There's two options if you wanna change the icons for the Control Panel. First option would be to modify all the .cpl-files in your winsystem-directory. Can do - check here - but there's some 16-bit files (in Win 9x) and more 16 color icons (Win 9x & 2k), not necessarily replacable with a 256 or truecolor icon.

If you want to use 256-color/truecolor icons, a second, alternative option would be to recreate your Control Panel elsewhere. Do this by creating shortcuts to every item in the panel, and put them in a new folder. Now every icon is available, you can even put a background picture to the folder. Drop a shortcut to the folder anywhere, onto the startbutton to have it in the startmenu.

If you don't like the panel to show up in your startmenu twice, you can disable the original one (check here). Think twice, this way you won't be able to access your original Control Panel ànd the Printers folder (they disappear from 'My Computer' too). Plus, your shortcuts won't open the wanted system properties anymore, since any control panel action has been removed. You've got to set the default action for .cpl-files (when clicked) to "open with the control panel."
This can be done by choosing 'View' in any window, then 'Folder options, and clicking the third tab, 'Filetypes'. Search for an item named 'Extention of control panel', select and choose 'modify'. Now select the mentioned action and set it as default.

A great tool (free, all versions) to add anything you like to your control panel is YourCPL. Be sure to read instructions on how to add really everthing here!

Most people don't need every item on their Control Panel, like the Password stuff, Users or whatever. And there's some programs that tend to place new items here. Like TweakUI from Microsoft. It's also with TweakUI you can simply remove any item (from sight only) from the Control Panel. If you don't have TweakUI, go to Microsofts pages.

If you have Windows 95, but no Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher installed, here's how to handle it manually. First, know that the items on your Control Panel are 'created' by .cpl files, located in your Windows/System folder. So, first locate the .cpl file associated with the item you don't want to show up. Shouldn't be difficult, as their names reflect the message (..), like password.cpl (and you can open them by clicking). Now in your Windows directory is a file called "control.ini", open in notepad.
If it isn't already there, it should open with an entry "[don't load]" (no quotes). Beneath this entry you can add your .cpl file with a line like "password.cpl=no" (still, no quotes). This will work next time you open the panel.

Editing control.ini will prevent items to show up only (they're still accessible through their .cpl files). Setting some security settings in the registry will also disable all functionality on some items, and let you disable and not showing up some specific tabs. These settings are found at three keys. They all require to create a new DWORD value with the mentioned name, set to "1".

At HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System:

• "NoDispCPL" will disable the "Display settings" item,
• "NoDispAppearancePage" will disable the "Appearance" tab from the "Display settings" item,
• "NoDispBackgroundPage" will disable the "Background" tab from the "Display settings" item,
• "NoDispScrSavPage" will disable the "Screensaver" tab from the "Display settings" item,
• "NoDispSettingsPage" will disable the "Settings" tab from the "Display settings" item,
• "NoSecCPL" will disable the "Passwords" item,
• "NoAdminPage" will disable the "Remote administration" tab from the "Passwords" item,
• "NoProfilePage" will disable the "User profiles" tab from the "Passwords" item,
• "NoPwdPage" will disable the "Change passwords" tab from the "Passwords" item,
• "NoConfigPage" will disable the "Hardware profiles" tab from the "System" item,
• "NoDevMgrPage" will disable the "Device manager" tab from the "System" item,
• "NoFileSysPage" will disable the "File system" button from the "System" item,
• "NoVirtMemPage" will disable the "Virtual memory" button from the "System" item,

At HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer:

• "NoPrinters" will disable the "Printers" item,
• "NoAddPrinter" will disable the "New printer" icon from the "Printers" item,
• "NoDeletePrinter" will disable the "Delete printer" option from the "Printers" item,
• "NoPrinterTabs" will disable the "General" and "details" tabs from the "Printers" item,

At HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network:

• "NoNetSetup" will disable the "Network" item,
• "NoFileSharingControl" will disable the "File and printer sharing" controls from the "Network" item,
• "NoNetSetupIDPage" will disable the "Identification" tab from the "Network" item,
• "NoNetSetupSecurityPage" will disable the "Network access control" page from the "Network" item.

If you're running professional edition of Windows 2k or XP, simply run the group policy editor (type "gpedit.msc" in run box) - at User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel there's these and more options.

If this all isn't enough for you, and the simple recreation of the panel with shortcuts isn't too, you might consider a HTML version of the panel somewhere. Create a new folder somewhere, choose "view" in the toolbar and "customize this folder". Now there's the option to create a HTML document (not in XP - want it back, check here). Don't follow the example, but put your own code there and link any images to the .cpl files you need. Also, be sure to edit the options for .cpl files to "open with the control panel", as mentioned above. You can even use java mouse-over effects etc for your own panel.

And while there were some programs available to mimic the panel, these were never very complete. Now here's one that's getting close. COS Control panel provides several options to customize it, just the colors, or with custom icons sets, but it's skinnable too.

Or just use any toolbar of your liking to store links to control panel items you need.