In your car, the dashboard acts as sort of a control panel, in that all the buttons and switches you need to work the stereo, heater, lights, and so forth are right in reach of the driver's seat. In Windows XP, the folder named Control Panel provides access to all the dialog boxes that contain controls for controlling Windows settings. "Settings" in Windows are things that determine the overall appearance and behavior of Windows XP.
There are more settings in Windows than could possibly be described in a single article. Which is actually OK because you'd probably never use any more than about 10% of all settings anyway. But you do want to know how to open Control Panel. That part is simple. You just click the Start button and choose Control Panel, as in Figure 1.
Figure 1
When Control Panel is open, there are two different ways you can view its contents. One is called the Category View, shown in Figure 2. This is the least intimidating view, because it shows you "categories" of settings you can change. You click on a category name to see icons or settings that apply only to that category.
Figure 2
If you want to see the "classic Control panel view" (so named because it was the only view available in older versions of Windows), click on "Switch to Classic View" circled in red above in Figure 2.
The Classic View in Control Panel shows an icon for each dialog box, in alphabetical order. There's no categorization in Classic View -- just all the icons, as in Figure 3.
Figure 3
If Control Panel opens in Classic View, and you want to switch to Category view, just click on "Switch to Category View", circled in red in Figure 3 above.
Using one view or another is simply a matter of personal taste -- there is no "right view", "wrong view", "good view", or "bad view". Though I would think that a beginner might prefer the less intimidating Category view.
Once you get past the first page of Control Panel, you don't have the option of switching views. But you can always click the Back button (shown below) in Control Panel's toolbar to work your way back to that first page, where the option to switch to Category View or Classic View will again be visible.
Alan Simpson