What is "control panel"

n. 1 A flat, usually vertical surface onto which controls, instruments, and displays are mounted. 2 (context by extension English) A computer display offering a number of controls or options.

n. electrical device consisting of an insulated panel containing switches and dials and meters for controlling other electrical devices; "he checked the instrument panel"; "suddenly the board lit up like a Christmas tree" [syn: instrument panel, control board, board, panel]

Control panel may refer to:

• Control panel (engineering), a flat, often vertical, area where control instrumentation is mounted
• Control panel (software), the tool in the operating system which allows most or all of the settings to be changed through a user interface
  • Control Panel (Windows)
  • System Preferences, a computer program in Mac OS X operating system
  • Web hosting control panel
• Plugboard, also called a control panel

The Control Panel is a part of the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface which allows users to view and manipulate basic system settings and controls via applets, such as adding hardware, adding and removing software, controlling user accounts, and changing accessibility options. Additional applets can be provided by third party software.

The Control Panel has been an inherent part of the Microsoft Windows operating system since Windows 2.0, with many of the current applets being added in later versions. Beginning with Windows 95, the Control Panel is implemented as a special folder, i.e. the folder does not physically exist, but only contains shortcuts to various applets such as Add or Remove Programs and Internet Options. Physically, these applets are stored as .cpl files. For example, the Add or Remove Programs applet is stored under the name appwiz.cpl in the SYSTEM32 folder.

In recent versions of Windows, the Control Panel has two views, Classic View and Category View, and it is possible to switch between these through an option that appears on either the left side or top of the window.

Many of the individual Control Panel applets can be accessed in other ways. For instance, Display Properties can be accessed by right-clicking on an empty area of the desktop and choosing Properties.

The classic view consists of shortcuts to the various control panel applets, usually without any description (other than the name). The categories are seen if the user use "Details" view.

The category view consists of categories, which when clicked on display the control panel applets related to the category. In Windows Vista, the category used applets below the name of the category.

The Control Panel can be accessed quickly by typing control in the Run dialog box .

On Windows 10, Control Panel is partially deprecated in favor of Settings app, which was originally introduced on Windows 8 as "PC Settings" to provide a touchscreen-optimized settings area using its Metro-style app platform. Some functions, particularly the ability to add and remove user accounts, were moved exclusively to this app on Windows 8 and cannot be performed from Control Panel.

A control panel is a flat, often vertical, area where control or monitoring instruments are displayed. They are found in factories to monitor and control machines or production lines and in places such as nuclear power plants, ships, aircraft and mainframe computers. Older control panels are most often equipped with push buttons and analog instruments, whereas nowadays in many cases touchscreens are used for monitoring and control purposes.

Many computer user interfaces use a control panel metaphor to give the user control of software and hardware features. The control panel consists of multiple settings including display settings, network settings, user account settings and hardware settings. Some control panels require the user to have admin rights or root access.