One of the biggest annoyances for me in Windows 7 or Vista is that you can’t immediately open the Network Connections list to see the list of adapters like you could in XP.

In Windows XP, you could right-click any network connection and select “Open Network Connections”, but in Windows Vista, the only option you have is to open the Network and Sharing Center via the same right-click menu.

To immediately open the connection list, you can just type ncpa.cpl into the Start menu search box:

And up pops the network connection list just like I’m used to:

You can also create a shortcut somewhere to the full file path if you want even easier access.

Just use C:\windows\system32\ncpa.cpl as the location of the shortcut.

Note that we’ve also tested this on Windows 7 as well.

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Lowell is the founder and CEO of How-To Geek. He’s been running the show since creating the site back in 2006. Over the last decade, Lowell has personally written more than 1000 articles which have been viewed by over 250 million people. Prior to starting How-To Geek, Lowell spent 15 years working in IT doing consulting, cybersecurity, database management, and programming work.
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