Making a simple "Control Panel" like desktop application launcher

[avj]

Since I first started using Linux, I have been disappointed to find that most of the distros that I have tried don't really come with a "Control Panel" like is found in other operating systems, and usually the settings are found scattered throughout the menus and can be hard to find or easy to overlook. Today I decided to see what I could do to fix this.

First I created a new hidden folder on the desktop which I named ".Control".  I then created an application launcher on the desktop which starts thunar file manager in the /home/username/Desktop/.Control  directory, by using this in the command line for the launcher: thunar /home/username/Desktop/.Control    I then named the launcher "Control Center" and chose an icon for it, and clicked create.  The next step was to open the .Control folder in the file manager and drag and drop the items from the settings menu into the folder. After each drag and drop right click on the new item in the folder and mark as executable. I am including two pictures below to show the final results.


Hopefully this will help make it easier to find the settings I am looking for and maybe help others too.