How to display Settings screens or Control Panel Applets in Windows Mobile?

Windows Mobile Control Panel applets are normal dlls renamed with special extension .cpl. They are actually loaded by ctlpnl.exe process.

Following code snipped is what you need if you want to show a Control Panel applet from your program. This way you make it easy for your user to change desired settings, without any “complex” navigation.

BOOL ShowControlPanelApplet(int id)
{
TCHAR szParams[32];
SHELLEXECUTEINFO execinfo = {0};
memset(&execinfo, 0, sizeof(execinfo));
execinfo.cbSize=sizeof(execinfo);
execinfo.lpFile=TEXT(“\windows\ctlpnl.exe”);
execinfo.lpVerb=TEXT(“open”);
// Id value determines which control applet will be launched
// For e.g. 23 for bluetooth applet
wsprintf(szParams, L”cplmain.cpl,%d”, id);
execinfo.lpParameters = szParams;
BOOL bRet=ShellExecuteEx(&execinfo);
return bRet;
}

The parameter id refers to the control panel applet that you want to show. Below is the table of id values and the corresponding applet names.

Control Panel Applet Id Values

1 Password
2 Owner Information
3 Power
4 Memory
5 About
6 Brightness
7 Screen
8 Input
9 Sounds & Notifications
10 Remove Programs
11 Menus
12 Buttons
13 Today
14
15 Beam
16 Clocks & Alarms
17 Configure Network Adapters
18 Regional Settings
19 Connections
20
21
22 Manage Certificates
23 Bluetooth
24 Error Reporting
25 GPS Settings
26
27 USB to PC

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