This chapter describes Control Panel (CONTROL.EXE) for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It explains how to create a Control Panel application and then add the application to Control Panel.
Control Panel provides a window for running applications. These applications are used to configure the Windows environment. A number of standard applications are included with Windows. However, additional ones can be created and added to Control Panel. This capability is useful for modifying environmental factors unique to specific hardware and software. The following illustration shows the Control Panel window:
An application is contained in a dynamic-link library (DLL). A DLL can support more than one Control Panel application.
Control Panel loads Control Panel application libraries in this order:
1.The library containing the standard Control Panel applications
2.Libraries specified in the [MMCPL] section of the CONTROL.INI file
3.Libraries with the .CPL filename extension residing in the same directory as the CONTROL.EXE file
4.Libraries with the .CPL filename extension residing in the Windows SYSTEM directory