Windows 11 says goodbye to Control Panel

I'll believe it's dead when I finally can't pull it up. This has been, and continues to be, a long, slow, lingering death.

I actually won't miss it, much anyway. I find the search feature in Settings vastly superior when I'm looking for those odd things I very seldom need to touch, and the "fuzzy" aspect to the search helps immensely.
 
Blues said:
99% of the things are still easier to do from Control Panel
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to start a flame war here, nor do I disagree with the assertion, but that's mostly because "it's what I'm used to."

For things that have been Settings specific for some time now, I find I have equal facility (or greater, sometimes) there than in Control Panel. I've also found, on occasion, that finding something that is in Control Panel is faster if I start the search in Settings and end up directed to Control Panel.

@Diggs, I also use shortcuts to a far lesser extent than I used to. Hitting WinKey and typing just 'c' or 'co' always makes control panel show up at or very near the top of the list. One of the things I've loved since Windows 10 is just how well Windows Search works. Now I need to get back to cleaning the "temp junk" off of my desktop that I sometimes save there when I'm in a rush.
 
@britechguy I thought for a second on that and in complete honesty there is a lot of that and would lower from 99% but would take too much thought to determine how much lower. I do know there are several things that if there is a way to do it outside of control panel it is so well hidden that it just doesn't make sense to do it any other way.
 
Blues said:
I do know there are several things that if there is a way to do it outside of control panel it is so well hidden that it just doesn't make sense to do it any other way.
Click to expand...

Not that I'm arguing with you, but I know of several things so well hidden in Control Panel, and impossible to find unless you find someone who's given step by step directions (that you can find again on that very odd occasion when needed) that have driven me to distraction several times over the course of decades.

The only thing I've ever really hated about Control Panel was its (in my opinion) piss-poor search capability. It doesn't use "fuzzy" search logic at all, and sometimes the names that Microsoft has given certain obscure items are terms that never, ever would have occurred to me, so searching on same is a logical impossibility.
 
I will say I have always used "Large icons" view instead of "Category" view with control panel mostly as I was used to many separate icons instead of digging into a grouping category plus there were some items I couldn't find via the categories and only via the icon view.
 
I've always used the "Small Icons" view, but for precisely the same reason.

The "Category" view is one about which my opinion would include language not permitted on this site.
 
Markverhyden said:
I'll only mourn when God Mode is gone.
Click to expand...

And I've heard nary a word about it disappearing. But very few people, including many techs, know about it. It's been a pretty well-kept secret, on the whole.

The one thing that's really annoyed me about this God Mode is that you cannot assign the icon a name like any other icon. No matter what you try it will not display.
 
Every time they remove an app from the control panel, I memorize the .cpl filename for it so I can open it back up.

That being said, sysdm.cpl is the only one I really use anymore. And that's only because Microsoft hasn't given us a GUI way to join a domain, or Azure domain on Win10/11 outside of the old system properties window we've been using since NT 4.0.

At least Win11's settings menu is organized enough to actually have crap where I can find it, Win10s is... impossible.
 
I'll believe it when I see it.
The only thing I still regularly go to control panel for is getting to "printers and devices"...and I always have to flip the control panel to "small icons" view, as Bri noted above.

The functionality of printer properties and settings is superior in the old control panel, versus the newer printer settings app....I can't get to some things I need to in the newer printer settings app.
 
@Barcelona,

That image is almost as old as Windows itself, and never ceases to amuse.

But even if Windows were 100% perfect, as in completely bug-free, never crashed, a security fortress like no other, etc., there would still be millions of Windows users who would feel it's the plane in that picture.

I never cease to be amazed how many people think that Windows, or any operating system, is bespoke software that should fit them like a hand tailored suit straight out of the box, and that their concerns are the only ones that count. It not only will never happen, it shouldn't. OSes are Swiss Army knife type software that must allow diverse demographics to get done many very different things they need to do, and with relative ease, but not necessarily perfect simplicity. Nipping and tucking are absolutely necessary and there will always be things that cannot be changed to suit one's preference. 'Twas ever thus, and will be evermore.
 
frase said:
Though search is good as well - can I have both?
Click to expand...
That's one thing I'm more than happy to give M$ credit for. Beginning with W10 the search function just plain works. Being an old dog not wanting to learn new tricks that I am, when W10 came out I didn't both testing the search function. After all it was pretty useless in earlier versions. But after a few months of watching remote NOC's using search over and over again to pull up apps for everything I saw the light. While I'll still stick either regular Control Panel or God Mode on the desktop for an admin account I'm more than happy to just use search when in user accounts.
 
Blues said:
I wouldn't mind it being gone if they replaced it with adequately usable tools but 99% of the things are still easier to do from Control Panel
Click to expand...
There still are quite a few things that ONLY can be done via control panel apps. The Settings app is NOT ready to take over yet!!!
 
nlinecomputers said:
There still are quite a few things that ONLY can be done via control panel apps. The Settings app is NOT ready to take over yet!!!
Click to expand...

Reports of the death of Control Panel have been greatly exaggerated, repeatedly.

It will be dead when it no longer exists in some as-yet-to-be-released iteration of Windows, and not a moment before.
 
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