The control of neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs) located at the m=2/n=1 rational surface (where m and n are the poloidal and toroidal mode number respectively) with electron cyclotron (EC) waves has been studied both experimentally and numerically on TCV. A small sinusoidal sweeping has been added to the control beam and is proven for the first time to be effective for both stabilizing and preempting 2/1 NTMs. It is also shown that preemption is more than twice as efficient as stabilization in terms of the minimum power required, at least when sweeping is applied. Based on the tearing mode triggered nature of these 2/1 NTMs, a simple analytical model has been proposed to evaluate the time-varying classical stability index , which allows one to simulate very well the entire island width evolution, starting from zero width for the first time. The reliable and efficient control of NTMs has facilitated the development of a NTM controller that is independent of the special features of TCV and has been included in a newly built generic plasma control system (PCS). Simultaneous control of 2/1 NTMs and plasma (the ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure) has been successfully demonstrated on TCV with this new PCS, including generic real-time (RT) plasma state reconstruction, monitoring, controllers, and advanced supervisory controller and actuator manager (AM).