How to restrict access to Control Panel with Folder Guard:
It is not obvious, but the commands that appear in Windows Control Panel are handled by the special system files of the type "Control Panel extension" (their names have the extension .CPL). For example, the DESK.CPL file is responsible for the Display command of Control Panel, TIMEDATE.CPL - for the Date and Time command, and so on. (Some of the .CPL files are responsible for more than one command of Control Panel).
This information gives us a method of restricting access to the commands of Control Panel with Folder Guard: we simply need to restrict access to the appropriate .CPL file with Folder Guard, that would make Windows unable to use that file, and it would effectively prevent access to the appropriate command of Control Panel.
Here is the list of the common .CPL files and the Control Panel commands each of the files is responsible for:
| .CPL file | Control Panel command(s) |
| ACCESS.CPL | Accessibility Options |
| APPWIZ.CPL | Add/Remove Programs |
| DESK.CPL | Display |
| HDWWIZ.CPL | Add/Remove Hardware |
| INETCPL.CPL | Internet settings, user accounts on Windows 95,98,Me |
| INFRARED.CPL | Infrared |
| INTL.CPL | Regional settings |
| JOY.CPL | Game Controllers |
| MAIN.CPL | Fonts, Keyboard, Mouse, PC Card (PCMCIA), Printers |
| MMSYS.CPL | Sounds |
| MODEM.CPL | Modems |
| NCPA.CLP | Network connections |
| NETCPL.CPL | Network settings |
| NUSRMGR.CPL | User manager on Windows XP |
| ODBCCP32.CPL | ODBC Data Source Administrator |
| PASSWORD.CPL | Passwords |
| POWERCFG.CPL | Power Management |
| SYSDM.CPL | System |
| TELEPHON.CPL | Telephony |
| THEMES.CPL | Desktop Themes |
| TIMEDATE.CPL | Date/Time |
(You may have other CPL files, or not all of the files listed above, depending on your version of Windows and other software installed on your computer).
How to use this list? Very simple:
- Find the command of Control Panel in the table that you want to restrict with Folder Guard;
- Determine the name of the .CPL file that is responsible for that command;
- Run Folder Guard and use its Edit - Add file command to add the desired .CPL file(s) to the main window of Folder Guard. (See How to hide a file for more information on how to protect files with Folder Guard). The .CPL files are usually located in the Windows system folder, such as C:\Windows\System, C:\Windows\System32, and similar. Note that you may not actually see the .CPL extensions when browsing the system folder, your Windows Explorer may be configured not to display the known file name extensions. If this is the case, look for the files of the type "Control Panel extension".
- Now assign the no access attribute to the .CPL file you want to protect. For example, if you want to restrict access to the Display Properties command of Control Panel, you need to assign the no access attribute to the desk.cpl file:
- Finally, enable the protection, as usual, and observe the effect: the command that you have restricted may still be visible in Control Panel, but when you attempt to use it, nothing should happen, the command should not work.
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