The Control Panel folder is the place where Windows 98 allows you to change all the preferences for the operating system, exactly as it did under Windows 95. These preferences are accessed and changed through a series of programs in this folder. So that the preferences are not overly complicated to use, they are split into this series of programs where each one deals with a specific part of the operating system. Although many of the icons in Control Panel may look familiar to Windows 95 users, they have almost all been updated in the way they work and the functions they offer, even since OSR2.

If you are not familiar with Windows 95, think of the Control Panel like the Options or Preferences tabs that you find in applications. Here of course they are more important because they store more than just user information about how the operating system looks and operates, but also about the hardware that is running it. If you need to set up or adjust hardware or software, the Control Panel folder is the place to start.

To open the Control Panel folder, either go to the Start menu and choose it from Settings or open My Computer and open it from there. You will find a window that looks similar to the one below. To find out more about the use of individual Control Panel programs, click on one of the icons.

It is now possible to add or remove items from the Control Panel folder view. Using TweakUI for Windows 98 you can choose which items are displayed. This does not affect the properties of the Control Panel or the preferences that you have chosen, but means that once you have the settings you desire, you can remove the relevant Control Panel from view and effectively lock down those settings so that other users cannot accidentally or malicously adjust your settings and stop the PC functioning. It is not really a security measure and you can easily restore the invisible Control Panel in TweakUI, but it does stop novice tampering.