Microsoft Backtracks on Deprecating the 39-Year-Old Windows Control Panel 117
Microsoft has retracted or clarified its statement regarding the deprecation of Windows Control Panel, according to changes made to a support document. The original text, which stated that the Control Panel was "in the process of being deprecated in favor of the Settings app," has been revised. The new version now indicates that "many of the settings in Control Panel are in the process of being migrated to the Settings app." This modification came after widespread media coverage of the initial announcement. It remains unclear whether this change reflects a shift in Microsoft's plans or a correction of an erroneous statement.
Dunno what's worse.. (Score:3)
That constant flip-flopping in modern Corporate America..
Or that Control Panel is 36 years old... and I met it well as an adult.. which makes me very old. =o/
It's not flip-flopping (Score:5, Insightful)
They started this crap when the Xbox One launched. Constantly pushing consumers to see what they could get away with and what they could get us to accept before we would demand more regulations.
In the video game market they have a bit of real competition but in the operating system market They have effectively unlimited power with the only remaining stopgap being legal consequences.
No, it's simpler and less sinister than that. (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft is continually being dogged about the haphazard way many of the functionalities of Windows are laid out. The Control Panel made sense when they introduced it,but a more standard dedicated settings application is something of a modern expectation. Microsoft has spent more than a little effort attempting to migrate everything from the Control Panel to Settings. They're not done yet, BTW. They might think they are, but they aren't.
They have a track record of moving things around arbitrarily. This time, it's not arbitrary; but they're going to catch a certain justifiable amount of hell for doing it anyway. They are constantly being yelled at for moving stuff, yelled at for putting stuff in stupid places, yelled at for having more than one way to do the same thing (when there should be ONE STANDARD way) and yelled at when they break their Rube Goldberg-esqe codebase trying to modernize the OS.
In short, they have to evolve or die. MS Windows is finally becoming a robust, reliable OS. I still prefer GNU/Linux, but Microsoft is no longer an annoyance in the data center. They can't just stop because a subset of their user base doesn't want them to ever change.
Re:No, it's simpler and less sinister than that. (Score:4, Interesting)
MS Windows is finally becoming a robust, reliable OS.
I'm looking for the /s. Seriously. Didn't it just have a complete meltdown just a couple of weeks ago or was I dreaming?
Microsoft has spent less effort migrating to settings than they spent trying to push their advertising. The only thing MS is doing is breaking things to push people to subscribe to their online services. Stupid shit like IMAP has to have the email address as the account name in Outlook. Make it easy for every script kiddie to jump in and try to break into email accounts.
So no MS Windows is not becoming more robust or reliable. It's becoming more annoying and cumbersome. Unless you like ads and having your files pushed to the Internet.
Re: No, it's simpler and less sinister than that. (Score:2, Funny)
"Didn't it just have a complete meltdown just a couple of weeks ago or was I dreaming?"
You must have been dreaming. Cause no one was affected by simply using Windows.
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MS *was* indirectly to blame for the Crowdstrike issue though. If they had created a suitable low-level interface for security product access and other low level requirements maybe along the lines of Linux's eBPF (which would satisfy competition law if they both used it for their own products like Defender etc. and also documented it fully for third party use), then it's likely that the Crowdstrike fiasco wouldn't have occurred. But instead, they couldn't be bothered and left it so security products have to
Re: No, it's simpler and less sinister than that. (Score:4, Insightful)
You must have been dreaming. Cause no one was affected by simply using Windows.
You must have been asleep. 'Cause right after the Clownstroke outage, just a couple of days later, Microsoft caused another outage by pushing an update which broke boot and had affected systems asking for their bitlocker recovery password. I got hit by both, and had to drive in to the office for both of them (I now work remote.)
I'm a home user. It never affected me. (Score:2)
Re: I'm a home user. It never affected me. (Score:3)
Maybe you are just out of touch and have nothing to add to this or any conversation.
But thanks for confirming what we knew about you already.
