A few days ago, a Microsoft support document revealed that “the Control Panel is in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app.” Now, the company has explained the message, which led users to believe that this legendary component—which has been with us for 39 years—would be saying goodbye. It won’t—at least not as soon as we thought.
Not disappearing at all (for now). According to Ars Technica, Microsoft has modified that sentence, stating 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.”
Everything continues as it was. Microsoft has been migrating configuration options from the Control Panel to Settings for years. In Windows 11, users rarely need to access the veteran component. Things like display settings or the section for removing or adding apps have been part of Settings for some time and have disappeared from the Control Panel.
It will still be part of Windows 11. However, the Control Panel will still be available for now. It remains present in the next major update of the system, Windows 11 24H2, that Microsoft already offers to the Copilot+ PCs, and migrate more options than those traditionally found in the Control Panel, or at least they’ll be in both tools. This is the case of the configuration when closing the laptop lid or pressing the on/off button.
Necessary redundancies. The Settings tool appeared in Windows 8 in 2012, but it came to the fore on Windows 10 in 2015. Gradually, more options became part of it and, in some cases, disappeared from the Control Panel. However, a certain group of users still prefers Control Panel. They state that the Control Panel allows them to configure more advanced system settings, such as network parameters, which in some cases are easier to configure from the legendary component.
Backward compatibility is still crucial. Microsoft has always been committed to backward compatibility, which is especially important for business users who use older equipment and apps. As such, the Control Panel still makes sense in these cases, although its options are gradually becoming part of the Settings tool.
A glimpse into the past. It’s also surprising that Microsoft has kept the Control Panel aesthetically unchanged. Its design and iconography are those of Windows Vista (2006) and Windows 7 (2009), which makes the appearance of these icons and the interface so characteristic. Other classic apps, such as Paint and Notepad, have evolved slightly. Meanwhile, Microsoft recently announced that WordPad would be retiring.
Related | Microsoft Is Killing the Control Panel in Windows as We Know It
View 0 comments