If for security reasons, you wish to hide, show, add or remove the specified or the EXISTING DEFAULT Control Panel Applets in Windows 10/8/7, or for convenience sake add YOUR OWN applets to the Control Panel, here is how you can do it.

Remove or Hide Control Panel Applets

Type gpedit.msc in Windows Start Menu Search Bar, hit Enter, to open the Group Policy Editor > User Configuration. Expand Administrative Templates > Click Control Panel > Show only specified Control Panel Applets > Properties.

A dialog box will open. Click on Enable. The Show button will come alive.

Click on Show and a new dialog box will open.

Those items which are NOT on this list WILL NOT be displayed IF this is enabled. You will have to ADD the control panel applet’s NAME, (eg: appwiz.cpl) which you WANT to be displayed in the Control Panel. But this is easier said than done, and it is rather painstaking work, as you need to KNOW the names! Do click and read whatever is written in the ‘Explain’ tab. This way you can choose which applets to hide or show in the Control Panel.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of all Windows Control Panel applets.

Add Remove Programs
Add Hardware
Administrative Tools
AutoPlay
Backup and Restore Center
Color Management
Date and Time
Default Programs
Device Manager
Ease of Access Center
Folder Options
Fonts
Game Controllers
Indexing Options
Internet Options
iSCSI Initiator
Keyboard
Mail
Mouse
Network and Sharing Center
Offline Files
Pen and Input Devices
People Near Me
Performance Information and Tools
Personalization
Phone and Modem Options
Power Options
Printers
Problem Reports and Solutions
Program Updates
Programs and Features
Regional and Language Options
Scanners and Cameras
Security Center
Sound
Speech Recognition Options
Sync Center
System
Tablet PC Settings
Taskbar and Start Menu
Text to Speech
User Accounts
Welcome Center
Windows Anytime Upgrade
Windows CardSpace
Windows Defender
Windows Firewall
Windows Sidebar Properties
Windows SideShow
Windows Update

To find out the Control Panel applet names, open your system32 folder and search for *.cpl. Your results will throw up the Control Panel Items. I have tried to compile a list of some of them below for ready reference:

Add or Remove Programs – appwiz.cpl
Administrative Tools – control admintools
Add Hardware – hdwwiz.cpl
Appearance Settings – control color
Audio Devices and Sound Themes – mmsys.cpl
Bluetooth Devices – bthprop.cpl
Date and Time – timedate.cpl
Display Settings – desk.cpl
ODBC Data Source Administrator – ODBCCP32.cpl
Firewall – firewall.cpl
Folder Options – folders
Game Controllers – joy.cpl
Infocard – control infocardcpl.cpl
Internet Options control – inetcpl.cpl
Keyboard – control main.cpl Keyboard
Mouse – control main.cpl
Network Connections – ncpa.cpl
Pen and Input Devices – tabletpc.pcl
People Near Me – collab.pcl
Phone and Modem Options – telephon.cpl
Power Options – powercfg.cpl
Printers and Faxes – control printers
Regional and Language Options – intl.cpl
Scanners and Cameras – sticpl.cpl
Windows Security Center – wscui.cpl
Task Scheduler – control schedtasks
Text to Speech – control speech
System – sysdm.cpl
User Accounts – lusrmgr.cpl

Add Your Own Control Panel Applets

Adding & Registering YOUR OWN applet & tasks to Control Panel is easier in Windows 10/8/7. Software developers can easily add their own applets and tasks to Control Panel.

There are three types of Control Panel applets: Command objects, shell folders, and CPLs. Command objects are applets that run commands specified in the registry. Shell folders are applets that open up in the Control Panel. CPLs implement the CplApplet function. Command objects are the easiest to implement.

The process of adding applets to the Control Panel in previous versions of Windows is not as easy as using command objects because the applets have to implement the CplApplet interface. Although the CplApplet interface is still supported in Windows Vista, using command objects is encouraged since it is easier to implement.

Now, in Windows, you can just write an executable (.exe), register it as a command object and the applet appears in Control Panel. For more information on how to add and register your own applet in Control Panel, see Developing for the Control Panel. You want to also see Windows Shell Commands.

Under conditions, where computers over a network are not much used other than for official purposes, it is best to hide some Control Panel items (applets). Doing so helps you prohibit users from making unwanted administrative changes thereby keeping basic settings the same.

Here is a small tutorial that shows you how to hide Control Panel Applets in Windows 10/8/7.

Remove or Hide Control Panel Applets

Some of us may or may not want some applets (icons) showing in the control panel, for security or any reasons whatsoever. Here is a small tutorial to show how to hide them. There are tools that do that, but this way you can hide any, manually.

Let us say you want to hide the ‘Folder Options’ applet in the control you can do so thus :

Open Group Policy editor : Click Start > Run > gpedit.msc > OK.

Open group policy editor, click on ‘User Configuration’ and choose ‘Administrative Templates’.

Next, select the ‘Control Panel’ item and choose the ‘Hide specified control panel Items‘ option.

On being taken to a new window, check ‘Enabled’. Then, show list of disallowed Control Panel items > Add > Folder Options > OK > Apply > OK.

Go here if your Control Panel or System Restore window is blank.