It’s the end of an era, folks; Windows users will soon see more of the Settings app and a whole lot less of the Control Panel.
"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 company writes on a support page.
Control Panel still exists "for compatibility reasons and to provide access to some settings that have not yet migrated" to the Settings app. But Microsoft is encouraging people to "use the Settings app, whenever possible" since that will soon be the only option.
The Control Panel allows you to add or remove software/hardware, administer user accounts, manage security settings, change how Windows looks and acts, and more. But it's been around since Windows 1.0 almost 40 years ago and still features an old-school look.
Settings, on the other hand, debuted in 2012 with Windows 8—a "new-style Settings page accessible from the Charms" that included "no link from the simple settings page to the advanced [Control] Panel," we wrote in our review. And while Microsoft eventually got rid of Charms, the Control Panel lived on alongside the Settings Menu in Windows 10 and 11 as features migrated to the newer app piece by piece.
While we don’t have an exact date marking Control Panel’s demise, the next big update, 24H2, is scheduled for this fall.
