On brand. Settings is like control panel but dumber.
I love how in settings all the different miuse options are spread out in different places!
Want to change mouse speed, cursor size, and color? We are going on an adventure!
Even more frustrating is that different releases and builds recategorize where certain settings are entirely. To the point where search is the only reliable way of knowing for sure you’ll get to the right place. They haven’t changed things too drastically recently but they kept moving shit around in Win10 throughout its lifetime.
The older and older I get in life, the more and more I want my digital product interfaces to remain as static as possible. I’m not anti new features, but I want the ability to persist the OG interface I’m used to, the state in which I know WHERE things are, and HOW to utilize them.
I don’t want app icons to change without my consent. I want zero rebranding, name or color changes. I don’t want to be forced to change services due to enshittification, and learn how to fit new ones into my workflows.
One of the core problems with the modern world is confusion of information. Our brains were not designed to handle the infinite layer of abstractions, dozens/hundreds of separate systems, each with potentially hundreds or thousands of different configurations. Every time a major update occurs it breaks my mums tech illiterate brain more and more, and she stops using digital products more and more.
I get the feeling, but in my experience it has more to do with the windows UI actual getting worse. When I use Linux, I’m happy to try out different desktop environments and shells, but they have one thing in common: they have designs that are created more thoughtfully.
It’s not just us growing old, it’s the world of technology growing shittier too!
I bet AI would be helpful here!!
Hey, Clippy! Change the settings so that I can view hidden files . Clippy: Ok. Shutting down the nuclear reactor.
Not great, not terrible…
But it was, in fact, terrible, very terrible indeed
Not great, not terrible…
I send the gif of that scene at least once a week at work over teams
If Microsoft had actually moved all the settings over to the “new” settings app (it’s 12 years old, btw), I’d be supportive of this.
It’s a joke that windows has 2 settings apps, and searching for specific settings in the start menu will take you to either, or to both.
But as we all know, Microsoft won’t do this properly. They’ll likely just continue with their 75% finished settings app while hiding the control panel, and if you need something not in the settings app you’ll have to open some old menu using a run command or some other terrible convoluted step that makes you feel like you’re running a half-baked Linux distro from 2003.
MacOS, Android, iOS, Linux distros don’t have this issue. Fucking TempleOS doesn’t have this issue. Microsoft is a $3.2 trillion company!
The absolute lack of effort they put into Windows is pathetic. They’re a shining example of why monopolies should not be allowed to happen.
I hate the settings app so much that I’ve just learned the powershell commands for setting up printers and changing NIC settings. Honestly it wouldn’t be as bad if a. It didn’t take forever to load on occasion and b. I could have two settings windows open at once.
It’s so hard to find settings there that jumping between network center and add device is not intuitive. If they remove control panel from servers too I might quite my msp job and go work at a grocery store.
the thing that most grinds my gears is that there are settings that appear in both control panels and settings, appear to be changeable in both, but only one or the other actually changes anything.
Does Linux have good support for VR yet? Specifically my HP Reverb g2 that seems to be reliant on windows mixed reality…
Just a curious question - Is there any VR sets that work with Linux Distros? I’m not much of a gamer to need or want one. Just want to learn for learning’s sake.
I’ve never tried VR, but from what I’ve heard it’s hit and miss on Linux right now - certainly not as good as Windows at the moment.
I know that KDE has a lot of stuff for VR (unsurprising given Valve is pushing for it), and Gnome has just merged a lot of the same, so if you give it a spin I’d recommend an up-to-date distro (say Fedora or OpenSUSE Tumbleweed) with either KDE or Gnome.
I imagine that when Valve releases their new headset, progress will accelerate, but that’s just a guess
Interesting, thank you
Also was unaware Valve was working on a new headset! That’s good news as it feels like the market has really stagnated outside of the Meta headsets.
I wouldn’t get too excited. Supposedly the next headset is internally called Deckard, and it’s been “about to release” for like 3 years now? Pretty much everything people think they know about it is conjecture based off code Valve has tucked away in SteamVR; zero public statements of intent.
As for VR on Linux… kinda? I’ve only read terrible things about it online. I have an Index and tried to use it with Mint a few months back, and while it mostly worked without any configuration issues, there was a weird white ring around the edge of the screen that I couldn’t figure out.
Oh no. They really want me swapping to Linux full time with this shit, ugh.
What’s stopping you?
Just get it over with.
The setup, mostly. I know I can VM my mandatory work programs, at least. Dual boot has been too frustrating since Windows won’t play ball.
Well for my work needs I require NVIDIA graphics cards and very high end multi channel audio cards and some other bits and bops. I can dream I can swap one day though.
What are your very high end multi channel audio cards that don’t play together with Jack?
THIS was your tipping point. control panel removal.
LMAO
it’s a very good tipping point dude. settings is so complicated to navigate and is very slow. not to mention control panel still has more features than settings
That seems reasonable. Especially since there’s no equivalent to the already half-assed solution that is the control panel on Linux.
OSX style settings menus are far better than either the travesty that is the win 10 settings or the aging and questionably designed control panel, especially when it’s all tightly integrated with the OS and utilities, and that’s present in every Linux DE under the sun.
EDIT: I should clarify that by “already half-assed solution that is the control panel”, I meant that the Windows Control Panel was always a half-assed solution in comparison to what OSX and Linux DEs do with proper settings manager applications.
On Linux DEs, a settings manager like Settings in OSX is usually present, and it is a far better solution.
