How to remove an invalid icon from Control Panel?

Posted on October 2, 2010, 1:01 pm

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How to remove an invalid icon from Control Panel?

Summary

When you open Control Panel, you may see a invalid or non-functioning icon, which was probably left behind after a incomplete uninstall of a software.
Control Panel items can be registered as a namespace, or it can be implemented in a DLL (with .CPL extension) that exports the CPlApplet function.

Removing the invalid icon from Control Panel

Determining the corresponding .CPL file name

To determine the corresponding .CPL file for an invalid or non-functioning Control Panel item, use these steps:

• 1. Click Start, Control Panel Right-click the invalid icon and choose Create Shortcut
  Click Yes when you see the following dialog:

Windows cannot create a shortcut here. Do you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop instead?

In the Desktop, right-click the newly created shortcut and choose Properties.

Click the Change Icon button.
You'll then see the actual CPL file name in the resulting dialog.
Using the CPL file name, you should be able to trace the respective application.

If that application has already been uninstalled, then you may simply delete the .CPL file as you no longer require that. (Thanks to Mike Williams for the above tip.)

If the Change Icon button does not show the file name, use the following method:

Click Start, Run and type notepad.exe
From the File menu in Notepad, choose Open...
In the Files of type: drop-down, select All Files
Select the shortcut that was created earlier, and click Open.
Determine the .cpl file name using the Find oion in Notepad.

If there are no reference to a .cpl,
then the invalid icon is most likely a namespace entry implemented in the registry.
In that case, use the following method to manage Control Panel namespace items.