The Control Panel is the centralized configuration area on Windows computers, laptops, and tablets. It helps you customize almost every aspect of the operating system, including keyboard and mouse functions, passwords and users, network settings, power management, desktop wallpapers, sounds, hardware, program installation and removal, speech recognition, and parental controls.

You can think of the Control Panel as the place in Windows where you go when you want to change something about the way a program looks or works.

The Windows 11 Control Panel is a bit more hidden than in other versions of Windows; look for it in the taskbar. In other recent versions of Windows, the Control Panel is in the Windows system folder or category in the Apps list. In other versions, open the Start menu and choose Control Panel or Start > Settings > Control Panel.

For detailed, OS-specific instructions, see Opening Control Panel.