Restore Appearance and Personalization to Windows 10 Control Panel

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  1. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
       New #1

    Restore Appearance and Personalization to Windows 10 Control Panel


    I would like to restore task links to Appearance and Personalization in Win10 Control Panel Category View.

    I have been able to successfully add the old Personalization, Color and Appearance, and Desktop Background according to TenForums Tutorials.

    Add Personalize (classic) context menu in Windows 10 How to Add Desktop Background to Control Panel in Windows How to Add Color and Appearance to Control Panel in Windows

    These tutorials restore the applets in Large/Small Icon view but not in Category view. What I would like to do is add the above back to Category view. I attached pics of what I want to do: Specifically, in the "adjust your computer's settings" I would like to restore the shortcuts under Appearance and Personalization (1st pic) and the task list shortcuts under the Personalization and Notification Icons headings in Pic 2. I think you can create a simple tasklist.xml document, and reference it from a ShowInternalTaskListURL string in the registry key that add the applet back to control panel. So my intention is not for any hard-core certificaiton or re-building of shell32.dll file. Just create a simple xml document to reference in the registry. I believe the xml file I want is in themecpl.dll in this case.

    From what I understand, some sort of task list.xml document can restore the links in Category view, according to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ectedfrom=MSDN. I found a rather old and complete control panel task list from Win7 or Vista on Scribed of all places and removed all sections relating to Personalization. I included a snippet of the xml code below. It looks like the two snippets add "change the theme" and "change screensaver" to the Personalization heading in the second pic. I have been able to do that much but am having trouble deciphering all of the code.

    What I am looking to do is figure out how to add the links back to Appearance in the first figure. I also have no idea what the condition and parameters in the second set of XML does.

    Do you know who I could ask that knows about this stuff? I always see good answers from knowledgeable folks on StackExchange but I have tried posting and never get any replies. Do you have any suggestions?Restore Appearance and Personalization to Windows 10 Control Panel-appear_3-.png
    Restore Appearance and Personalization to Windows 10 Control Panel-category.jpg

    <?xml version="1.0" ?>
    <applications xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/cpltasks/v1"
    xmlns:sh="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/tasks/v1">

    <application id="{ED834ED6-4B5A-4BFE-8F11-A626DCB6A921}">

    <sh:task id="{AF3BA0EC-B240-401E-B4EE-3E89F275205B}">
    <sh:name>@shell32.dll,-24369</sh:name>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25067</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25084</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25194</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25085</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25235</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25070</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25233</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25234</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25213</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25393</sh:keywords>
    <sh2:controlpanel name="Microsoft.Personalization"/>
    <sh:command>explorer shell:::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}</sh:command>
    </sh:task>

    <sh:task id="{DF7B19EF-DEA5-47D7-BBA5-9FCBE400A59D}">
    <sh:name>@shell32.dll,-24367</sh:name>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25067</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25194</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25080</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25070</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25182</sh:keywords>
    <sh:keywords>@shell32.dll,-25213</sh:keywords>
    <sh:command>%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe
    shell32.dll,Control_RunDLLdesk.cpl,screensaver @Screensaver</sh:command>
    <sh:conditions>
    <sh:condition name="shcond://v1#RegValEquals" invert="true">
    <sh:parameter name="Regkey" value="HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
    Manager\Environment"/>
    <sh:parameter name="Regval" value="PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE"/><sh:parameter name="RegvalExpected"
    value="ARM"/></sh:condition>
    </sh:conditions>
    </sh:task>

    - - - Updated - - -
    @dalchina
    I cannot see a reply.
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  3. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
    Thread Starter
       New #2

    Any suggestions?
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  4. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    I figured it out!

    Restore Appearance and Personalization to Windows 10 Control Panel-controlpanel1.png
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  6. Anotyx
    Posts : 3
    Windows 10 1709
       New #4

    So is there any tutorial on how to restore it?
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  7. Berton
    Posts : 14,018
    Win10 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home, Win7, Linux Mint
       New #5

    It's been over a year so maybe there is in the Tutorial section of the Forum. Based upon your 25 Apr 2021 #4 I figured it out!
    maybe you could write about how you did it.
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  8. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
    Thread Starter
       New #6

    Sure. Most of the work was done a year ago so I forgot some details but here is the gist of what I did.

