Sometimes the fastest way to access a program on your Windows system is via the command line.

I have to admit to being a little command line biased. I spent most of my early IT career managing Novell Netware environments and an assortment of FreeBSD and Linux systems from the command line, in addition to the ubiquitous Windows menagerie . Sometimes it is just quicker to click a quick key stroke (Windows Key+R), bring up Run and type the command for the application you want and bang it's open.

In this post I am going to focus on launching those Control Panel applets we all use but don't like having to click through all the menus to find or having to add shortcuts to our desktops for.

The majority of Control Panel applets are files with a .CPL file extension which are located in the %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32 folder (i.e.: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 for most people).

To open the "Network Connections" applet, just hold down the Windows Key while also pressing the R key. This launches the "Run" commmand, now type "control ncpa.cpl" in the Open field and press Enter

Viola! Application launched.

Here is a list of the Control Panel applets which you can use in the same way as my example above:

Accessibility Options - access.cpl

Add/Remove Programs - appwiz.cpl

Add Hardware Wizard - hdwwiz.cpl

Administrative Tools - admintools

Automatic Updates - wuaucpl.cpl

Bluetooth Properties - bthprops.cpl

Display Properties - desk.cpl

Fastfind Properties - findfast.cpl

Firewall Properties - firewall.cpl

Game Controllers - joy.cpl

Internet Options - inetcpl.cpl

iSCSI Initiator - iscsicpl.cpl

Java Control Panel - jpicpl32.cpl

Keyboard Properties - main.cpl keyboard

Licensing Model - iccpa.cpl

Mouse Properties - main.cpl

Network Connections - ncpa.cpl

Network Setup Wizard - netsetup.cpl

ODBC Properties - odbccp32.cpl

Power Options - powercfg.cpl

Regional and Language Options - intl.cpl

Scanners and Camera Properties - sticpl.cpl

Sound and Audio Devices - mmsys.cpl

Stored Passwords - keymgr.cpl

System Properties - sysdm.cpl

Telephone and Modem Properties - telephon.cpl

Time and Date Settings - timedate.cpl

User Accounts - nusrmgr.cpl

Windows Security Center - wscui.cpl

Wireless Link - irprops.cpl

** NOTE: If you don't have a wireless card for instance, the Wireless Link - irprops.cpl applet will not work for you, this holds true for any applet for which you don't have the necessary equipment etc.

Here is also a list of other commands for opening the Control Panel folders/applets without the .CPL extension as well:

Control Panel - panel

Desktop Properties - desktop

Desktop Appearances Properties - color

Fonts Folder - fonts

Infrared Properties - infrared

Printers Folder - printers

Schedule Tasks - schedtasks

User Accounts Advances - userpasswords2

User Passwords - userpasswords

Check out these links for some further command line fun:

http://commandwindows.com/runline.htm
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=947

Changing the Product Key in Windows XP

You may run into a situation where you need to replace or fix the product key for a copy of Microsoft's Windows XP. There are a couple of ways to do this (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328874) but the simplest and most fool-proof one for single instances is the following registry edit and windows re-activation process outlined below:

Editing the registry

Begin by opening the Registry Editor and navigating to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents

In the right pane, right-click the ODBETimer binary value and select Modify.

Change at least one character of this value to either a number from 0 to 9 or to a letter from A to F, then click OK and close the Registry Editor.

This renders the current product key invalid and deactivates Windows.

Now, it’s time to reactivate Windows using your new product key.

Click Start > Run and enter the command:

%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe /a

where %systemroot% is your Windows directory.

In many cases, this command will look like:

C:\windows\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a

At this point, Windows will launch the Product Activation Wizard.

Figure 1

Select the option to telephone a Microsoft customer service representative to activate Windows, as shown in Figure 1, and click Next.

Now, select the Change Product Key option and enter your new product key as shown in Figure 2.

Finally, click Update and close the window. If Windows returns you to the previous screen, just select the Remind Me Later option. When the wizard is finished, reboot the system.

Figure 2

When Windows reboots, your next step will depend on which Windows XP version you are using.

If you have XP Home or Professional, you’ll be prompted to reactivate your copy of Windows through the normal activation process.


If you have XP Corporate, no activation is required and your machine should have a valid product ID. You can verify this by running the %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a command again.


When the wizard loads this time, you should see a message indicating that your copy of Windows has already been activated.

