Isolation of Control Panel (CPL) Files

Frequent contributor Harsh is sharing some wisdom regarding Control Panel files and, more specifically, how to isolate these files in your installation directory.

Each tool in the Control Panel is represented by a .cpl file in the "[%systemDrive]\Windows\System" Folder. The ".cpl" files in the Windows\System folder are loaded automatically when you start the Control Panel.

Third-party software and hardware manufacturers can add Control Panel icons to provide an interface for setting configuration options for their products. An icon appears in Control Panel when the .cpl file is placed in the Windows\System folder by the program's Setup tool.

You can create a shortcut to a Control Panel tool by dragging an icon from Control Panel to the desktop or another location, or by manually creating a shortcut and specifying the path to a .cpl file.

Now most important, you can isolate this CPL file into your installation directory. For example, you can move your CPL file into the <Program Files>\<Application Folder>.

For this you need to do the following:

1. Create a new component (Can be Logical named as per the Scripter's Choice) in the required feature.
2. Add the CPL file to that component.
3. After that you need to add registry.
   (If you're placing a CPL file in the System32 folder, you're not required to add this registry but when you move your CPL file to the application folder, you need to add this registry else Your Control Panel entry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\Cpls

Name=MYCPL
TYPE=REG_SZ
Data="Path of CPL File Name" 
example Data can be "c:\Progra~1\MyAPP\MyCpl.Cpl"

Try to use SFN (Short File Name for Data Value in registry Entry).

This way you can avoid the conflicts for CPL files too.