Windows Control Panel Faces Sunset After Nearly Four Decades, Settings App to Succeed It

[Wirko]

Oh no! A long-term strategy that gets turned around every few hours:

Microsoft's Windows Control Panel might not get the axe after all — 38-year-old feature could live on as wording about deprecation is removed

Microsoft has reworded its support document to reassure Control Panel fans.

www.tomshardware.com

Also, CP could really use a serious update. It lacks search, multiple-level undo/redo, save/load/compare config - all of that being universal, usable in all CP categories. Of course that won't happen because Settings exists (which at least has a decent search function).

 

[AGlezB]

Also, CP could really use a serious update. It lacks search, multiple-level undo/redo, save/load/compare config - all of that being universal, usable in all CP categories. Of course that won't happen because Settings exists (which at least has a decent search function).

CP has had a better search function than Settings for 25 years. It's called Google. It's the same search you use when the search in Settings can't find what you're looking for.

 

[A&P211]

Open the Control Panel window and click the up arrow twice. Makes me wonder how MS still hasn't closed this wormhole into the past.

Captain Sisko keeps dumping warp cores into the wormhole.

 

[Paganstomp]

Microsoft has now updated the support document to make it clear that Control Panel isn't in danger of being removed from Windows anytime soon. “The Control Panel is in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app,” said Microsoft in its support note last week.

... now delete this post.

 

[ARF]

I'm convinced Microsoft has a "how do we make Windows shittier" department.

True. Windows 11 is the worst windows version ever released. Everything in it is broken.

BTW, Control Panel and Settings are two distinctively different things, one can not replace the other.

 

[AGlezB]

I'm convinced Microsoft has a "how do we make Windows shittier" department.

It's called Finance Department. Making Windows shittier is just a side effect of trying to make Windows make more money for Microsoft.

Microsoft is in a weird place where one hand they need Windows to be able to run applications built 25 years ago and on the other hand they need to be constantly making changes to it so other projects like ReactOS can't catch up. Nowadays MS has other big revenue sources like Azure and Office 365 but just 10 years ago a successful ReacOS would have meant the death of MS. That said, MS being less reliant on Windows for their bottom line also means they can afford to make more shitty changes to it.

 

[phints]

True. Windows 11 is the worst windows version ever released. Everything in it is broken.

BTW, Control Panel and Settings are two distinctively different things, one can not replace the other.

View attachment 360832

Using Windows 11 on my gaming PC and work laptop right now. Use them both every day without any issues. Exactly what is broken? It's by far the best most tolerable version of Windows ever.

 

[AGlezB]

It's by far the best most tolerable version of Windows ever.

This is a rethorical question because I don't want to ask you for personal information but how old are you and what versions of Windows have you used for more than a month?
I've been using Windows since 3.11 and the only reason I'd pick 11 over Vista is the improvements made to Windows Update, except for the garbage preview updates I can't get rid of unless I set up my own WSUS server. And Vista is at the bottom of the list.

 

[b1k3rdude]

if I didn't need Windows so much for gaming I would have dumped it a long time ago.

Indeed, same. And M$ keep fulling sh*t like this, then I might be migrating away from it, Now that we have advances in Valves proton and native linux support for games.

Really? Of all the settings, sound is among those that I've found to have a successful migration in win11 I didn't have to go into CP for years to change my sounds settings/balance/individual volume apps

Yep this was actually usefull, "WHEN it works", on my media pc all applications arent listed and I cant manually add one to 'mute' it..

 

[Hakker]

That's unpopular for a reason: there is 0 evidence that MS will actually move all the settings. Thus far, all the granular control has been lost when moving to the settings menu. Like setting network priority, can only be done through control panel. Disabling IPV6? Same. Disabling fast start up? Same.


They've not done it by now, IMO, because the control panel is deeply integrated in the OS, much like explorer, and ripping it out and replacing it is a herculean task as nobody who made it is left in the company, either having retired or been forced out to be replaced with cheap labor.

Same reason computer domain names are still limited to 15 characters.

Sorry for the late reply. It's not because no one is there anymore as the "control panel" is just control.exe. Remove that and the control panel is gone and you'll need to need the names of each individual module. remove each CPL and you'll remove that functionality as well. Sure here and there there might be some left over code but that is not the bulk of what is in the control panel. Also the source code should be pretty well documented.

 

[Noyand]

Yep this was actually usefull, "WHEN it works", on my media pc all applications arent listed and I cant manually add one to 'mute' it..

Yhea, the app has to start a playback before it gets added to the list by Windows

 

[Wirko]

CP has had a better search function than Settings for 25 years. It's called Google. It's the same search you use when the search in Settings can't find what you're looking for.

If so, then what we have isn't Microsoft Windows. It's called Alphabetmicrosoft Googlewindows. Unless you use Bing, in which case, it's called Microsoft Bingwoods.

But really, detailed search in Settings, using the Start menu, is great. Not only should it be present in the Control Panel. It should be present in many other places in Windows.

 

[AGlezB]

If so, then what we have isn't Microsoft Windows. It's called Alphabetmicrosoft Googlewindows. Unless you use Bing, in which case, it's called Microsoft Bingwoods.

But really, detailed search in Settings, using the Start menu, is great. Not only should it be present in the Control Panel. It should be present in many other places in Windows.

Search has to be good if you want people to use it and what the majority of users type on Win 11 start menu ends up in Bing anyway because there is no native way to change what search engine it uses. Plus "search" is an action initiated by the user where you intentionaly provide search terms for the engine, so privacy controls don't apply because you're "volunteering" the information.

 

[InVasMani]

Windows 9 was the best version ever, but anyway glad to see MS isn't killing off control panel. The setting menu feels like a ugly labyrinth paradox of horrific to navigate menu's thrown together. So many fumbles trying to find stuff in settings menu. I know it a bit better at this point, but don't like or prefer it. Some stuff is a real pain to find which menu it got buried under.

 

[b1k3rdude]

Yhea, the app has to start a playback before it gets added to the list by Windows

its has, thats the point. Its a great feature but as usual, M$ has done half a job.