Shortcut for Display Settings

I frequently attach and detach an external monitor my laptop, and I like to dual monitor and change my primary monitor to the external one. the Fn + F7 button does not do this for me. Is there a way to customize it? I also tried dragging the link to my desktop to make a shortcut, and that didn't work either.

I am on a Thinkpad T61 and running vista home premium.

The Display Settings button is under personalization in the control panel, and this window does not comprise of icons, instead links.

Any ideas/suggestions?

 

maybe...

right click your desktop, choose NEW > SHORTCUT
in the box that says "TYPE THE LOCATION...."

type
control.exe desk.cpl,@0,3
click NEXT
Give it a name
click finish

Double click this new shortcut....work?

 

oh wow... umm yeah this works perfectly.

 

Ok, so what is the ",@0,3" part of this all about??? This looks intriguing!

Gary

 

I knew I should have put that in...now I got 3 pms asking the same question and I've already answered awkwardly a couple times, so for posterity and in its more complete explanation

OK
you can actually create a shortcut to a control panel applet and have that work "ok" for you

CONTROL.EXE adds some function to the process

So
control.exe desk.cpl,@0,3
means

CONTROL the DESK.CPL (desktop control panel), with the following parameters (@ means parameters to follow) and initiate the FIRST function (0=first, 1=second, 2=third, etc) and then open the FOURTH tab after the default tab (again, 0=first tab, 1 = second tab, etc).

It's a little confusing, so let me amplify. DESK.cpl has only one function, so the first parameter for it is 0...ok, that's easy

The default tab is GENERAL so you would think this would mean that 0 is the first tab, or THEMES, but THEMES is really no parameter.
blank = Themes
0=deskstop
1=screensaver
2=Appearance
3=Settings

You could do this at least as far back as windows 98 and to be honest with you, I never tried it on VISTA, but I've used it to quick jump to DESKTOP and SETTINGS for years.

You can do this with ANY *.CPL file

Some have additional functions.....I use it mainly for main.cpl and sysdm.cpl

for example
control main.cpl,@0
opens the mouse control panel applet
control main.cpl,@1
opens the keyboard control panel applet

There are a lot of possibilities

So, a short cut with this
control.exe desk.cpl,@0,2
Opens the

 

Hmm. How do you determine the Functions and Tabs? Vista doesn't show the tabs like XP did. Are these documented anywhere?

Pretty cool!

Gary

 

honestly don't know about vista--haven't tried it

not sure where it might be documented....I'm sure I read it once somewhere, but I have more or less internalized it

I use it for display tabs and for mouse access mostly so those are the ones I remember, but you can do it with any .cpl file--whether there are additional functions would be trial and error

 

Works fine for Vista - just tried it then and worked like a charm

Cheers

 

A shortcut to open the device manager would be nice.

 

Wow,this is pretty neat.
I want the same thing as @Wirelessman though.
I do a lot of driver changing and a shortcut to the device manager would save me some annoying clicking.

 

So, what would it be called? devicemanager.cpl?

 

Here are all the cpl files.

Some of them don't work like netcpl.cpl.

The closest command for our purpose would be sysdm.cpl, two steps process.

 

It`s too late for me right not, 1AM , I`m dead tired.I`ll see about it tomorrow.
I`m gonna fiddle around with this command,I like it

 

Good night mate or rather good morning!