Microsoft may finally be removing the Windows Control Panel

Ashwin
Aug 23, 2024
Windows 11 News
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18

Control Panel may finally be removed from Windows 11, soon. Here we go again, Microsoft has been migrating the Control Panel for nearly a decade now.

As Neowin reports, an update to a document on Microsoft's support portal, filed under the System Configuration tools states that "The Control Panel is in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app, which offers a more modern and streamlined experience."

It also goes on to explain why the legacy app has not been removed so far. "While the Control Panel still exists for compatibility reasons and to provide access to some settings that have not yet migrated, you're encouraged to use the Settings app, whenever possible."

Technically, it doesn't say when the Control Panel is going away. Are we there yet? This has been coming since 2015, when Microsoft had confirmed that the Settings app would supersede Control Panel. But, the classic version has survived the axe, though some changes were made to it, such as removing the ability to uninstall updates from CP, it is now only possible via the Settings app.

Windows Settings app still has a long way to go

As someone who uses both Windows 11 and macOS 14 every day, I feel like the Settings app in both operating systems are similar, and they are both trash. Sure, the Settings app lets you find what you need with the search bar. But that's not a good design, it's more useful on phones than on computers. If the search doesn't show what a user wanted, they will have to search again, which is just a waste of time. You could argue that it was designed for beginners, but any of the options are buried under multiple menus, which makes it very difficult to navigate.

I still prefer modifying the network settings, or uninstalling programs via the Control Panel, it's so much easier to do those via CP. The Settings app still lacks many options that are available in Control Panel, you may want to read Martin's article about why the old Programs and Features still offers a better experience. Hopefully, users will be able to use the registry editor for changing things that the Settings app cannot.

Windows 11 Control Panel

The good old Control Panel still works perfectly, maybe it just needs to be redesigned, I don't think it needs a refresh, but Microsoft wants everything to have a "fluent design, and mica effect, ooh!". A pleasant UI and a functional app can co-exist, it's just that the designs are inconsistent in several areas of the operating system.

Oh, and as a reminder, the Redmond company will be removing three apps when Windows 22H4 lands: Tips, Cortana and WordPad.

I'm not opposing every change, I love what Microsoft did with Notepad, tabs, auto save, spell-check, these are fantastic improvements. But, removing useful tools and options in favor of a half-baked idea is bad, it feels like change for the sake of change. Speaking of controversial things, Microsoft is bringing Windows Recall back in October.

What do you think about the Settings app? Do you prefer to use Control Panel?

Summary
Microsoft may finally be removing the Windows Control Panel
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Microsoft may finally be removing the Windows Control Panel
Description
Control Panel could soon be removed from Windows 11.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. BradentonDeb2021 said on August 30, 2024 at 12:36 am
    Reply

    Really? How much snake oil does Nadella and his empowered employees think we are dumb enough to buy? No. Just no.

  2. EP said on August 27, 2024 at 6:58 pm
    Reply

    “Control Panel may finally be removed from Windows 11, soon”

    NOT SO FAST!

    this recent article from Neowin just came out yesterday – “Rejoice! Microsoft suggests it may never truly kill Windows Control Panel”
    https://www.neowin.net/news/rejoice-microsoft-suggests-it-may-never-truly-kill-windows-control-panel/

  3. Anonymous said on August 26, 2024 at 9:21 am
    Reply

    “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 language of gov and corpos to trick stupid people into believing they are getting something better, sad part is even the educated are fooled. Probably because objective thinking was ditched by universities decades ago, it interfered with the agenda.

    windows peaked with 7, up until then dev’s were engineering ways to add more granular control, now its ‘how do we remove control so we can manipulate people utilizing dark patterns.’

    its over, move on, take back control > Linux… this is the way

  4. Cutting Edger said on August 26, 2024 at 8:56 am
    Reply

    The Control Panel’s removal could streamline Windows, but I’ll miss some of its legacy features. Hopefully, the new system will be equally powerful and user-friendly..

  5. Anonymous said on August 26, 2024 at 1:41 am
    Reply

    My main issue with the Settings window is that it forces you to do more steps to accomplish the same thing that just simply going into the Control Panel would. More often than not, you end up having to open up more menus that are nested under other windows/menus. Settings seems like the monstrosity to me. Microsoft makes billions of dollars each year. You’re telling me they couldn’t use some of those profits to do an actual paring down of the Windows code or rebuilding the parts that they find so onerous? What’s next? No more shortcuts on the desktop?

  6. upp said on August 25, 2024 at 10:23 pm
    Reply

    Lmao, 11 is dogshit

  7. Dennis said on August 25, 2024 at 1:01 pm
    Reply

    I wish Elon Musk would buy Microsoft…

  8. John said on August 25, 2024 at 12:57 am
    Reply

    Yep, might as well remove another familiar part of Windows for users and dumb it down as well.

  9. samurai cat said on August 24, 2024 at 6:15 pm
    Reply

    Hope Windhawk make a Control Panel mod for us that replaces both Settings app and Control Panel.

  10. Lizard said on August 24, 2024 at 12:41 pm
    Reply

    MS is fallowing the Apple model…less features the better for costumers. They think most people are clueless when it comes to computers so they want to make it easy for people to have the most necessarily features.

  11. Sunnysewsit said on August 23, 2024 at 9:20 pm
    Reply

    I HATE the watered-down Settings window. Give me the Control Panel any day!

  12. Bobo said on August 23, 2024 at 6:30 pm
    Reply

    WHAT????? Without turning it into an AD first?????????? What is this madness!!!!?????

  13. Anonymous said on August 23, 2024 at 3:43 pm
    Reply

    As always, Microsoft replaces something that works well with something inferior and unfinished. Hopefully, they simply hide it from normal users. System administrators will always require the Control Panel. The settings UI/UX is so juvenile and limiting that it’s basically useless. Hopefully, someone with brains takes over Microsoft over the next three years and undoes all of the insanity that has occurred since Windows 8.

  14. Anonymous said on August 23, 2024 at 12:55 pm
    Reply

    I really don’t think it takes out the Control Panel, since Internet Explorer is still present.

    1. Seeprime said on August 23, 2024 at 4:08 pm
      Reply

      IE is being completely removed slowly from user PCs. I have a customer that was clobbered mentally when QuickBooks no longer worked due to IE being fully removed with redirections to Edges IE mode. They were forced to quickly upgrade QuickBooks to keep their accounts in order. There was no warning at all, just SURPRISE!

  15. John G. said on August 23, 2024 at 11:52 am
    Reply

    Another joke by Microsoft. I don’t believe them anymore, their promises are like bloatware. Thanks for the article! :]

  16. Anonymous said on August 23, 2024 at 8:47 am
    Reply

    Someone will make a clone.

    I hope!

    1. bruh said on August 23, 2024 at 10:32 am
      Reply

      The reason MS is getting rid of control panel in the first place is that apparently it’s a difficult to maintain “monstrosity” of code, some of which is very old and not brilliantly documented.

      If microsoft are struggling with maintaining control panel, then a 3rd party would stand no chance. You could have something similar looking, with maybe 40-60% of the features. And what about 3rd party integration, which apps are allowed to do with the real control panel?

      The funny thing is that control panel and all it’s snap-ins and modules run rings around settings, main thing I always bring up is multi-instance support, aka, the standard for most apps, settings can’t do it though.

      They’ll never get rid of it because it also means getting rid of sysdm.cpl, mmsys.cpl, the office mailbox module, and other stuff that IT techs rely on to fix problems.

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