Last week, Microsoft mentioned in a support document that it was formally deprecating Windows’ 39-year-old Control Panel applets. But following widespread reporting of the change, Microsoft has either backtracked or clarified its language to remove the note about Control Panel being deprecated in favor of the Settings app. Here’s what the original post said, as also preserved by the Internet Wayback Machine (emphasis ours):

“The Control Panel is a feature that’s been part of Windows for a long time. It provides a centralized location to view and manipulate system settings and controls,” the support page explains. “Through a series of applets, you can adjust various options ranging from system time and date to hardware settings, network configurations, and more. 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 current version of the page has changed that last sentence considerably. It now says 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.

It’s not clear whether this reflects a policy change or just a clarification of language. We’ve asked Microsoft whether it has changed plans to deprecate the Control Pane or if the original version of the support page was just incorrect in the first place, and we’ll update if we receive a response.

  • Crismus@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Doesn’t matter if they walked it back. I’m now playing my games on Linux.

    And wow it is just working.

    • Aggravationstation@feddit.uk
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      3 months ago

      Yea, like Recall. It’s coming. They’ll just do it silently without any backlash because people will be talking about the new pile of shit Microsoft is doing and also arguing like “no, they cancelled that, here’s the link” to an article from 6 months ago.

  • underthesign@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Why not just enable both? Have the control panel be available but more of a power user kind of thing, where the new Settings page is what gets pushed to the average user. Of course it’s more work to maintain both but last time I checked MS were doing alright for themselves and could probably afford it.

  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Someone found something that still depends on the control panel that will not be easily moved or done away with I bet.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    lol they’re all like “oh the control panel is old and broken, we’re totally taking it to modern streamlined -ville”

    MSFT deveolper: “Uh, that modern streamlined -ville is the control panel. It’s the same code. It even has the same name. People will check you know.”

    “Upon further reflection, what we meant was . . . “

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      It’s still better than the registry. Or worse, some newfangled management abstraction that tries to be helpful but just makes everything opaque. Looking at you, systemd.

  • RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Then they would have to remove the various hooks in the Settings app that actually call and open the Control Panel.

    How many are there? I can think of several (advanced mouse settings, advanced network settings, printer properties, date & time has a callout back to the old panel…)

    Windows 10 came out nine years ago, so they don’t seem in any particular rush.

    • MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      Lol. I think they claimed that Settings was going to replace Control Panel when Windows 8 came out. It’s been 12 years. 😂

      It’s long overdue for MS to shit or get off the pot. Either allocate some resources to this pet project or give up the pretense that it is ever going to happen.

      • FrameXX@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 months ago

        I don’t understand why the control panel UI wasn’t modernized instead? Would that really be unfeasible? I think it still might have been less work than to maintain 2 coexistent “settings/control panel” apps and migrate from one to another. Sometimes you have to throw out the old code base and start from scratch. But if you do so shouldn’t you rather distrubute the result when your finished and not in a half-baked compromise-like state?

      • FrameXX@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 months ago

        I don’t understand why the control panel UI wasn’t modernized instead? Would that really be unfeasible? I think it still might have been less work than to maintain 2 coexistent “settings/control panel” apps and migrate from one to another. Sometimes you have to throw out the old code base and start from scratch. But if you do so shouldn’t you rather distrubute the result when your finished and not in a half-baked compromise-like state?

    • Hawke@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Sound is in there too. The one that annoys me is the printer settings being under “Bluetooth” instead of “printers”.

        • Hawke@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I get why they did it ( because it’s “printers and other devices”) but seriously would it be that hard to link it in both places? Or actually make a printer settings that works worth a shit so you don’t need the control panel app?

          • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            The 3 most used settings for us at work are Displays, Bluetooth, and Printers. Honestly I just use search and type. Just used to that from mobile device settings and app searching.

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      The excellent built in audio compressor called Reduce Loud Noises is buried in the Enhancements audio Control Panel.

  • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Knew it. They won’t dare invalidate the 35-year-old government PDFs instructing people on how to enable their firewall or whatever.

  • John_CalebBradberton@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    If they just move the functionality of control panel to settings, I fail to see why this is such an issue.

    The only way this’d be a big deal is if they removed control panel without moving those functions to the settings app. Then it’d be annoying at least. Is that the case here?

    • BlackRoseAmongThorns@slrpnk.net
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      2 months ago

      Barely any of the functions actually moved, I’d rather the control panel stay just in case regardless, because i still find old fixes to problems i have on old forums and such.

      Which is also why my system language is set to english, so everything on the control panel will have a searchable name instead of a half assed translation that I’ll have to translate back.

  • ikidd@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    “Streamlined”

    What a fucking load of steaming bullshit. The Settings app is complete dogshit compared to Control Panel. If I want to click through 6 pages of nested settings pages for Networking, or 1 screen of all the settings in one place, I think I know which one I would call “streamlined”.

    Jackasses.

    • purplemonkeymad@programming.dev
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      2 months ago

      Funny thing is I remember control panel being criticized for having things too many dialogs deep. Now you have more clicks when using settings instead of less.

  • raldone01@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The biggest offenders for me are:

    • I struggle to navigate and make out alle the controls of the settings app. Somehow finding the settings visually is very difficult.
    • The new settings app is single instance. The control panel had lots of popup windows and you could open it multiple times which allowed parallel open settings windows.