Re:No, it's simpler and less sinister than that. (Score:5, Informative)
But control panel WAS the modern "settings". The new Settings is not just the old configuration tool but with a better UI look - Microsoft is REMOVING many configurations all the time. They do not want mere end users doing stuff on their operating system. With some migrating, it means you have to find some configs in Settings, some configs in Control Panel, and some configs you can only change via registry.
Sure, Config Panel looks old, but it has ten times the functionality of Settings.
Microsoft's adage: If it ain't broke, then screw it up.
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Microsoft's adage: If it ain't broke, then screw it up.
They have been doing that for a long time now.
Re:No, it's simpler and less sinister than that. (Score:4, Insightful)
I totally dislike the new Settings screen. First of all there is no Save button. It completely flies against basic UX principles. You change any option it gets changes right away. Second the UI looks so childish. 6-7 fields, but the screen requires to be scrolled to see all the fields. When the first time I came across this type of settinmgs (in Proxy settings) - for many days I was wondering is that a Windows screen or Chrome's settings screen - because it looked so out of place and poor UI compared to the Control panel.
Re:No, it's simpler and less sinister than that. (Score:5, Insightful)
The Control Panel made sense when they introduced it,but a more standard dedicated settings application is something of a modern expectation. [...] They have a track record of moving things around arbitrarily.
The big problem is not that they move things, the problem is the Settings app exposes a lot less settings compared with Control Panel. Take as an example changing your network settings, with the Settings app you can easily change the IP address and that is all, with CP you have access to a huge amount of settings.
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Settings app you can easily change the IP address and that is all...
I enjoyed setting a static address and giving winblows a fake gateway, then no more fucking updates. It didn't go on the internet anyway. Every windows update breaks something and sometimes fixes things, but windows still sucks all the time.
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They really serve two completely different purposes. Control Panel is where you go to configure how your computer runs. Settings is where you go to turn off the hundreds of pieces of spyware and unwanted crap that MS forces on you.
And if everyone ran something like O&O Shutup there'd be no need for Settings at all.
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They really serve two completely different purposes. Control Panel is where you go to configure how your computer runs. Settings is where you go to turn off the hundreds of pieces of spyware and unwanted crap that MS forces on you.
And if everyone ran something like O&O Shutup there'd be no need for Settings at all.
I had never heard of O&O Shutup. I have something new to try on my one remaining Windows system at home.
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MS Windows is finally becoming a robust, reliable OS.
Good joke! And delivered perfectly deadpan. I like it. The best satire is when you cannot reliably tell whether somebody said something abysmally stupid or whether it was indeed satire.
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The best satire is when you cannot reliably tell whether somebody said something abysmally stupid or whether it was indeed satire.
Sadly, read his posting history and you'll know he was serious.
Not only was I serious, I can support my case. (Score:2)
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My judgement is not "colored", no matter how you would like to it to be. The correct word is "informed".
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I am aware. But poking fun at a self-assured moron is always satisfying.
Hmmm . . . the market disagrees with you. (Score:2)
Your knee-jerk reaction, however, is hilarious. You and I, sir, are (whether you like this or not) fellows in a broad industry. I'd certainly expect more thought and less reflex in your response. Microsoft's market penetration and overall success are not simply the result of brilliant advertising. The fact that you are seemingly quite familiar with the MS-Windows product is evidence either that the market and the workplace have obliged you to work with it or that you - despite what I'm sure will be your
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Markt share is not and has never been a sign of quality. That is small-mind thinking.
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The Control Panel made sense when they introduced it,but a more standard dedicated settings application is something of a modern expectation.
What are you even talking about? Why is a 'settings application' an expectation over a 'control panel'? What is a 'settings application' and what is its goals and purpose? How are those goals and purposes different from a 'control panel'? What organizational improvement will be achieved with this switchover?
In short, they have to evolve or die.
I do not think you live in the same reality as everyone else. Why do they need to evolve and why would they die if they do not evolve? What is applying this pressure to evolve? What options could a busin
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What you're seeing is then pushing the envelope to see what they can get away with before you go to Congress and demand the government breaks up their illegal monopoly.
