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Windows Control Panel set for deprecation
- ZoomZoomZoom 2y ago> 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." Yeah, right, some. Though Control Panel is not a shining example of structured layout of available options, at least they're there.
- pjmlp 2y agoYeah, there are still so many features missing, and worse there is no documentation for the migrated features, other than searching the Web to find out where similar capabilities might be available now.
- mrbigbob 2y agowhen it comes to some of the network interface/ sound settings i dont even bother with looking in the new settings section
- anthk 2y agoOne of the best tools to set a Windows/Reactos computer among MMC.exe, and now their are ditching it because of braindead mobile users with no clues to solve anything.
- lproven 2y agoBetween the comma splice and the word substitutions and things, I can't understand this. Can you try to simplify this, split it into 2-3 sentences, and so clarify what you wanted to say?
- pcdoodle 2y agoALL CAPS: Grandpa, he says the pandering to mobile users is ruining our ability to get things done on our computers!
- i386 2y agoVery rude. Just because you work for The Register doesn’t mean you can bring your toxicity here.
- lproven 2y ago1. Pointing out a garbled message is not "toxic". 2. I tried to word it politely, in fact. If you understood it then what do you think it meant?
- Nexxxeh 2y agoI couldn't make sense of it either. The top level comment doesn't make sense as written. >One of the best tools to set a Windows/Reactos computer among MMC.exe, and now their are ditching it because of braindead mobile users with no clues to solve anything. I was just skipping the comment because it was made no sense and seems to be trying to be hostile. Skipping it is arguably more toxic than asking politely to rephrase it. Skipping it assumes the meaning behind the comment isn't worth trying to decipher. I default to, "If they can't be bothered to write it properly then it's probably not worth reading". But that's not always fair to EFL people or NT people. What do you feel the correct course of action is? --- Edit: Based on the comment and what pcdoodle has said, is this a fair representation of how you interpret the comment? >Control Panel is one of the best tools to configure a Windows/ReactOS computer. (Another such tool is "MMC.exe".) >Braindead and clueless mobile users can't figure out how to use Control Panel. That's why Microsoft are ditching Control Panel in favour of the more iOS/Android-style Settings. >This is frustrating to me as a Windows power user.
- lproven 2y ago> Control Panel is one of the best tools to configure a Windows/ReactOS computer. (Another such tool is "MMC.exe".) > Braindead and clueless mobile users can't figure out how to use Control Panel. That's why Microsoft are ditching Control Panel in favour of the more iOS/Android-style Settings. > This is frustrating to me as a Windows power user. Aha! Now I get it! Thank you.
- keyringlight 2y agoI think the question is who are MS making windows for, and possibly where they're getting rewarded for spending their efforts (who gives them money for windows). The challenge as I see it is 'GUI windows' must serve a very wide spectrum of users from those that just want to use it as an appliance to just launch an application, through various definitions of power user up to workstations for full certified professionals, and I think it's the middle of the pack that really lean on control panel/settings. Appliance users probably never or extremely rarely touch settings, and professionals can take to it like ducks to water if they're using it at all compared to another interface. While I can appreciate some motivations behind what MS do with windows such as security, things like this seem like they're pushing the emphasis more towards appliance and cutting away the 'personal computer' which (without any more research than a wet finger in the air) I think would account for that 'middle of the pack'. What really bothers me is if it's taken them 12 years since win8 started their movement in this direction to get to the current state, how long will it take them to complete the change, let alone come up with something clearly better where no one would want to use the classic control panel. MS don't give the impression they have the capability or drive to execute that promptly. It seems more likely they'll just remove any mention of control panel from the UI/explorer, but leave the .cpls available unless they cause issues.
- chiph 2y agoMMC was a hidden star of Windows. You could write your own extensions for your application that it would host for you, and you'd get a standard look + feel that sysadmins would feel right at home with. I have given up a couple of times on writing a Powershell extension. My searches return all sorts of hits on how to use it, but none on how to add objects to it so that modern sysadmins can administer my application. Links to official docs and authoritative blogs welcome.
- zahrc 2y agoControl panel is bad. The alternatives are worse. Prepare to have your settings gated behind several menus you have to navigate through!
- dangus 2y agoControl Panel isn’t a series of menus you have to navigate through? The settings app has a search that takes you directly to specific settings, you know.
- orphea 2y agoIF those settings has been migrated to the new app, you know.
- neuralRiot 2y agoIf you keep digging in some settings you’ll probably find some windows 2000 UI elements. It’s like the Winchester mansion.
- 9dev 2y agoAs if. They are simply going to replace the references to control panel in the docs with arcane PowerShell snippets, because you’re not expected to customize anything anyway
- gruturo 2y agoYay, change for change's sake, removing something which works because it looks scary. Seriously.... remove the shortcut if you think it confuses end users, but leave the the ability to do e.g. Win-R + appwiz.cpl and everyone would be happy with the way forward. I'm sure the reason, below all the superficial excuses, boils down to "Because Apple does it". Sigh.
- mrbigbob 2y agocan someone explain to me why Microsoft is so incredibly slow in implementing what i see as relatively simple changes? it reminds me of everyone begging microsoft for tabs in file explorer and they finally did it... after close to 15 years! they have said they are going to depreciate the control panel for at least 7 years and it still isnt done. I dont understand how a company this size moves to slow in implementing what seems to be fairly straight forward things
- nwhnwh 2y agoI hope to know that too. And what about enhancing the UI a little bit. What about the windows that show up in light mode while dark mode is on. What about making Explorer a little bit faster.
