Here is a list of all the control panel shortcuts that every windows administrator should be using in his day to day activity. These applets can also be accessed the primitive way (Start-Settings-Control Panel), but I personally find it useful to call these cpl files directly(from run prompt) saving time and unnecessary clicks. These are really helpful when you work on a remote server sessions having some amount of latency e.g. connecting a server through ILO or rdp through a slow wan link.

1. Appwiz.cpl – Functions performed -Add remove programs/view windows updates/enable or disable windows features.

2. desk.cpl – Functions performed – display,screen resolution, screen orientation settings and advance display driver level settings.

3. hdwwiz.cpl – Device Manager- Used to verify connected hardware and drivers, Install or uninstall drivers for particular hardware and also for version rollback of certain drivers.

4. inetcpl.cpl – Internet Explorer Properties- Functions like enabling proxy settings, clearing cache or cookies, configuring various security settings for IE etc

5. main.cpl – Mouse settings

6. ncpa.cpl – Network Settings

Functions performed – configure or view network adapters , enable or disable network adapters, renaming network connections, diagnose network connection, bridge networks etc.

7. powercfg.cpl – Power Configuration settings , create a customize power plan, change settings of the existing preferred power plans etc.

8. sysdm.cpl – Configure System Properties like change hostname, add host to domain or work group, give a description to the computer, advance settings like DEP, start up and recovery, environment variables configuration etc

9. timedate.cpl – Date and Time/timezone  settings panel

10. firewall.cpl – Configures Firewall settings like enable/disable firewall, configure existing firewall settings and create new ones, helps accessing advance features like windows firewall and security console etc.