Is Microsoft killing Control Panel for good? Maybe yes, but not yet

Reports are circulating online that Microsoft is killing the Control Panel in favor of the Settings app. The component has been around for almost 40 years since Windows 1.0, the first major OS release by Microsoft.

But, is that true?

The truth is, there’s nothing new about it. Microsoft has been gradually shifting Control Panel features (behind the curtains) to the Settings app in Windows for over a decade, even back during the Windows 8 days when the Settings app was first introduced. But, it’s still unclear when the Control Panel will be completely removed.

What’s new though is that a recent update from Microsoft’s support note indicates that the Control Panel is being deprecated in favor of the Settings app, but does not provide a specific timeline. It is now confirmed on a Microsoft documentation, so we may soon see the Control Panel on Microsoft deprecated features webpage.

“The Control Panel is a feature that’s been part of Windows for a long time. It provides a centralized location to view and manipulate system settings and controls. Through a series of applets, you can adjust various options ranging from system time and date to hardware settings, network configurations, and more,” Microsoft mentions on the note.

“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 adds, confirming the decade-old shift.

What this means is that we may be getting closer to the deprecation, nothing else.

But if anything, there have been quite a lot of features being deprecated from future Windows releases. The Redmond company has confirmed that it’s removing WordPad from the upcoming Windows 11 24H2 version beside other deprecated features like Windows Mixed Reality, Paint 3D, VBScript, and others.