How to Open the Control Panel from a CLI on a Windows Computer

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Plus, more commands to open various Control Panel tools

Co-authored by Luigi Oppido and Hannah Dillon

Last Updated: October 15, 2025 Fact Checked

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Using the Command Line

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Without a Mouse

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Other Control Panel Commands

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Video

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Q&A

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Tips

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Warnings

This wikiHow teaches you how to use the command line on your computer to open your Windows computer's Control Panel. We also go over a number of commands to open specific Control Panel tools, such as Add/Remove Programs, Keyboard properties, Power Management, and more.

Using the CLI to Open the Control Panel

Open the command line of your choice—Command Prompt, Windows PowerShell, or Terminal (Windows 11 only). You can do this by typing the CLI's name into the taskbar search bar and clicking on it in the menu that pops up. Type the "start control" command and press Enter to open the Control Panel.

Section 1 of 3:

Starting Control Panel from the Command Line

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1
Open the Start menu. To do so, either click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen, or press the ⊞ Win key.
- On Windows 8, you'll instead hover your mouse in the top-right corner of the screen, then click the magnifying glass icon.
- According to computer & tech specialist Luigi Oppido, opening the Control Panel from the command line is something that can be used in batch files or to automate certain tasks.^{[1]
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This will bring up the Command Prompt icon at the top of the Start window.

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3
Click Command Prompt. It's a black box at the top of the Start window. Doing so invokes a drop-down menu.
- You can also open Windows PowerShell or Terminal (Windows 11 only) to open the Control Panel from the command line. All of these programs are command line interfaces (CLIs), and while they are all used for slightly different things, each one can open the Control Panel with a command.
- Alternatively, right-click on the Windows icon and click Command Prompt, Windows PowerShell, or Terminal (not all of these options will be available, depending on which version of Windows you have).
This command will call up the Control Panel program when you run it.
Doing so will run your command. After a brief moment, Control Panel will open.^{[2]
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Section 2 of 3:

Opening Control Panel Without a Mouse

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This is the keyboard command to open the Run dialog. Run is a single-line command-line interface, and you can execute simple, one-line commands using it, such as opening the Control Panel.
2
Type control panel and press ↵ Enter. This will run the control panel command, which will open the Control Panel.
- You can also simply enter the command Control if you prefer.
3
Use your keyboard to navigate through the Control Panel. Here's how to do it:^{[3]
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- Scroll through the Control Panel with the arrow keys on your keyboard. You'll see a dotted outline around the option that is currently selected. The arrow keys can also be used to navigate dropdown boxes.
- Press ↵ Enter to open a selected item. The menu option will open in a new window. You can also use ↵ Enter to press a button in a dialog box.
- Press Tab ↹ to scroll through the options in a menu window. You'll need to use Tab ↹ instead of the arrow keys in these dialog boxes.
- Press Ctrl+Tab ↹ or Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Tab ↹ to switch tabs in a dialog box.
- Press the spacebar to select or unselect an option in a dialog box.

Section 3 of 3:

Other Control Panel Commands

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Use one of these commands to open a specific Command Prompt utility from the CLI. To save even more time, you can use a command to directly open specific parts of the Control Panel, such as Add/Remove Programs, Internet Properties, and more. Note: some of these controls may not work, depending on which version of Windows you have installed, as you may not have all of these tools available to you.^{[4]
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- Accessibility Options: start control access.cpl
- Add/Remove Programs: start control appwiz.cpl
- Date/Time Properties: start control timedate.cpl
- Display Properties: start control desk.cpl
- FindFast: start control findfast.cpl
- Fonts Folder: start control fonts
- Internet Properties: start control inetcpl.cpl
- Joystick Properties: start control joy.cpl
- Keyboard Properties: start control keyboard
- Microsoft Exchange: start control mlcfg32.cpl
- Microsoft Mail Post Office: start control wgpocpl.cpl
- Modem Properties: start control modem.cpl
- Mouse Properties: start control main.cpl
- Multimedia Properties: start control mmsys.cpl
- Network Properties: start control netcpl.cpl
- Password Properties: start control password.cpl
- Power Management: start control powercfg.cpl
- Printers Folder: start control printers
- Regional Settings: start control intl.cpl
- Scanners and Cameras: start control sticpl.cpl
- Sound Properties: start control mmsys.cpl
- System Properties: start control sysdm.cpl

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How can I open file explore using cmd during a recovery environment?

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It's not possible directly, but it is possible indirectly. While in recovery, go to System Image Restore Program. There should be an option there to find drivers. Click it, then click OK, and voila! You've got your mini but useful file manager!

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Why was the control panel changed from how it used to be?

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Because Microsoft needed to modernize Windows and that's how they accomplished that.

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On Windows 10 computers, you can right-click the Start icon (or press ⊞ Win+X) to bring up the advanced user menu. You'll find Command Prompt as an option here.

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