Microsoft Says the End Is Nigh for Control Panel, Nearly 40 Years After Its Introduction

Peter_Brosdahl

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The end is nigh for Control Panel as Microsoft says that it plans to deprecate the 39-year-old settings interface. Regardless of how everyday users and IT personnel have accessed it, Windows Control Panel has been a staple for many over the decades to access essential links for making system changes.

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Well, at this point it is just a formality.

While I prefer the traditional Control Panel approach over the modern settings bullshit, they have increasingly made it more and more useless over time to the point where I don't think I've actually used Control Panel in years now.
 
I agree Zarathustra. Irks me to no end that you can't simply go to "Devices and Printers" anymore from the old Control Panel in Win11.. I can't stand their new "settings" interface.. Maybe it's just my old age showing.. Get off my lawn you young whipper-snapper!
 
Windows settings is a maze of trying to find the exact functionality you need to do. For example, I need to access the network adapter to tweak some ip4 or ip6 settings. Holy-hide-and-seek-Batman that thing is buried in multiple pages in Settings. This is not an optimal UI design. It is neither clean or modern. It seems to me they have more wasted space devoted to the Get Help and Give Feedback (which I bet they ignore).
 
Now I remember what the Windows Settings remind me of....the Windows phone. I used to have a Nokia Windows Phone and the UI is very similar.
 
Yeah, not a fan of the Settings app. My laptop has W11 on it and I agree with how its a ridiculous maze to look for links to advance settings. Looks more like a Jr. High report gone wrong with some hyperlinks thrown in as an afterthought when someone asked how they're supposed to get to the other settings.
 
Is this a joke? Like MS is actually thinking we enjoy having options scattered between two conflicting systems? You should've migrated all options from the control panel to the settings app BEFORE even thinking of launching it . And then we wouldn't be forced to use the control panel.
 
I was going to say let the witch hunts begin, but they started without me.

Now where did I leave my pitchfork and holy water? I've heard both can be used to some success when trying to get Windows (or windows programmers) to do as you wish.

Like others, I may be showing some of my age. in liking the Control Panel. I dont think you can put a link to a much used item on the desktop with settings, can you?

Not that I hate settings, I dont, does seem strange there is a dual system for so many things in windows (or maybe it just feels like it). IMO MS could put more work into Sound settings and functionality while depreciating the Control Panel can wait.
 
Elf_Boy said:
I dont think you can put a link to a much used item on the desktop with settings, can you?
Click to expand...
I came across some YouTube vids while prepping this story so yeah there is a way and you can even have it keep the icon for it. I haven't tried but evidently its a thing.

Ugh - Ignore this I thought you were asking about CP.
 
I’m pretty sure there are still settings Dialogs dating back to Win95, maybe older.

The Windows UI is an utter mess of legacy and revamp, like 5 times over.

It needs a nuke and rebuild, but it will never get it
 
Yea where will they bury mpio in the settings menue I wonder.
 
The joke around the office regarding this:

Suddenly, everyone over the age of 35 will no longer be able to use their computer any longer, and everyone will be on the phone with their 14 year old niece/nephew/child to fix their computer.

You know, just like our parents did to us for setting the clock on the microwave, setting up a new TV, programming the VCR, etc.
 
Up to this day there are things you can do with the control panel that you can't do with settings.

I still use CP more than I should.
 
Windows used to be so easy to use once you learned the basics of how it worked. Everything after Windows XP has had an increasingly worse interface little by little. Simple things that could be done in one or two clicks are now buried in submenus that aren't exactly intuitive to reach or are completely hidden.

Microsoft has been doing this crap to all its products for years. I suspect they do it to make the OS look and feel different and less iterative than it really is. Microsoft jumped the shark the moment it decided to eliminate the start menu and provide a touch screen optimized interface for the Windows server product line.
 
Dan_D said:
Windows used to be so easy to use once you learned the basics of how it worked. Everything after Windows XP has had an increasingly worse interface little by little. Simple things that could be done in one or two clicks are now buried in submenus that aren't exactly intuitive to reach or are completely hidden.

Microsoft has been doing this crap to all its products for years. I suspect they do it to make the OS look and feel different and less iterative than it really is. Microsoft jumped the shark the moment it decided to eliminate the start menu and provide a touch screen optimized interface for the Windows server product line.
Click to expand...

I think it went downhill since windows Vista (or was it 7?), when they introduced the "By Category" view. I always used the "classic" view with small icons.
 
Dan_D said:
Windows used to be so easy to use once you learned the basics of how it worked. Everything after Windows XP has had an increasingly worse interface little by little. Simple things that could be done in one or two clicks are now buried in submenus that aren't exactly intuitive to reach or are completely hidden.
Click to expand...
Agreed, Windows 7 already introduced changes (Or maybe Vista did) that made the interface less intuitive and some functions required more clicks to achieve than in XP.
Dan_D said:
Microsoft has been doing this crap to all its products for years. I suspect they do it to make the OS look and feel different and less iterative than it really is. Microsoft jumped the shark the moment it decided to eliminate the start menu and provide a touch screen optimized interface for the Windows server product line.
Click to expand...
I'm far more cynical about this. I think it is not about the look of the UI, but control. They want to disincentivize users from changing the default look and behavior of the OS. This is why more options are buried, hidden, or completely removed with every feature update.

And unfortunately it works. People just give up on their preferences and conform. And it all leads to one place: Windows as a service which everybody knows is coming.
 
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