I am used to working with built-in MMC consoles and control panel files. I know most of them by heart. I always tell my students to remember the most common ones in order to manage Windows systems better and more efficiently – no matter what version of Windows they have. Here is my top 10 list of all mmc consoles and cpl files shipped with Windows operating systems.

Before I start with my personal favorites, a nice overview of all MMC and cpl files which can be found on all current Windows systems. Open PowerShell and run the command below to get a list of all mmc and cpl files.

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Windows\system32\* -Include *.msc, *.cpl | Sort-Object -Property Extension | Select-Object -Property Name | Format-Wide -Column 5

1. compmgmt.msc

To get an overview of your computer and to manage your system open the search or press ALT + R  and type compmgmt.msc.

2. eventvwr.msc

To open the Windows Event Viewer run eventvwr.msc.

3. fsmgmt.msc

In order to manage your file shares go directly to them via the Shared Folders MMC console.

4. lusrmgr.msc

Hard to find, but hereby it’s directly accessible. Managing local users and groups with lusrmgr.msc.

5. services.msc

To get directly to the Windows services run services.msc.

6. taskschd.msc

This opens the Scheduled Task snap-in.

7. wf.msc

For opening the Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security snap-in run wf.msc.

8. ncpa.cpl

Go directly to your network interfaces with ncpa.cpl.

9. certmgr.msc | certlm.msc

Certmgr.msc opens the snap-in for managing certificates of the logged on user account. Certlm.msc does the same for the computer account.

10. dsa.msc

Undoubtedly, the most commonly used MMC snap-in for Active Directory management is dsa.msc, which opens Active Directory users and computers.