Changes to remote administration in Windows Server 2008

Recently I ran into an issue were I was using RDP (Remote Desktop) to remotely administer a Windows 2008 SBS server trying to use the /console switch to get connected to an admin user session that had already been started from the local KVM (Keyboard-Video-Mouse) of the server (also referred to as session 0) before I had left to come home.

I received the following error message "An unknown parameter was specified in computer name field" after a little research I found that Microsoft had changed RDP on Windows 2008 and deprecated the /console switch.

For detailed info on this please review http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947723

The synopsis is you can use the /admin switch to do something similar but that according to Microsoft it has improved application compatibility enough so that legacy apps that used to need to run as console no longer need to. I'm not totally convinced but time will tell.

Here are some additional links for further reading:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/datacenter/?p=434

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2008/01/04/mstsc-exe-no-more-console-switch-in-rdc-6-1.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmac/archive/2007/11/28/mstsc-console-switch-in-windows-server-2008-and-windows-vista-sp1.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/04/27/application-compatibility-session-0-isolation.aspx

Network Connectivity Troubleshooting Article Links

TCP/IP Troubleshooting: A Structured Approach - Part 1: An Introduction

TCP/IP Troubleshooting: A Structured Approach - Part 2: Troubleshooting Routing Tables

TCP/IP Troubleshooting: A Structured Approach - Part 3: Repairing Network Connections

TCP/IP Troubleshooting: A Structured Approach - Part 4: Using Netdiag.exe

Windows Group Policy Article Links

Useful articles for designing GPOs and dealing with common GPO issues:

Best Practices for Designing Group Policy

Optimizing Group Policy Performance

Using Logon Scripts in Pure and Mixed Active Directory Environments

How to Implement Group Policy Security Filtering

Troubleshooting Group Policy Processing

Terminal Services Group Policy

MSI Packaging Tools

Managing Printers Using Group Policy (Part 1)

Managing Printers Using Group Policy (Part 2)

Deploying Printers With Group Policy in Windows Server 2003 R2

ISP - MX Record Cutover links

Useful links for when you need to perform an ISP cutover from an old provider to a new one for a business client:

ISP Cutover Does MX record need to be changed?

Network Issue - new ISP cutover - internet traffic is flowing but not mail or web that is port-redirected to server

Tech Tip: Seamlessly transition your server's IP address

DNS And Name Server Cutover

Dell Server Support - Commonly Used Tools

When troubleshooting Dell Servers, the following links to utilities and drivers can be very useful:

The Dell™ Server Updates Utility

DVD - Stay on top of updates here

Gather system logs using DSET

Monitor your server with Server Administrator , or use bootable utilities in OMSA Live 5.5

Diagnose the issue with PowerEdge Diagnostics or 32 bit Diagnostics

Good Luck!

What the *&^@! happened to IE7's “Open these tabs the next time I use Internet Explorer” in IE8?!?!

or "How to Restore and Reopen Last Browsing Session Opened Tabs in IE8?"

Unlike Internet Explorer 7 which allows you to select option to re-open and restore opened tabs the next time you use Internet Explorer upon exiting IE with multiple tabs detected, Internet Explorer 8 has removed this ability. What the hell? Seriously, if you are gonna copy Firefox, at least do it right and keep it that way.

They have exchanged the useful feature from IE7 for the "Reopen Last Browsing Session" in the final version of IE8. Reopen Last Browsing Session works in a similar fashion with Show my windows and tabs from last time startup option of Firefox, except that there is no option to automatically reopen last browsing session upon start up or launch of IE8 browser. Lame.

In order to restore the last browsing session and re-open all last opened tabs in IE8, user have to run Internet Explorer first, and then use one of the following methods to open the last browsing session in IE 8 in Windows 7, Vista, XP, Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2.

How to Reopen Last Browsing Session in Internet Explorer 8

Method 1: In the Internet Explorer window, click on the Tools pull down menu (either from Command Bar or Menu Bar, which can also be activated via Alt+T keyboard shortcut), and select Reopen Last Browsing Session.

Method 2: Open a new tab, and then click on Reopen Last Browsing Session link. If you can’t see it, expand Reopen close tabs section.

Tip: FYI, If you set IE’s home page to about:Tabs, then it’s possible to access Reopen Last Browsing Session instantly on running IE browser.

For user who don’t use the feature, it’s possible to disable and turn off Reopen Last Browsing Session feature. If you want to reopen closed tabs, IE8 supports it too.