Microsoft restores Personalization menu in Windows 10's Control Panel
Microsoft up until now made no secret of wanting to merge the classic Windows Control Panel with the Windows 10 Settings menu to improve usability in regards to customizing and configuring the operating system.
The company introduced Settings back in Windows 8 and expanded it in Windows 10. While that is the case, Settings still lacks many options that users only find in the Control Panel.
One of the issues here is that users have to juggle between the two programs, and that it is sometimes difficult to find a setting.
The Control Panel applet Personalization has been crippled in Windows 10 as most of the options it provided in previous versions of Windows were removed from it.
If you open it by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Personalize from the context menu, you will notice immediately that it acts as a theme selector now exclusively.
Third-party apps like Personalization Panel for Windows 10 were created as a response to bring back those options.
While you get most options in the new Settings app as well, they are divided onto multiple pages in it.
If you run the latest Windows 10 Insider Built -- Built 10547 -- you may have noticed already that the Personalization Control Panel applet has been restored fully in that build.
As you can see on the screenshot above, all options have been restored when you open the Personalization menu in Windows 10's latest build.
While the options are there, they work different than before. When you click on an option, say Desktop Background for instance, you are taken directly to the Settings app where you can modify the wallpaper of the system.
The same is true for desktop background, while all other links, sounds, screen saver, change desktop icons and so on open the Control Panel applets instead as they are not integrated in Settings yet.
Closing Words
This is the first instance that I know of where entries were restored or added to the Control Panel in Windows 10. One would expect it to go the other way considering Microsoft's intention to do away with the Control Panel and replace it fully with the Settings application.
This leaves the question why Microsoft did that. The company has not mentioned the change so it is all guesswork but the explanation that makes most sense is discoverability by users. A right-click on Personalize on the desktop opens the crippled Personanlization menu in Windows 10 RTM currently which users cannot do a lot with.
This has likely been irritating to users who have upgraded to Windows 10, and Microsoft's way to remedy the situation is to introduce the classic options again in the menu.
The change is only available in the latest Insider Build. As is the case with these changes, they may or may not propagate to the release channel.
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277
I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Tank you for your help