ms-settings Commands in Windows 10 (Settings Page URI Shortcuts)

The List of ms-settings Commands in Windows 10 (Settings Page URI Shortcuts)

You can use these commands to directly open any Settings page in Windows 10. Also, you can create shortcuts for any page of Settings. The Settings app in Windows 10 replaces the classic Control Panel. It consists of many pages and inherits a lot of classic settings. Almost every Settings page has its own URI, which stands for Uniform Resource Identifier. This allows you to open any Settings page directly with a special command. Here is the most comprehensive list of such commands.

The Settings app in Windows 10 replaces the classic Control Panel. It consists of many pages and inherits a lot of classic settings. Almost every Settings page has its own URI, which stands for Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). It starts with the 'ms-settings' prefix (protocol).

As you may remember, previously I covered the ms-settings commands available in Windows 10 in a few posts, separately for each of Windows 10 versions. Today I would like to actualize the list of the commands, and summarize the info into one post. I also will maintain the list and keep it actual as long as it possible, so that you can use it to open various pages of the Settings app directly. Bookmark this page if you rely on ms-settings: commands.

How to use ms-settings commands in Windows 10

Open any page directly

1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.
2. Type or copy-paste an ms-settings command from the table, for example, to open Personalization >Colors, type ms-settings:colors.
3. This will open the Colors settings page directly.

Also, you can add Settings commands to the context menu.

Add Settings to the context menu

I have discovered that it is possible to use the ms-settings URIs in context menu items. The following article demonstrates this trick in action:

Add Windows Update Context Menu In Windows 10

In short, see the following example:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell\WindowsUpdate]
"MUIVerb"="Windows Update"
"Icon"="%SystemRoot%\\System32\\bootux.dll,-1032"
"SettingsURI"="ms-settings:windowsupdate"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell\WindowsUpdate\command]
"DelegateExecute"="{556FF0D6-A1EE-49E5-9FA4-90AE116AD744}"

You can specify the SettingsURI string value under the context menu identifier and set it to the desired ms-settings command. A special object, {556FF0D6-A1EE-49E5-9FA4-90AE116AD744}, called from the command subkey performs the operation. So, the pages of the Settings app will be opened natively. For more details, check out Add Settings Context Menu In Windows 10.

Finally, you can use ms-settings commands to create a desktop shortcut for a Settings page.

Use ms-settings commands to create a desktop shortcut for a Settings page

1. Right click the empty space on your Desktop and select New -> Shortcut:
   
2. In the location of the item, enter the following: explorer ms-settings:windowsupdate-action. Replace the ms-settings command with any other command you want to create a shortcut for.
3. A nice tutorial can be found here: Create a Check for updates shortcut in Windows 10.

As you can see, the commands are very useful. Here's the list of the commands.

The list of ms-settings commands in Windows 10

Note: Some of the pages have no URI and cannot be opened using ms-settings commands. Some pages require special hardware to be installed in your device and won't be visible without it.

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