- Microsoft confirms the plans to deprecate and remove the Control Panel from Windows.
- The Settings app is the experience that replaces the legacy Control Panel to change system settings.
- The company still has a lot of work to do to complete the transfer of the remaining features to the Settings app.
UPDATED 8/14/2024: Microsoft has formally acknowledged that the old experience of changing settings is being deprecated, despite the fact that the corporation has been moving system settings from the Control Panel to the Settings app for many years. This indicates that the application is about to expire and will be deleted from the operating system.
For a very long time, the Control Panel has existed. Since the application has undergone numerous interface revisions to the style you see today, the Windows 7 design included the experience that Microsoft first introduced in 1985 as part of the Windows 1.0 release.
This is Windows 1.0’s initial Control Panel UI design.
This architecture of the Control Panel has been used since Windows 7 and is still present in Windows 11.
Since launching the Settings app on Windows 8 in 2012, the software behemoth has been adding new system settings and transferring existing ones from the Control Panel. Additionally, there have been several adjustments made to the Settings app itself.
This is the original iteration of the Windows 8 PC settings app.
Microsoft first released this Settings app for Windows 10.
This is the Windows 11 Settings app interface, which takes the role of the Control Panel.
Though many of us believed it would never happen until the Control Panel was completely eliminated, the firm began the change more than ten years ago.
The Control Panel is gradually being replaced with the Settings app, which provides a more contemporary and efficient interface, according to a new documentation page.
Since I broke the news, Microsoft has changed the documentation page to remove the statement about the Control Panel being deprecated. It now states that many of the Control Panel’s settings are being moved to the Settings app, which provides a more streamlined and modern experience. This suggests that the legacy app for controlling settings will remain available for a considerable amount of time.
I’ve seen several headlines implying that the Control Panel would soon be discontinued, but the firm hasn’t made any formal announcements or given any hints that the experience will be discontinued right away. It would undoubtedly take a few more years before it is deleted from the operating system if it has taken more than a decade to reach this stage.
While the main focus of Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 11 24H2 feature update is implementing AI features, it also comes with an updated version of the Settings app that continues to transition settings from the Control Panel, including color management, the ability to rename a printer, and the ability to pause printing. These updates are anticipated to be released sometime in September or October.
The update also contains new networking settings, new settings to regulate the energy saver, new settings to activate the Sudocommand, new settings to control privacy, and new settings to switch on or off Windows Recall (should it ever be made available to users).
It turns out that transferring all of the system settings from one experience to another requires a great deal of patience, and the legacy experience is required for compatibility reasons, which is why the Control Panel is still in place.
Do you frequently find yourself navigating through the Control Panel settings even if the Settings app already has the majority of the configuration choices?If you need to use a legacy applet to change system settings without launching the Control Panel, that counts. Tell me in the comments section below.
Update August 26, 2024: To guarantee accuracy and incorporate the most recent data, this page has been updated.