It's times like this that I really wish /. allowed image comments, because this really calls for the Robin Williams "What year is it?!" meme.
Microsoft's monopoly days are long gone, adios, they're pinin' for the fjords. Ever notice how there's no M in "FAANG"? Since the so-called post-PC revolution began, Microsoft has either missed the damn boat on everything that's happened or they had a boat but it sank (Windows Phone, I'm looking at you).
Microsoft has a great deal of inertia in the corporate sphere an
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This is a strange comment, given Microsoft's position as the #2, sometimes #1 largest tech company. They may not be cool, but a whole lotta people use their excellent dev tools and they make a more open desktop OS than Mac ever has, and a more stable desktop OS than Linux ever has, despite the adware. Just my opinion.
As for Windows Phone, how dare you. That thing was friggin awesome. Set the tiles to translucent grey and your mouth would drop!
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Excellent dev tools? I knew Microsoft lost the picture once I tried the awful Visual Studio, which broke functionality from Visual C++. Developing on Windows used to be extremely painful - it's only usable now because of Windows Subsystem for Linux.
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Clearly. MS has a monopoly worse than ever. In any decently run market, they would have been broken up long ago. But, like any greedy asshole, they do not have enough, they need more. They need to rake in more money for, at best, mediocre tech and they need to acquire more power. And hence they try things like this.
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I don't think getting rid of the control panel is some kind of push for anything other than not having to maintain legacy code.
If they were trying to be evil and take away control, they would just delete the relevant app from the control panel, or disable the feature in it. That's what they have done in the past.
It's just incompetence, the new settings app isn't as good as the old one, but it's the current generation of engineer's work and they don't want to keep the old code in maintenance.
Break them up fo
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I think you are reading too much into it. Just as MS uses their clientele to beta test their alleged software, this is just their marketeers beta testing their Brand New Whizzy. And we (I get forced to use their allege software on occasion) can all expect Whizzy 2.0 to be fielded sometime in the future so the marketeers can see if time as weakened resistance enough to foist another POS on us.
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What you're seeing is then pushing the envelope to see what they can get away with before you go to Congress and demand the government breaks up their illegal monopoly....In the video game market they have a bit of real competition but in the operating system market They have effectively unlimited power with the only remaining stopgap being legal consequences.
If there were legal consequences, Microsoft could not be this unethical. The fact they are a monopoly is proof positive our justice system is really a corrupt legal industry. This is exactly what classism and economic exploitation look like.
Money talks, welcome to our plutocracy.
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What you're seeing is then pushing the envelope to see what they can get away with before you go to Congress and demand the government breaks up their illegal monopoly....In the video game market they have a bit of real competition but in the operating system market They have effectively unlimited power with the only remaining stopgap being legal consequences.
If there were legal consequences, Microsoft could not be this unethical. The fact they are a monopoly is proof positive our justice system is really a corrupt legal industry. This is exactly what classism and economic exploitation look like.
Money talks, welcome to our plutocracy.
Microsoft is far from the only company to behave so unethically. In fact, if you read business papers you'll see that unethical behavior is lauded as a sign of virility and strength. You may read a decent charity campaign here or there, but the business papers will always point out how self-interested these campaigns are and how it's all about presenting a shiny veneer while cutting underbellies and ripping out guts in the back room to make more money. We are a society that is OBSESSED with our decay. We ce
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Thats not innovation, thats ignorance.
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And very, very bad engineering. If it is not broken, do not fix it. Or you will never get a stable, reliable system. I am beginning to think that is exactly what MS is trying to avoid, so they can sell a "new" version every few years and continue the enshittification.
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"Or that Control Panel is 36 years old... and I met it well as an adult.. which makes me very old. =o/"
I was about to get very upset about this but it's time for my meds & afternoon nap
They tried to finalize this with a video call... (Score:5, Funny)
But nobody could manage to get the call working because they could not find the check box to enable microphone preamp.
