Microsoft may finally remove or hide the old Control Panel in Windows 10, according to Windows Central. The latest Windows Insider beta versions of Windows 10 reveal some subtle coding references that hint at a “hiding” of the legacy Control Panel.
Microsoft phased out Windows XP many years ago, and recently ended support for Windows 7. But many elements of the older operating systems still remain in the latest version of Windows 10. One of those is the legacy Control Panel, where you still find lots of deeper settings and preferences. But future versions of Windows 10 might finally remove it in favor of the modern settings page.
This move would make much sense, as a lot of the settings options from the legacy Control Panel are already available from the main Windows 10 settings app. It has become a bit redundant, having two ways to get to settings options for common tasks such as changing user accounts.
In the future, this means Microsoft could perhaps push users to the modern Settings app instead. Unlike the classic Control panel, it is more easily accessible from the Windows 10 Start Menu. It’s also cleaner and more concise, with settings grouped together for ease of understanding.
It’s still not clear whether or not the Control Panel would simply be hidden from view or removed entirely. Microsoft has yet to officially comment on the matter.
We also don’t know when this change might take effect. Given that the next version of Windows 10 (code-named Windows 10 Version 2004) is already near finalization, we might expect the change to arrive in a later Windows 10 update in the fall. That update doesn’t yet have a release date or name, but it could be coming around October or November, judging from past releases.
Microsoft has endured some previous criticism for cutting out some of the other “classic” features of Window. The company last tried to remove the original Paint app from Windows 10 in favor of the newer “Paint 3D” app, but eventually reversed its decision. It also tried to remove the classic “Snipping Tool” feature from Windows 7 in favor of “Snip and Sketch,” but later decided to keep both.
If this holds up to be true, the upcoming fall 2020 update for Windows 10 might be a big one. It’s been rumored that Microsoft could be bringing back the Windows Sets feature, and perhaps even tweak the Start Menu and other areas of operating system to better match the design of Windows 10X, a new version of Windows for dual-screen devices.