Control Panel Applets from Command Line
Filed Under Troubleshooting, Utilities, Vista, Windows, Windows 2000, Windows 7, XP
One of my customers doesn’t allow user accounts to be in the local Administrators group, something I wish more companies would do. In fact over 90% of infections could be stopped by not logging in as an administrator; but I’ll save that “soapbox” topic for another post.
Many times I need to change settings or install/remove software on someones PC without logging them out of the system, in which case I will go to %windir%\system32, shift+right-click CMD.exe and choose Run As…
Once I’ve opened a Command window with an account in the administrators group, I can start the Services MMC (services.msc), Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) or Computer Manager (compmgmt.msc), plus many more useful consoles from the command line. Often times I need to remove software or make a change to network settings which involves Control Panel Applets. These also can be run at the command-line (or Run… prompt if you’re already logged in as an administrator), some of my favs are listed below.
Appwiz.cpl – Add/Remove Programs (or Programs and Features in Vista or Windows 7)
Ncpa.cpl – Network Connections (for changing IPs and DNS)
Powercfg.cpl – Power Options (perhaps for turning off Standby or enabling the Performance setting)
Sysdm.cpl – System Properties (lots to find here: Remote Desktop, Pagefile, System Restore settings, etc.)
Wscui.cpl – Security Center (change Automatic Updating, the Firewall and Malware monitoring)
Want more? Check out the Wiki page.
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