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The Control Panel in Windows XP is the place to go when you need to make changes to various settings of your computer system. To open the Control Panel window, click the Start button on the taskbar and then click Control Panel. In Windows XP, you can view the Control Panel in two different views: the Classic View, where the individual Control panel program icons are displayed; and the Category View, where links representing groups of related Control panel programs are shown. To switch from one view to the other, click the Switch to Classic View link (which appears when you're in Category View) or the Switch to Category View link (which appears when you're in Classic View) at the Control Panel navigation pane.
As you start using Windows, you may find it easier to manage your computer system when the Control Panel is in Category View. The Control Panel window in Category View appears in Figure 1.
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Figure 1: The Control Panel. |
The Category View of the Control Panel window is organized into ten categories. To open a window with the Control panel options for any one of these categories, simply click the category hyperlink.
Figure 2 shows you how the Control Panel looks in Classic View. When you display the Control Panel in Classic View, Windows displays an alphabetical listing of all the Control Panel options, showing the icon for each. To view and possibly change the settings for a particular Control Panel option, double-click the icon.
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Figure 2: The Control panel in Classic View. |
 | When you first install Windows XP, the Windows installer program checks all your computer hardware (both internal and external). From this inventory, the installer determines which of the many utilities to add to the various categories of your Control Panel. As a result, your Control Panel may not have all the programs that are shown in the figures above. |
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