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Re: They tried to finalize this with a video call. (Score:2)
Unfortunately that option does not always exist. We have some Jabra conference call adapters (dual audio) and they do not support the option. Why this is even up to the damned driver I will never know, except that Microsoft is crap.
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They removed that feature when they realized only 28% of users used it more than once a week.
A difference without a distinction (Score:4, Insightful)
Saying you're migrating things from Control Panel to that shitfest known as Settings is the same thing as saying you're doing away with Control Panel. It's just extra steps.
This is merely another step by Microsoft to make their software as difficult to use as possible.
This is why my mom runs linux by choice (Score:3)
She got tired of Windows 11's bullshit and no longer trusts Microsoft.
It's nice if you have the option (Score:4, Interesting)
There's been several opportunities for Linux to garner significant market share but every time it does Microsoft just undercuts it while threatening OEMs with taking away their preferential treatment on Windows licenses.
Unless and until we have extremely vigorous antitrust law enforcement from what are effectively cops instead of regulators and a judiciary willing to back them up Linux is dead in the water and it's going to stay there. And to get that people would have to change how they vote.
In America I think our Democratic party is finally serious about antitrust law enforcement but it's so easy for them to be hamstrung by voters throwing a Republican led legislature at them during the midterms or a Republican chief executive. I know people don't like hearing that this is a partisan issue but it is and we need to stop pretending it's not.
It's like the old saying goes, if you want to make your car go forward you put it in d and if you want to make it go back you put it in r.
Re: It's nice if you have the option (Score:2)
I guess your dog is a prosecutor (Score:1)
Re: It's nice if you have the option (Score:1)
"for example if you produce music"
In Detroit I've seen several artists produce music live using Linux. No, you don't get popular VSTs and DAWs, but for many people that's a benefit, not a drawback.
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Yabridge does a great job for most popular plugins. The DAW itself is a different story, but I got annoyed with the standard ones way back when Apple bought out Logic from Emagic (and immediately claimed it was too much work to keep up with the windows version). Used macs for a few years to keep using Logic (up to v9 maybe? Maybe 10?) but started getting used to Ardour instead. Has massive rough edges but covers most of my measly usage now so I've stuck with it. A commercially supported "fork" of it by Harr
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In America I think our Democratic party is finally serious about antitrust law enforcement
LOL! Dude. Really? I guess if it wasn't for gullible people like you, all of civilization would come crashing down. (and don't do the moron thing and assume that I am backing the opposing parties with my incredulity at your naivety.)
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I'd like to believe that, but if any desktop OS is available for free and has been around for 30 years, and fails to gain any significant market share, there is only one explanation: people don't like it.
The truth is that Windows isn't great, but it's adequate. Or, at least it was.
The reason I'm still on Windows 7 and haven't yet made the leap to Linux, is because Linux equivalents to Windows software are just awful. I've been trying to make the switch for over 15 years. I'm at the end of my rope and I'l
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It didn't help that Microsoft used to allow hardware vendors to add their own third-party Control Panels for their own hardware devices. I'm not sure when Microsoft stopped allowing that, but I'd imagine that simply removing Control Panel entirely would break compatibility with at least a few older devices that are still in use today.
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I made sense to configure hardware without needing a dedicated program, but I also remember Apple putting all the setting for Quicktime Player in Control Panel instead of the program itself. All I could think was they were trying to mimic some paradigm from MacOS
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We're not killing Control Panel, we're just preemptively putting it into hospice care.
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This is merely another step by Microsoft to make their software as difficult to use as possible.
Looks like it. Probably so they can then push Windows 12 as an "improvement".
looked at the code and found it will take years to (Score:2)
looked at the code and found it will take years to move it all over.
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This is what happens when you just keep bolting shit on top of the last shit you bolted on, which was bolted onto some other shit someone bolted to something else.
At some point it looks like the biggest erector set nightmare you've ever seen, and also operates like one.
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That's one of the best points of windows. They don't remove old stuff that works, they just build new stuff that is set as default instead.
