This is one of the mainstays of the Windows 95 Operating System and it remains almost intact in Windows 98. The purpose of the Control Panel is threefold. The first is through the Install/Uninstall tab which acts as a depository for non-Operating System applications installed on the machine. As long as a program has had an Uninstall created in a compliant way (not all are) then it will appear as an entry in the list in this tab. You can then choose a program and click on Add/Remove to uninstall it. Some packages that don't appear in here can be uninstalled through a custom uninstall in their program group, if the program has one. If you remove a package manually and want to remove an item from the Uninstall list, or want to remove one to stop anyone from being able to uninstall it, you can do this with TweakUI.

The Windows Setup tab performs the same function as the Install/Uninstall tab, but purely for Operating System files and accessories. If you find a reference to a part of the system that you can't find, then it is because it wasn't installed by default - not every program that comes on the Windows 98 CD is installed when you upgrade. This Setup tab allows you to add the missing components by a simple check box method - if the entire program group is installed a tick box with a white background is displayed in the list of Components. If the box is grey, or has no tick, it means some or all elements of the group aren't installed. Double click on the group and a list of the program group components will be shown. Tick/Untick the ones you want added or removed and when you click on OK, the system will ask for the Windows 98 CD and install the missing components for you and remove any ones you have taken out. Items will appear as usual in the Start menu under Programs, Accessories. Unlike Windows 95 which simply lists the files it knows have been installed, Windows 98 performs a search on the system every time you click on this tab to see what is installed. However, this does not detect if a component has been removed without using this tab or if it has been damaged by the user. However to reduce the chance of the latter happening, Windows 98 does now contain a folder warning system for the system folders.

The last tab, Startup Disk, simply contains one button that allows you to create an emergency boot disk that contains the startup files for Windows 98, with all the files necessary to boot the system from floppy and to allow you to get at possible problem areas like the Registry. This remains the same in function to the same tab under Windows 95.