Install Control Panel submenus in the Start menu

If you’re any kind of PC tweaker, like we are, you spend way too much time inside the Windows Control Panel. One of the quibbles we’ve had with past versions of Windows was the several layers of clicks you’d have to negotiate to get into the depths of Control Panel—especially with the Category as opposed to Classic view of the panel that was the default with Vista.

In Windows 7, you can set up the OS to allow you direct access to individual Control Panel items straight from the Start menu. To set this up, right-click the Start button in the taskbar, and choose Properties from the resulting context menu. In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box that pops up, click the Start Menu tab, then the Customize button. Under the subcategory named Control Panel on the ensuing screen, choose Display as a menu. It's here:

Now, when you click Control Panel in the Start menu, you’ll get a selection list that shows all the same Control Panel sub-items that you’d get if you launched the Control Panel into its own window. It looks like this: