Information and help with the Windows control.ini file

What is the Windows control.ini file?

The Windows control.ini file is associated with the Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, and XP Control Panel. This file is used to customize and change how the Control Panel operates and what is seen in the Control Panel.

Earlier versions of Microsoft Windows (Windows 95, 98, and Me) also used this file to configure how Windows displays icons and screen savers, passwords, and other OS (operating system) settings. New versions of Windows such as Windows 2000 and Windows XP still create this file for backward compatibility. However, apart from hiding Control Panel icons this file is no longer used.

Depending on the Windows version, control.ini is either in the c:\windows or c:\winnt directory and may or may not have any data.

How to hide a Control Panel icon using the control.ini file

If you do not want to not delete a particular Control Panel icon, but do want to conceal it so other users can't easily use it, edit the file control.ini. You can perform this action with any text editor, including Notepad. At the beginning of the file add the text [don't load] followed by a space, and the name of the icon to hide.

In the following example, adding the two lines would cause the Passwords icon in Windows 95, 98, and Me to not shown in the Control Panel.

[don't load]
password.cpl=no

The control.ini file re-appears after I delete it

This file is re-created by Windows when Control Panel is opened or Windows is restarted.