How to Open the Control Panel in Windows 10
The Control Panel in Windows is a very important component that allows you to change system settings from this one place. Although the Settings app is succeeding it, it’s still useful in certain situations, and here is how to open Control Panel in Windows 10.
As the Control Panel is being phased out, it seems more difficult to access. It’s no longer in the places that you could get to it in earlier builds of Windows.
So we have put together the steps in order to get to the Control Panel in the quickest and easiest way possible.
Steps to open the Control Panel
- Open the Start Menu.
- Type ‘control panel’ and click on ‘Control Panel’ in the result at the top of the Start Menu.

Alternative method – Using the keyboard
- Open the Run dialog box by pressing and holding down the Windows Key and tapping ‘R’, and releasing the Windows key.
- Type ‘control panel’ in the open box and left-click on ‘OK’.

Windows Control Panel

The layout and search
Its layout is very similar to the Windows Settings app. You have a group of categorized settings for each item initially presented in it.
The search function allows you to find settings by narrowing the related settings to the letters you type into the search box.
Create a shortcut to your taskbar
Once you have opened the Control Panel, right-click on the icon in the taskbar and left-click Pin to taskbar.

What’s the shortcut key to open the Control Panel?
Unfortunately, no shortcut key does this directly.
The fastest method to access the Control Panel is to create a permanent shortcut in your taskbar (as shown above), making it accessible with just a click of a mouse button.
Conclusion
Although it’s a component that is being phased out, I still find it useful, and I tend to access everything easier in terms of UI and usability. Of course, that is only my opinion.
Hopefully, this has helped you to open up the Control Panel in Windows 10 easily enough.