But if you happen to need the old version, it's still there, ready to be used if necessary. Fundamentally, you can just google for the specific key of the function, and then just call it with shell:::{function key}
It's why there was such shock at win11 release, when microsoft decided to remove printers and devices menu entirely for some stupid reason. And even shell:::{A
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How do you implement new systems without adjusting paths that access the old (partially) redundant ones?
Full disclosure: I hate microsoft's new interfaces so much that I use classic shell/open shell on every windows install I run.
But they do have a point in that if you want to move UI features around, it does require moving things around to some extent at the very least.
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You may not need it more than once or twice a year, but when you do, it's a real life saver. I remember, way back when, helping a caller check her network settings on an XP box when her mouse suddenly stopped responding. I checked a few things on my own box to make sure my memory was right, then walked her through the rest of the settings the hard way: "Press Tab two times, the Down Arrow three, then Enter. Wha
Re: looked at the code and found it will take year (Score:2)
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Could be worse. If it was Google, they wouldn't bother moving it over, they'd just drop those functions entirely.
replacements should be improvements (Score:2)
The Settings windows are a complete mess, tons of wasted screen space, settings you care about are buried, its a giant waste of time.
If you are going to replace the Control Panel then the replacement should be an improvement and not a step back. I'd rather have ini files over the Settings dialogs. History was better.
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Wasted screen space I can agree with, but buried settings I care about are all quite easy to find and not buried at all, plus the search works well, and quickly, if there is a setting you can't find.
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...except that the search generally leads to the control panel rather than settings...
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What text are you searching for that opens Control Panel? I can't remember the last time that happened for me. Even Windows Components has been moved over, finally.
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I have never had it do that, so try again.
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Try turning off Search Highlights on Windows 11.
Re: replacements should be improvements (Score:2)
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I don't agree. All the settings I need are in Settings, and have been reorganized well in recent years.
The search, though, removes the need to manually find anything, and it works very well.
It's a great app IMO and I'm flabbergasted that people still want to keep Control Panel. Why would you ever demand two different settings applications?
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> All the settings I need are in Settings, and have been reorganized well in recent years.
You must not use Outlook because the Mail app in Control Panel that helps you setup Outlook Profiles is no where to be found in Settings.
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That's why I said all the settings I need . I'm aware some stuff still isn't migrated. But I don't think they're saying remove CP at this point, just saying it's deprecated. Maybe that will help them finally get off their asses and migrate the remaining stuff.
Anyway, I do use Outlook and I'm able to add and remove accounts there.
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Use the settings app to enable/disable a network protocol on a network adapter, please.
Don't worry, I'll wait...
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Just because you don't does not mean that other people don't have the need.
Network settings just SUCK under the new control panel.
And I can point to a LOT of user interface settings that have just bitten the dust ... because "more Apple like".
If anyone wanted Apple-like interface on Windows, they'd just get something from Apple.
Idea ... MS ... just take Windows 2000, apply security fixes, perhaps add in HyperV and keep it updated. I would even pay a sub for it. Give it a 20 year lifetime. You can run it so
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Wasted Screen Space is what you do when you're still convinced that everyone uses Windows with a touch screen.
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For some reason, it seems MS is actively trying to make Windows worse. This goes beyond mere incompetence.
Actual technical answer (Score:2)
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Since you seem to Actually Know What's Going On, maybe you could clarify for us, why isn't all this stuff stored in a base .ini file, or, maybe it's stored in the registry, but it's just scattered across the registry (seemingly haphazardly)?
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Agreed. So, second question: Why is anybody using this utter crap?
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Control panels are .CPL files, and they are just little programs. They are not that special, they just appear in the control panel. They are not limited to any particular shape or size. They do stuff like any other program, they can edit config files or make registry changes or whatever. Stuff is spread out throughout the registry for the same reason stuff is spread out across config files, different things are configured in different places and the control panel may have to make changes to various differe
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Hmmm... and this "new and improved" settings UI will eventually require 35 mouse clicks to change each setting, There will be no keyboard shortcuts, and you will only be able to change one setting at once. So when you want to go to the next setting (that used to be a checkbox next to the check box for the setting you've just changed) it's another 35 mouse clicks.
