System Preferences is an
application included with the
OS X operating system that allows users to modify various system settings which are divided into separate
preference panes. The System Preferences application was introduced in the first version of
Mac OS X to replace the control panel that was included in previous versions of the
Mac OS. Prior to Mac OS X, a
control panel is a small
application which enabled the user to modify
software and
hardware settings such as the sound volume and desktop pattern. Control panels differ from
extensions in that they allow the user to specify options, whereas extensions provide the user with no interface for setting preferences. In many software distributions Extensions provided the functionality and the corresponding Control Panel provided all the configuration options.