For IT pros and power users the Windows Control Panel is often a starting point for troubleshooting or tweaking their systems. But for the novice user, it can be a Pandora’s box. On this week’s episode of TR Dojo, I show you how to lock down the Control Panel by removing individual icons or picking the ones that are displayed.

Note: The system edits illustrated in this TR Dojo video were done with the Local Group Policy Editor. If your machine is a domain member, making these edits with the Local Group Policy Editor may not produce the same result. Domain Group Policy trumps local Group Policy. If you want to make the edits on a machine joined to a domain, you’ll need to use the Registry Editor. You’ll find detailed steps in McFedries’ article linked to below.

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For those who prefer text to video, you can click the Transcript link that appears below the video player window or check out Paul McFedreies’ article, “10 ways to tweak Windows 7 using the Local Group Policy Editor.”

Here are links to resources that I mention in the video:

• Canonical Names of Control Panel Items (Windows 7 and Windows Vista)
• Executing Control Panel Items (check out the first post in the discussion thread)

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