Windows UIs seem to get more and more unusable by the day. I think the company are intentionally committing corporate suicide.
pardon my incredulity... (Score:1)
it says something about Microsoft (and my mild, but deep-seated paranoia), that my first thought regarding the changeover is "they probably want everything in settings because they've undoubtedly packed it with telemetry feeds that nobody thought to put into control panel. it has nothing to do with usability or user experience, and everything to do with harvesting more marketable data."
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Mice didn't die! (Score:3, Insightful)
The assumption had been that everyone would be using Windows on tablet devices. But most Windows users are mouse users in practice. Android's leaner tablets killed MS's marketshare.
Mice conventions make the UI more compact, and give you right-click and hover-text.
2/3 of the enshittification of Windows came from trying to force-fit mobile into it. It became a frankendashian.
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What haven't they (Score:2)
I know what happened (Score:2)
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Nah, they wouldn't care about that. They'd just be chanting "IT pRoFeSsioNaLs sHouLD bE USing PoWErshiLL!!11"
My guess is that shifting everything to the Settings app is going to take much longer than they thought. They will kill Control Panel, just not yet.
Backlog (Score:3)
I suspect some scrum team pulled this out of the backlog and put it in a sprint. Once news got out that it was actually gonna happen, some manager stomped up and down and said that if it doesn't help Microsoft make money, it's going back in the backlog.
Let's get real... what exactly is the need to kill the control panel? I go in there like twice a year. Focus on making buggy crap better... oh, and stop sending me creepy personalized ads. I just wanna pay for Windows with x years of security updates and not be big-brothered all the time.
In preference to MS moving to setting app. (Score:2)
I know I made some remarks in the last thread on Control Panel, signalling its benefits to move forward into the new Settings paradigm, and they were in reference to the ability to use WinUI 3 features, but I don't think I made that clear in my original post.
I'm preferential to using Control Panel but not on my 4K display because some of the applets aren't DPI aware.
I also like to think of the maturity from the perspective of the Androi
Windows 11 is Getting Worse Every Day (Score:3)
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People have said this about every Microsoft OS since Windows 95 bluescreened on Bill Gates live as he plugged a printer in. It's getting tired.
I don't trust Microsoft any longer
Your UID is quite low. Why do I get the feeling if I search your username and comments I can find you saying you don't trust Microsoft any longer dating back 20 years?
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Yup, we all remember the jokes about 'a 32 bit extension to a 16 bit window manager running on an 8 bit OS designed for a 4 bit processor by a 2 bit company that doesn't have 1 bit of common sense.'
Yet, thirty years later, we still don't have Linux desktops in wide use, despite many of those years being proudly proclaimed 'Year of the Linux Desktop!' And it has nothing to do with 'bundling' or 'predatory practices.'
Windows has been just fine for almost every every-day use case for decades, and for most peo
Appification (Score:2)
Deprecate 8 (Score:3)
Deprecate the whole "new UI" Windows 8 introduced and go back to the Windows 7 style.
Can we clarify wording here. (Score:3)
Control Panel was depreciated back in the days of Windows 10. By Windows 11 there is no link to the Control Panel accessible to the user without having to specifically search for the tool. There's been zero development in the control panel since Windows 10.
Control Panel is depreciated. It just hasn't been discontinued / removed.
This deprecation (Score:1)
why not (Score:2)
Maybe someone should write a reasonable open source gui system control app for Windows, so that we could all just ignore the garbage nonsense from MS. In addition, with current technology it should be able to act on spoken or written commands, not just clicking around a rabbit warren.
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Examples then, because I asked a question, and it hasn't been answered. "Important-for-some-use-cases" is bullshit, because that means almost no one needs it and definitely not often. So, try again anonymous retard.
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Oh look, another anonymous retard with no examples of a setting that anyone cares about.