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I am a local admin on a Windows Server 2008 R2 DataCenter machine, but when I remote into the server and open the Control Panel, almost all of the items are gone or missing.

Could there be a security setting somewhere that is preventing these from displaying?

Empty Control Panel

If I click on Control Panel Home, here's a screenshot of my only options: Date and Time, Fonts, Keyboard, and Mouse.

EEAA
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KyleMit
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    What does the output from gpresult /h gpresult.html show for the control panel settings? – Greg Askew Oct 06 '14 at 17:59
  • @GregAskew, thanks. After running the Group Policy Results, I see that ["Show only specified Control Panel items" has been enabled](http://i.imgur.com/EEUcj8q.png) – KyleMit Oct 06 '14 at 18:42

1 Answers1

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As GregAskew pointed out, I was able to survey the Group Policy Settings by going to the command prompt and using gpresult:

gpresult /h gpresult.html

This helped identify the fact that a group policy was in effect to "Show only specified Control Panel items":

gp result

If you have permissions, you can locally override this by enabling this setting on the Local Group Policy Editor

First, run gpedit.msc from the command prompt, then navigate to:
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel

Group Policy Editor

Now you can add in Control Panel Items you want to see.

You can generate a list of Control Panel Items by going to C:\Windows\System32 and searching for "*.cpl"

KyleMit
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