    There is a tasklist schema xml document embedded into shell32.dll or shell32.dll.mui that links keywords to specific control panel applets. For example, if you launch control panel in category mode, type "theme" in the search box, the old (windows 7 and previous) behavior was to show Personalization with "change the theme", "change windows colors", and Personalize your computer" options you can click to go to the old "change the visuals and sounds on your computer" window (the old theme dialog, not the new settings version). But rather than modify an important system file, I actually found the control panel task list that was exported as a pdf file on Scribd. I cut out all of the lines except for those that deal with Notification Panel Icons and Personalization. A lot of tedious work but in the end, the modified xml document is attached to this message.

    Rather than modify shell32.dll and have the changes erased during every major windows update, rename the *.txt file to *.xml file, copy the task list to some location that the file is safe. I saved the task list to %systemroot% directory.

    Then create a new key in registry editor for Classic Personalization and Classic Notification Area Icons each with unique GUIDs. The default location for the task list is "internal" suggesting it might be in shell32.dll. What you need to do instead is create a new expandable string called "System.Software.TasksFileUrl" and point it in the directory of your task list. I attached the reg file to the message as well.

    The tasks should be available after an explorer restart.

    Please note that I was not able to get the tasks to show up in the control panel category view main window, only in the appearance and personalization window. Any suggestions on how to get the tasks to show up on the main category view window? If someone could locate the proper registry key for the category view of control panel, I might be able to whip up a modified schema as well.

    @Brink would it be worth preparing a tutorial?

    Please let me know if you have any questions.

    Thanks!
    Restore Appearance and Personalization to Windows 10 Control Panel Attached Files
    Last edited by bamajon1974; 08 Jul 2022 at 16:08.
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  9. Brink
    Posts : 68,917
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       New #7

    Hello mate,

    Would this below be for the same?

    Add Personalization to Control Panel in Windows 10
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  10. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    Brink said:
    Hello mate,

    Would this below be for the same?

    Add Personalization to Control Panel in Windows 10
    Good afternoon @Brink

    Actually, my modifications would be an extension to your tutorial. I took your reg files and used unique CLSIDs for the Personalization and Notification applets and not use or modify the existing ones. Then I added all of the other entries found in other control panel keys.

    The addition comes from the tasklist schema document I made and tied to the new registry entries made above. See the attached picture. I was able to get the tasks added to the appearance and personalization control panel window but not the main category view control panel window. Any idea of where the category view control panel items in the registry would be?

    Also, what do the InProcServer32, ThreadingModel, Instance, InitPropertyBag keys/strings do? And in the ShellEx keys, what are the choices for the attributes and foldervalueflags?

    Thanks!Restore Appearance and Personalization to Windows 10 Control Panel-capture.png
    Last edited by bamajon1974; 10 Jul 2022 at 13:37.
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  12. Anotyx
    Posts : 3
    Windows 10 1709
       New #9

    Is there a way for Windows NOT to redirect "Desktop Backgrounds" and "Color" to the settings on 2004? Thanks.
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  13. bamajon1974
    Posts : 521
    Win7 Pro X64, Win10 Pro x640
    Thread Starter
       New #10

    bamajon1974 said:
    Good afternoon @Brink

    Actually, my modifications would be an extension to your tutorial. I took your reg files and used unique CLSIDs for the Personalization and Notification applets and not use or modify the existing ones. Then I added all of the other entries found in other control panel keys.

    The addition comes from the tasklist schema document I made and tied to the new registry entries made above. See the attached picture. I was able to get the tasks added to the appearance and personalization control panel window but not the main category view control panel window. Any idea of where the category view control panel items in the registry would be?

    Also, what do the InProcServer32, ThreadingModel, Instance, InitPropertyBag keys/strings do? And in the ShellEx keys, what are the choices for the attributes and foldervalueflags?

    Thanks!Restore Appearance and Personalization to Windows 10 Control Panel-capture.png
    Good afternoon @Brink. Did you ever have a chance to read my response to this post?

    Thanks!
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