Replacing the Control Panel

[Vurbal]

I am not sure what should happened when I run explorer.exe shell:::{67718415-c450-4f3c-bf8a-b487642dc39b} but I used DOPUS as my explorer replacement and it opens my Desktop (I am running Windows XP SP 3).

-dluby (August 21, 2013, 09:42 AM)

In Vista, it opened the add/remove windows features applet and then sat for ages trying to populate it. I gave up waiting, so I don't know if it would have got there eventually. I can confirm that it doesn't work right in XP -- I have a suspicion that this may only work correctly in at least Vista and possibly Win7.

-oblivion (August 21, 2013, 10:32 AM)

Just to make sure we're on the same page, how did you try launching it in Vista? Run dialog, Command prompt, launchbar, etc...? Was any text , like 'Please wait' maybe, displayed over the empty list? Could you open the applet normally from the Control Panel and then try launching it via command again and let me know any differences you notice? Also do you get a UAC prompt in either case? You can also try launching it with the following command line:

[Select]

%windir%\System32\OptionalFeatures.exe

[oblivion]

Just to make sure we're on the same page, how did you try launching it in Vista?

-Vurbal (August 21, 2013, 12:28 PM)

From a cmd.exe prompt.

It asked for elevated privileges nicely (via a UAC prompt), opened the Windows Features window, put "Please wait..." in the rectangular area below the descriptive bit of text at the top, and I did as it suggested.

I'm doing it now, in fact. Waiting, that is.

Ooh. I was too impatient this morning. It's populated the window with the stuff I'd expected to see. 

You can also try launching it with the following command line:

[Select]

%windir%\System32\OptionalFeatures.exe

Yes, that works too.

Okay, so for what it's worth, it works in Vista. The "it takes ages to populate the dialog" thing might just be because this machine's a few years old -- and, of course, it's running Vista

[Vurbal]

It asked for elevated privileges nicely (via a UAC prompt), opened the Windows Features window, put "Please wait..." in the rectangular area below the descriptive bit of text at the top, and I did as it suggested.

-oblivion (August 21, 2013, 12:48 PM)

Great! I asked about the Please wait... text because when it doesn't work in Windows 7 the Please wait... message doesn't show up either - or sometimes it flashes on the screen for just a split second. As long as you see that it should be working.