vCon
Every Windows setting in one list. Type three letters, press Enter.
The problem
Windows keeps its settings in four different places and nobody can remember which one a thing is in: the Control Panel, where half of it still lives; the Settings app, where the other half moved to; a management console somewhere in System32 — services.msc, diskmgmt.msc, eventvwr.msc; and a folder with a name like shell:common startup, which is not on any menu at all.
So setting a static IP means knowing it is Control Panel → Network and Sharing Center → Change adapter settings. Stopping something starting with Windows means knowing Task Manager has a Startup tab, and that the all-users startup folder does not appear in it. vCon puts all four in one list and lets you type.
What it does
1The list is read from the machine
Control Panel applets are enumerated from the registry when vCon opens; the tools are checked against the filesystem. So it shows what this machine has — not what the machine it was written on had. A built-in list is wrong on a server, on an older Windows, and on any machine where a driver added an applet of its own.
2In the language Windows is installed in
Windows stores applet names as pointers into a DLL's resources, and vCon resolves them exactly as Explorer does. A German machine shows German names, because that is what is on it.
3The words people actually type
wifi finds Network Connections. uninstall finds Programs and Features. environment variable, resolution, driver, why did it crash — the words somebody stands at a machine and says, not the words Microsoft named things.
4One list, four places
Around forty Control Panel applets, forty administrative tools, twenty Settings pages and eleven shell folders — including both startup folders, which are otherwise a thing you have to know the name of.
5Marked when it matters
Entries that need administrator rights say so. So do the few that deserve a second look — the registry editor, group policy, disk management. Somebody who did not mean to open the registry should be told before they do.
6Favourites, in your order
Pin the six things you open every week and they sit at the top, arranged how you put them. The last dozen you opened are underneath, and can be cleared.
7Keyboard first
Ctrl+F to the search box, type, arrow to the one you want, Enter. F5 looks at the machine again — useful straight after installing a driver.
8Nothing runs in the background
No service, no scheduled task, nothing that starts with Windows. It opens when you open it.
Why it is worth it
Pressing an entry opens the real item — control.exe /name Microsoft.PowerOptions is exactly what Windows itself runs, and Windows' own dialog appears. A settings program that redraws Windows' dialogs shows people a checkbox their machine does not have, or hides one it does.
There are no toggles here that write to the registry, no "recommended settings", nothing that changes a machine on its own. vCon finds things and opens them. Everything that changes a setting is Microsoft's own code, which is the only code that knows what a setting means.
What the window asks for is looked up in the list vCon built before anything opens — so there is no path, URI or command line that can come from elsewhere and be run. Canonical names are checked against an allow-list, and arguments are passed as an array, never as a command line and never through a shell.
Server editions have a different set of applets, and that is exactly where a built-in list fails. vCon reads the machine, so a 2019 or 2022 server shows its own.
How you use it
Three letters is usually enough. fir for the firewall, dev for Device Manager.
Network, display, sound, programs, accounts, system — the Control Panel's own categories, plus the tools and folders.
The six you open every week go to the top and stay there.
vCon looks at the machine again and picks up whatever appeared.
What it needs
| Windows | 10 or 11, 64-bit. Server editions work — and are where reading the machine matters most |
|---|---|
| Installs to | Your user profile — no administrator prompt to install |
| Needs | Nothing else installed first |
| Network | None — vCon never connects to anything |
| Data kept in | Your own profile folder: settings, pinned items, recent list |
What it will not do, said plainly
The Settings app pages are a curated list, not an enumerated one — Windows does not publish a list of them. If a page has been moved or removed in a newer build, that entry opens the Settings app at its front page instead of the page you wanted. That is the benign failure, and it is the only part of vCon that is not read from the machine.
It does not search inside settings. Typing "password expiry" finds Local Security Policy, because that is where the setting lives — not the individual checkbox. Windows does not expose its settings as searchable items, and pretending otherwise would mean a list of things vCon had guessed at.
It changes nothing itself. If you were looking for a program that turns off telemetry or trims services with one press, this is not it, on purpose.
See vCon on your own machine
A short screen-share is usually enough — we open it on your PC, with your files.
Or write to info@issmart.in.
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