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Show-ControlPanelItem

Opens control panel items.

Syntax

Show-ControlPanelItem
    [-Name] <String[]>
    [<CommonParameters>]
Show-ControlPanelItem
    -CanonicalName <String[]>
    [<CommonParameters>]
Show-ControlPanelItem
    [[-InputObject] <ControlPanelItem[]>]
    [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Show-ControlPanelItem cmdlet opens control panel items on the local computer. You can use it to open control panel items by name, category, or description, even on systems that do not have a user interface. You can pipe control panel items from the Get-ControlPanelItem cmdlet to Show-ControlPanelItem.

Show-ControlPanelItem searches only control panel items that can be opened on the system. On computers that do not have Control Panel or File Explorer, Show-ControlPanelItem searches only control panel items that can open without these components.

This cmdlet was introduced in Windows PowerShell 3.0 and works on Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, and higher versions.

Examples

Example 1: Show a control panel item

This example launches the AutoPlay control panel item.

Show-ControlPanelItem -Name "AutoPlay"

Example 2: Pipe a control panel item to this cmdlet

This example opens the Windows Defender Firewall control panel item on the local computer. The name of the Windows Firewall control panel item has changed over the versions of Windows. This example uses a wildcard pattern to find the control panel item.

Get-ControlPanelItem -Name "*Firewall" | Show-ControlPanelItem

Get-ControlPanelItem gets the control panel item and the Show-ControlPanelItem cmdlet opens it.

Example 3: Use a file name to open a control panel item

This example opens the Programs and Features control panel item by using its application name.

appwiz.cpl

This method is an alternative to using a Show-ControlPanelItem command.

Note

In PowerShell, you can omit the .cpl file extension for control panel files because it's included in the value of the $env:PathExt environment variable.

Parameters

-CanonicalName

Specifies control panel items by using the specified canonical names or name patterns. Wildcard characters are permitted. If you enter multiple names, this cmdlet opens control panel items that match any of the names, as if the items in the name list were separated by an OR operator.

Type:String[]
Position:Named
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:True

-InputObject

Specifies control panel items to open by submitting control panel item objects. Enter a variable that contains control panel item objects, or type a command or expression that gets control panel item objects, such as Get-ControlPanelItem.

Type:ControlPanelItem[]
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Name

Specifies names of control panel items. Wildcard characters are permitted. If you enter multiple names, this cmdlet opens control panel items that match any of the names, as if the items in the name list were separated by an OR operator.

Type:String[]
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:True

Inputs

System.String, Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ControlPanelItem

You can pipe a name or control panel item object to this cmdlet.

Outputs

None

This cmdlet does not return any output.