Finding the Control Panel applet you need can be difficult, even in Windows 7. First you’ll browse through the categories, then you’ll display the individual applets. Then you’ll try the search, and discover it only works in Category view, so you have to switch back. It’s a real mess.

There is a way to avoid all these navigation hassles, though – just build your own custom Control Panel applet that contains all the features you need. Device Manager, the Event Viewer, Disk Services, Printers, whatever you use most often can easily be assembled into a single tool that means you’ll never have to go browsing for applets again.

To make this happen you’ll first need to launch mmc.exe, the Microsoft Management Console. This is the core utility for many Control Panel applets.

Click File > Add/ Remove Snap-in, scroll down the list of applets on the left, and click one that you regularly use. Device Manager, for instance, is sure to be useful occasionally: select it and click Add > Finish.

Now repeat the process to add other applets. On our test Vista system we chose Disk Management, Event Viewer, Local Users and Groups, Print Management, Reliability and Performance, Reliability Monitor, Services and Task Scheduler, all of which we use regularly.

Your preferred applets will now be in the order in which you’ve added them, but they don’t have to stay that way. If you most often use the Services applet, say, then select that and click Move Up until it’s at the top of the list. Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to rearrange the other applets as you’d like, then click OK.

Over on the left hand side you’ll now see all the tools you’ve selected. Double-click the one you use most often, that will open now in the central pane, and also be displayed first when you reload the applet later.

And if you never use the right-hand Actions pane, and have always wondered what it’s for, then now is the time to get rid of it. Click View > Options, clear the Actions pane box, click OK and it’ll disappear, leaving more room for your applets.

Click File > Save As, give your applet a name like MyApplet.msc, and you’re done. When you need it again then click Start, then Run if you’re using XP, type MyApplet.msc, press [Enter] and there’s no more Control Panel hassles – you’ve instant access to all your chosen applets.