Microsoft is looking to get rid of the Control Panel in Windows 11

Before there were Settings, there was Control Panel. The legacy interface for changing Windows settings or accessing hardware and network tools has been part of the operating system for decades, and the classic Control Panel view is still available in Windows 11. However, it sounds like its days are numbered as Microsoft is migrating everything over to the new Settings app.

According to March Rogers, Partner Director of Design at Microsoft, the Windows team is doing exactly that, but the process itself might take a while due to the complexity of handling legacy features that have been part of Windows since the days of floppy disks and CD-ROMs.

"We're working our way through migrating all the old Control Panel controls into the modern Settings apps," March Rogers wrote on X in response to a question about Control Panel's more in-depth tools compared to the modern Settings app. "We're doing it carefully because there are a lot of different network and printer devices and drivers we need to make sure we don't break in the process."

It's definitely a complex task, as the Control Panel's Win32 interface, which supports drivers and hardware via the Device Manager section, dates back decades. And it's this complexity that has kept Control Panel around for so long, so migrating everything to the newer WinUI standard has probably been on the cards for several years. However, this post from Microsoft's March Rogers indicates that the Windows team is doing exactly that by working through each and every Control Panel option and feature to bring them across to Settings.

It's unclear how long this process will take, but it will definitely be a major shift for Windows when one day the Control Panel is no more.