How to Add or Remove Control Panel on Win+X Menu in Windows 10  

Thanks, Shawn. I'll probably stick to accessing CP via the desktop toolbar anyway, and leave modifying the WinX menu alone in future if WinX is likely to revert to Microsoft's chosen layout with every new build.

I just noticed on Win 10 pro build 14986 all the right click start items do not go to the correct control panel items. how annoying. They are all going to the Start->Settings menu.

Thanks Brink. My desktop is currently NOT running inside preview. I'm running build 14986 on a VM. I saved the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WinX for future builds.

Possibly grave-digging, but I CAN confirm that this one works on the newest build (1703, "Creator's Update").

I even wrote a batch script to do this entirely self-contained without needing any files downloaded - just copy and paste in Notepad, name it go.bat or anything ending in .bat and run it.

Nifty little trick that uses the built-in certificate encoding/decoding engine so I can just embed the data inside. Shortcut data comes from a clean install of 1607, the last one to keep the legacy control panel in WinX.

Code:

@echo off
(
echo -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
echo TAAAAAEUAgAAAAAAwAAAAAAAAEaAAwACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAJMAAAAJAACgLQAAADFTUFPiilhG
echo vEw4Q7v8E5MmmG3OEQAAAAAAAAAAEwAAAAAAAAAAAAAALQAAADFTUFNVKEyfeZ85
echo S6jQ4dQt4dXzEQAAABIAAAAAEwAAAAEAAAAAAAAALQAAADFTUFN7LY370ZA0Tr9g
echo bqwJkiu/EQAAAAIAAAAAEwAAAMXWDYUAAAAAAAAAABQDAAABAACgJXdpbmRpciVc
echo c3lzdGVtMzJcY29udHJvbC5leGUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAlAHcAaQBuAGQAaQByACUAXABzAHkAcwB0AGUAbQAzADIAXABj
echo AG8AbgB0AHIAbwBsAC4AZQB4AGUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
echo AAAAAAAAAA==
echo -----END CERTIFICATE-----
)>shortcut.tmp
certutil -decode shortcut.tmp "4 - Control Panel.lnk" >nul
del shortcut.tmp
move /y "4 - Control Panel.lnk" "%LocalAppdata%\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\Group2"

Fafhrd said:

When +x to open is used from the keyboard, the menu entries have underlined hotkey shortcuts, but not the Control Panel entry obtained using this tutorial method:

Attachment 110859

Is there any way to restore the shortcut function in this case? This was 1607,with the P of Panel underlined:
Attachment 110861

Has anyone been able to figure out a way of doing this yet? Just updated to 1703 and been trying to edit Win+X menu then set a key to be used to open shortcuts in the list but cant seem to find any information on how to do this?

Hawklight said:

Has anyone been able to figure out a way of doing this yet? Just updated to 1703 and been trying to edit Win+X menu then set a key to be used to open shortcuts in the list but cant seem to find any information on how to do this?

Put an ampersand '&' in front of the P in the shortcut filename e.g. "Control &Panel" in %LocalAppdata%\Microsoft\Windows\WinX\Group2. Restart explorer and you should have the shortcut key back.
I've tried changing other shortcut keys but they don't seem to work but the control panel one does.