14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve known for a while that Microsoft plans to kill off the classic Control Panel in Windows, and the debut of Windows 11 is reason enough for the company to accelerate this transition.
The software giant wants to move every single part of the legacy Control Panel to the new Settings app bundled with Windows and providing a more modern experience.
But in some cases, the migration from Control Panel to Settings isn’t necessarily happening as flawlessly as Microsoft expected it to happen, so the company has recently decided to revert one such change.
In other words, the Network Connections applet has returned to the Control Panel as part of the latest Windows 11 preview build, as noted by BP. Microsoft hasn’t offered any reason for this decision, but on the other hand, expect the whole thing to be just temporary.
The demise of the Control Panel
The Settings app showed up as part of the first Windows 10 build released nearly 7 years ago, and since then, Microsoft has been continuously working on importing more options from the legacy Control Panel.
The transition took longer than expected, so this is why the Control Panel is still around today after so many years.
The company, however, hasn’t shared an ETA as to when the Control Panel could be killed off once and for all, but it’s pretty clear the purpose is to make the process as seamless and smooth as possible.
The Control Panel is one of the last remnants of the classic Windows experience, as Microsoft now wants the operating system to feel as modern as possible.
But of course, it’s pretty clear that ditching the Control Panel can’t happen overnight, so right now, it’s offered side by side with the modern Settings app as part of what some users believe to be a rather confusing approach that makes little sense after so many years.