New
#1
Removing a control panel that doesn't have a CPL file?
I use an application that installs itself as both 32 bit and 64 bit versions. I have no idea why, just bad programming I guess (I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit). As such its control panel shows up twice in Control Panels. It's a small complaint I know but for the sake of having OCD I'd rather there only be one version of the cp.
Despite Googling for a while on this subject I can't find a proper solution. I've seen plenty of suggestions mentioning removing/renaming the associated cpl file but, this control panel doesn't appear to use a cpl file, I can't find one at any rate. The only thing I can even vaguely find referencing it is in the Registry. I tried deleting those keys but the 32bit control panel persists (so I restored them for now).
Those registry keys mention a DLL file, inside the program's installation folder, and sure enough there are two, one called ControlPanelResources.dll and the other ControlPanelResources64.dll. As stated the app is configured to install itself twice, seemingly, the 32bit and the 64bit version, all in the same place -Program Files (x86).
I have also looked in the registry under the usual areas relating to control panels; HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Control Panel, but there are no keys in there referencing these control panels. The keys I found are elsewhere in the registry.
Any ideas? All I want to do is remove the 32bit instance from control panels, nothing else. But clearly the cpl (if there is one) is hidden away somewhere I can't find even by searching with a wildcard for *.cpl. I suspect those DLL's are to do with this? However surly there's a key in the registry I simply have to delete to remove that CP from the list. Is there a way or a method I should follow to find out exactly what key?
Or, in fact is there another way of having control panels show up in the list other than the registry and via cpls? The control panel itself is afterall really just a shotcut to the program since that's what the program is, a control panel (it's not for instance a program that has a control panel as a separate entity).