The software giant wants to kill off the Control Panel

Jul 22, 2020 16:28 GMT  ·  By

The classic Control Panel, which allowed users to configure their computers on Windows 7, no longer has a place in the modern Windows world, with Microsoft itself planning to retire it at some point in the long term.
 

The plan to kill off the Control Panel isn’t new, as Microsoft equipped Windows 10 with a new Settings app that offers a modern experience and is fully optimized for touch input.

In other words, with Settings now an established feature in Windows 10, Microsoft wants to kill off the Control Panel completely, as users would be able to find everything they need in the new app.

More recently, the software giant has started moving the system applet in Control Panel to the Settings app, and the change is already live in the preview builds of Windows 10. This means that whoever wants to change system settings in Windows 10 must use the Settings app, as the Control Panel just redirects them to the modern experience.

Microsoft is yet to provide an ETA regarding the full retirement date of the classic Control Panel, but with the transition to the Settings app advancing well, it’s now just a matter of time until the whole thing happens.

Bad news for Windows 7 users considering an upgrade.

But at the end of the day, is the switch to the Settings app the right way go?

Not if you ask Windows 7 users who plan an upgrade to Windows 10. This is because the new Settings app isn’t a part of the experience that they were used to.

It’s not a secret that many users refuse the upgrade to Windows 10 because they want to stick with the traditional desktop in Windows 7. So they don’t believe that switching to Windows 10 is worth it, especially because this operating system greets them with a Microsoft Store, Cortana, an Action Center, and other modern features that change the way they use their computers.

And forcing them to switch from the classic Control Panel to Windows 10 is bad news, despite Microsoft itself spending a considerable amount of time to make the experience overall as straightforward as possible.

One particular milestone for the transition from Control Panel to Settings happened earlier this year when Microsoft moved the About screen to the modern experience. The company announced the following in the preview build that was shipped to users in the Windows Insider program:

“We’re continuing to work on bringing capabilities from Control Panel forward into Settings. As part of this ongoing effort, we are migrating information found in Control Panel’s System page into the Settings About page under Settings > System > About. Links that would open the System page in Control Panel will now direct you to About in Settings. We are also bringing new improvements like making your device information copyable and streamlining the security information shown. And don’t worry—if you’re looking for more advanced controls that lived in the System page in Control Panel, you can still get to them from the modern About page if you need them!”

Microsoft still needs some time to complete the switch to the Settings app, but there’s no doubt that sooner or later, the Control Panel would go dark once and for all. How this is going to impact the adoption of Windows 10, especially as far as users of previous Windows versions are concerned, is something that remains to be seen.

The official support for Windows 7 has already been pulled in January this year, but many stick with this OS despite the risks of running abandoned software.