Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with controlpanel

Why can't I "Add/Remove Programs?"

wordwhiz — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 15:16:24 -0800

"Add/Remove Programs" in Control Panel won't let me remove some programs. Help! My XP laptop has a gremlin. When I open the Control Panel and select "Add/Remove Programs," several of the apps do not have the "Change/Remove" option. Most do, but not all. (Naturally, the few I want to ditch don't have it.) Any suggestions?

BTW, one of the apps I want to remove (and reinstall) is the driver for my Microsoft Digital Media Pro keyboard. In the middle of a session the @$*&% keyboard will sometimes simply stop functioning. Letters, numbers, function keys and those dedicated buttons to launch e-mail and my browser - kaput. I have to reboot to bring it back to life.

Neither of these are brand-new problems, so I don't think it's something I recently installed. Any ideas will be mucho appreciated

Please help me disable ClearType!

bonaldi — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:21:11 -0800

How can I turn off ClearType by nefarious methods? Help mine poor eyes A recent update to university PCs to XP Pro has set the screen res to way less than our new flat panels' optimum, and turned on ClearType. Are our IT people blind?

I can't fix this easily, because they've locked down the Control Panel -- the folder comes up as empty. I managed to fix the screen res with a driver thing I found in the SysTray, but have had no luck with turning off ClearType.

I can't install the ClearType tuner or go into the advanced tab in IE to turn it off there.

Any ideas?

Note for indignant SAs: yes, you are quite within your rights to do such things, and a reasonable request may possibly get this fixed, sometime, in the future. I'm impatient.

I'm looking for an application which would let me save settings across several control panels in Windows XP.

DevilsAdvocate — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 09:20:29 -0800

I'm looking for an application which would let me save settings across several control panels in Windows XP. I'd be willing to pay a reasonable amount. [Example inside] For example, I might like to have one group of settings called "Home" which would have the sound volume at 1/2 maximum, the marquee screensaver (reading "AskMe Rocks!") set to come on after 5 minutes of inactivity, a certain screen brightness; and another called, say, "Library" which would have the sound muted, the starfield screensaver coming on after 2 minutes of inactivity, and a different level for screen brightness. I'd like to be able to somehow save these groups of settings across various control panels and easily switch from one group to another, without having to go into each individual control panel and make changes there. Currently, I'm doing this 2-3 times a day and it's getting annoying going into 3 or 4 different control panels to make the changes I want.