A control panel application is a special-purpose dynamic-link library (DLL) that enables a user to configure the OS. Though the OS includes a number of standard control panel applications, you can create additional applications to examine and modify the settings and operational modes of specific hardware and software.
The primary responsibility of any control panel application is to display a property sheet and to carry out tasks specified by a user. Despite this responsibility, Control Panel applications do not provide menus or other direct means for a user to access the dialog box. Instead, this type of application operates under the control of another application and displays a dialog box only when requested by the controlling application.
Control Panel applications are typically controlled by a Windows CE system utility specifically designed to enable a user to access the application. However, any other application can load and manage a Control Panel application as long as the controlling application sends messages and processes return values in a way that a Control Panel application recognizes.