are two apps you can use in Windows 10 to change most of the settings available in the OS. Settings is a Universal app bundled with Windows 10. It is created to replace the classic Control Panel. As of this writing, the classic Control Panel still comes with a number of options and tools which are not available in Settings. In this article, we will see how to change its icon.

The Control Panel has a familiar user interface which many users prefer over the Settings app. You can use Administrative tools, manage user accounts on the computer in a flexible way, maintain data backups, change the functionality of hardware and many other things. You can pin Control Panel applets to the taskbar to access frequently used settings faster. Also, you can show only certain Control Panel applets or hide desired applets in Windows 10.

As you may already know, Windows 10 allows the user to change icons like This PC, Network, Recycle Bin and the user profile folder icon. There is a special dialog that you can use.

However, this dialog doesn’t provide any method to change the Control Panel icon. This can be done with a Registry tweak.

To change the Control Panel icon in Windows 10, do the following.

1. Open the Registry Editor app.
2. Go to the following Registry key.

See how to go to a Registry key with one click.
If you don’t have the <26ee0668-a00a-44d7-9371-beb064c98683>subkey, then create both <26ee0668-a00a-44d7-9371-beb064c98683>and DefaultIcon subkeys manually.

On the right, double-click on the default (unnamed) string parameter. Set its value data to the full path to the *.ico file you want to use as your new Control Panel icon.

To make the changes done by the Registry tweak take effect, you need to sign out and sign in to your user account. Alternatively, you can restart the Explorer shell. If this doesn’t help, reset the icon cache.

Tip: Instead of an *.ico file, you can specify the path to a DLL file containing the icon and its icon resource number. The default value is %SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-27 .

In my case, the result will be as follows.

Note: To change the icon in the Start menu and in the taskbar, change the icon for the Control Panel.lnk shortcut:

Copy the line above and paste it in the File Explorer’s address bar. Then modify the shortcut.

This will change the Control Panel icon for the current user.

Change the Control Panel icon for all users

If you need to change the Control Panel icon for all users, modify the unnamed value of the DefaultIcon subkey under the following branch.

Prerequirements

1. You must be signed in with an administrative account to continue.
2. Download the ExecTI freeware and start regedit.exe using it. This will open the Registry Editor app with the highest privilege level. Otherwise, you won’t be able to modify the mentioned Registry key.

After you have set the new icon in the Registry, sign out and sign in to your user account. Alternatively, you can restart the Explorer shell. If this doesn’t help, restart Windows 10 and then reset the icon cache.

Don’t forget to change the Start menu shortcut icon.

Everything above works in Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7.

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

3 thoughts on “ Change Control Panel Icon in Windows 10 ”

Hi Sergei,
is there any way to change Microsoft Edge icon (especially that one which is located in Start Program list) ? Is there similar way like for Control panel icon – using Registry Editor ?
Thank you for answer!

Works well! but is there any way to change the control panel icon that appears when you search start menu? I get the standard icon appear under the best match section.

Any idea how to change the text of the “Control Panel” desktop icon? I prefer short names (like “ControL”) but I can’t rename it.