Last week, Microsoft mentioned in a support document that it was formally deprecating Windows’ 39-year-old Control Panel applets. But following widespread reporting of the change, Microsoft has either backtracked or clarified its language to remove the note about Control Panel being deprecated in favor of the Settings app. Here’s what the original post said, as also preserved by the Internet Wayback Machine (emphasis ours):
“The Control Panel is a feature that’s been part of Windows for a long time. It provides a centralized location to view and manipulate system settings and controls,” the support page explains. “Through a series of applets, you can adjust various options ranging from system time and date to hardware settings, network configurations, and more. The Control Panel is in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app, which offers a more modern and streamlined experience.”
The current version of the page has changed that last sentence considerably. It now says that “many of the settings in Control Panel are in the process of being migrated to the Settings app, which offers a more modern and streamlined experience.”
It’s not clear whether this reflects a policy change or just a clarification of language. We’ve asked Microsoft whether it has changed plans to deprecate the Control Pane or if the original version of the support page was just incorrect in the first place, and we’ll update if we receive a response.
Then they would have to remove the various hooks in the Settings app that actually call and open the Control Panel.
How many are there? I can think of several (advanced mouse settings, advanced network settings, printer properties, date & time has a callout back to the old panel…)
Windows 10 came out nine years ago, so they don’t seem in any particular rush.
Lol. I think they claimed that Settings was going to replace Control Panel when Windows 8 came out. It’s been 12 years. 😂
It’s long overdue for MS to shit or get off the pot. Either allocate some resources to this pet project or give up the pretense that it is ever going to happen.
I don’t understand why the control panel UI wasn’t modernized instead? Would that really be unfeasible? I think it still might have been less work than to maintain 2 coexistent “settings/control panel” apps and migrate from one to another. Sometimes you have to throw out the old code base and start from scratch. But if you do so shouldn’t you rather distrubute the result when your finished and not in a half-baked compromise-like state?
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Sound is in there too. The one that annoys me is the printer settings being under “Bluetooth” instead of “printers”.
Who doesn’t connect their printer over Bluetooth?
I get why they did it ( because it’s “printers and other devices”) but seriously would it be that hard to link it in both places? Or actually make a printer settings that works worth a shit so you don’t need the control panel app?
The 3 most used settings for us at work are Displays, Bluetooth, and Printers. Honestly I just use search and type. Just used to that from mobile device settings and app searching.
The excellent built in audio compressor called Reduce Loud Noises is buried in the Enhancements audio Control Panel.