- shaboinkin 2y agoIf the CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet corporation I work at is anything like Microsoft, employees are given too much different work that causes needless mental context switching while you go off and do something else while waiting for PRs to be reviewed over weeks because the reviewers are also doing too much different things. Or maybe that’s just the way it works for the massive tech company I work at, but I see things taking a long time to get done for, presumably, the above reason, among many other process and people related reasons. I see lots of fluff around me, not that I claim to be a bastion of sanity in any sense.
- supertrope 2y agoThe Windows ecosystem is at its core about backward compatibility and minimizing training costs (path dependence). There are billions of employees who have to be trained button click by button click. Even their IT support is often trained on Windows only. And yet Microsoft pushes through all sorts of arbitrary changes that only benefit Microsoft like Candy Crush, Cortana, Copilot surveillance, can't be uninstalled OneDrive, mandatory TPM, and a search that depends on Internet connectivity.
- hulitu 2y ago> The Windows ecosystem is at its core about backward compatibility It was. A long time ago.
- dusted 2y agoWow, that's... Terrible. Sure, they started killing it after Windows XP, but it's kinda still the only place where you can actually access all the settings, and all that weird stuff on top they added in 7 and 10 just makes it impossible to guess what in the world is actually going on..
- axilmar 2y agoThe Settings app is a control panel though.
- nwhnwh 2y agoMini*
- neuralRiot 2y agoIt’s like modern cars with plastic covers on the engine bay to make it look like a “Modern engine” and underneath all it’s the same one designed in japan in the 80s.
- ChoGGi 2y agoWell that sucks, you can't access the settings app unless explorer is running at the shell, since I use an alternative shell; I'm outta luck. I have to kill my shell and let the start menu load up. You'll be missed Panel.
- ChoGGi 2y ago* as the shell
- -pao 2y agoI'm surprised it took them this long. The refresh Settings App is far from complete though.
- av3csr 2y agoOne thing I greatly dislike about the settings app is the fact we can only have one section opened at once. If you are debugging, say Bluetooth and sound issues, the setting app can only exclusively show either Bluetooth or Sound, not both, (AFAIK) you can't open a second instance of the app.
- thisislife2 2y agoI was complaining about the same thing yesterday (to nobody) about the macOS System Preferences - it is irritating that when you are working on the Network Panel and want to fiddle with some other system option, you can't open two different panels in System Preferences at the same time. Isn't it the same with Linux distros too now a days who are imitating Windows and macOS UI?
- cqqxo4zV46cp 2y agoYou’re inviting a billion replies about how on Linux you have the absolute freedom to install any of a number of inscrutably hard to use, abandoned, system configuration utilities, or edit some equally inscrutable file written in one greybeard’s esoteric pet project configuration DSL.
- cholantesh 2y agoOr, you know, use standard tools available across distros like lspci, ip, df, and ps, among others.
- pvtmert 2y agoyou can open multiple of those via the 'open' command open -a 'system settings' -n > https://ss64.com/mac/open.html https://ss64.com/mac/open.html
- thisislife2 2y agoThanks for the tip ( open -a 'system preferences' -n worked for me ). Though, it's still irritating when you have to switch to command line to do so ...
- pathartl 2y agoGood riddance. Control panel has been a mess since Vista.
- poikroequ 2y agoSoooooooo are they finally going to add all the missing configurations in the settings app? Because there's still *a lot* you can only configure from control panel.
- hulitu 2y agoNo. They are just removing stuff. You agreed to give them everything when you installed Windows.
- cqqxo4zV46cp 2y agoWhat? Nobody is talking about “giving them everything”. This isn’t just the Windows hate thread. There’s an actual topic.
- financetechbro 2y agoI think OP meant something like “you agreed to give them control over everything when you installed Windows”
- dangus 2y agoIf you’re against this change I think you should evaluate whether it’s nostalgia or resistance to change talking rather than an honest evaluation. It’s quite clear to me that the control panel desperately needs to go. And if you don’t like the Settings app now, realize that it can, has, and will change at a more rapid pace than control panel because Microsoft can actually work on it at a reasonable velocity rather than being stuck with the legacy technology that’s difficult for them to work with internally.
- ooterness 2y agoWindows 10 and it's Settings app were released in 2014. It's been 10 years, and it's still a fancy front-end with no substance, a tiny fraction of the options available in the real Control Panel. Where is this supposed "velocity" your speak of, and what has Microsoft been doing with it?
- dangus 2y agoWindows 10 is end of life in one year. It only receives security updates. It hasn’t been receiving feature updates since Windows 11 came out, which was 3 years ago. The velocity is in Windows 11, where control panel is being discontinued. And on top of that, this idea that the settings app doesn’t contain all the same options is kind of ridiculous to me. Maybe it doesn’t if you’re still using Windows 10, the discontinued operating system. Maybe the settings app sucks if you’ve been too stubborn to keep your windows up to date with the latest releases.
- beart 2y agoI'm on windows 11. Where in the new settings app should I be looking to find my unformatted drives that I want to partition?
- dangus 2y agoAs you have likely noticed, Control Panel is mostly a collection of links to other utilities that open as completely separate windows. Some of them even open the Settings app itself (such as "View Devices and Printers). I see that in the Settings app there is a section System > Storage > Disks and Volumes. You can get to it directly by searching "Manage Disks and Volumes" (or just "Disks"). It doesn’t yet have all the functionality that disk management has. I assume that functionality in Disk Management is going to eventually going to move there. But even if it doesn't, the current Control Panel isn't actually needed to get there. Microsoft will probably just move the link to the Settings app. You can already get to Disk Management without even touching Control Panel (just go to your start menu and search for Disk Management). The Control Panel doesn't even have many items left, I don't know why it's so hard to imagine it going away.
- hysan 2y agodupe - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41331851 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41331851