Can you enlighten me on what is the 'already half-assed solution that is the control panel on Linux" [sic]. That you mean.
Far as I know, there are many a different approaches to half-assed solutions to control panels on Linux [sic].
I phrased that very poorly. I’ll edit the above to clarify.
I meant that the Windows Control Panel was always a half-assed solution in comparison to what OSX and Linux DEs do with proper settings manager applications.
On Linux DEs, a settings manager like Settings in OSX is usually present, and it is a far better solution.
Fair enough. And I didn’t mean it as a slight. Just genuinely curious about what a unified Linux Control Panel might have been like.
This is not to say that the Gnome and KDE (or Plasma) panels (f. ex.) don’t have their varied and myriad shortcomings, but that’s another discussion.
no. fucking. way.
They need to finish Settings before doing that. Control Panel is almost always the easier way to accomplish things and still the only way to accomplish some IIRC.
This. Settings does not have full audio devices information and settings.
I had to do a lot of configuration work on Win10 computers lately. The MMC, Powershell, even Regedit are faster and more intuitive than Settings. It’s fucking ridiculous.
And it doesn’t take years to load, specially on older PCs
And you can have more than one instance open at a time, instead of having the sound page open and when you try to bring up bluetooth next to it it changes the first one instead.
Most people don’t care about this, and I wish I didn’t, but for whatever reason my brain just hates inconsistency like this, and Windows is the absolute worst for it. It makes me hate using my computer. I’m truly jealous of the people who are completely unfazed by ugly/inconsistent UX, I wish it was a trait I had.
Context menus like this, UI elements from many different windows versions, 5+ UX toolkits in use at any given time, inconsistent padding, inconsistent fonts, dark mode preference being listened to for one app and ignored in another.
I hate Apple, have never owned any of their products and likely never will, but they’d be embarrassed if they had a UX this sloppy and inconsistent. They’d straight up not release it.
Linux DEs are far more visually cohesive than Windows (especially the likes of Gnome and ElementaryOS), even KDE which was/is frequently mocked for being a bit ugly and inconsistent has improved leaps and bounds recently and is now far more consistent than Windows. And they’re all working on a combined budget that’s probably less than 1% of Window’s. Wtf are Microsoft doing??
The thing that bugs me the most about Settings is the amount of wasted white space on every page. You have to do so much scrolling and clicking through tabs just to find various options. By comparison the dialogue boxes of the Control Panel apps are compact and concise. Every time I have to scroll down for something in Settings, I wonder why there’s so much empty space padding around everything.
You’d think a multi billion dollar corporation could afford a decent UI designer or two.
They used to have people who knew what they were doing: https://socket3.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/designing-windows-95s-user-interface/
Now their UI team seems to just be two guys shitting in a bucket (shamelessly stealing that expression from KiraTV).
I know people in IT who only use control panel. This will piss people off.
Ew. They should expand their skill set to using terminal/powershell.
I’m not knocking on GUIs but I will call out “IT professionals” who ONLY know how to use GUIs.
Hot take but anyone who refuses to rethink how things work during their lifetime causes changes to happen at the pace of 1 change per generation.
Of course, in this case, the new thing really is inferior.
I have no problem with change. But I do have a problem with Microsoft’s lack of QC or proper design methodology.
Just yesterday I wanted to disable sound devices. The button in the settings app even says „turn devices on/off“, but once inside the menu, there is no option to enable or disable sound devices.
Had to use the control panel again.
It’s a interesting trip through Windows history everytime I need to change an admin setting:
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You need to modify an admin setting (like…setting a MTU for example or changing an IP address (now possible in Settings, but wasn’t for a long time))
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You click through Settings -> Setting not available, but a Link to Control Panel -> click on the Control Panel Link (XP-Era) -> Advanced Settings on the Top-Window (Windows 2000) -> Finally, right click on the Network Adapter and select Properties and you are all the way back to Windows 95/98.
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Same with Powershell: A function or Cmdlet isn’t available? Let’s try this .Net thingy first, before we head to VBS
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Need to manage Sound Devices? Better do that in Control Panel, since most of the useful settings are still missing
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Need to remove a Outlook profile? Control Panel.
Windows is a prime example of inconsistent design, that’s why Device Manager still asks for drivers on a A:\ 3,5" floppy drive.
As an Administrator, I’m curious to see, what will become of Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and their Snap-Ins, which are still required to have by many still supported MS Products and third party tools. The last time I had to edit something in “Component Services” (Windows NT-Era Tool) was 2023.
That’s the kind of user-friendliness that Linux just can’t compete with.
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I’m all for an improved UX but the settings app is not an improved UX, it’s taking many different ways to manage windows features and throwing them into arbitrary categories that are constantly getting shifted around.
How about instead just improving some other Windows control features? Let me filter by name in services.msc and devmgmt.msc. Let me search in gpedit.msc.
I will say I do appreciate that they’ve finally made those features work under HiDPI without looking like a blurry pixelated mess. Only took 14 years since the first mass market HiDPI display was released, and 23 years since the first 4k monitor
Classic Microsoft move to implement something new, then not let go of the old thing and run them jankily side by side. Settings / Control panel is a prime example.
And at work its janky crossovers between Active Directory and Azure/Intune/Entra/other dumb names.
Just 3 days ago I had to use the control panel to access the settings I needed to get my parents’ printer to work right. Even tried to use the regular settings menu for maybe 10 minutes before remembering how to access the settings I needed. Here’s hoping my parents never run into printer issues again (lol).
FUCK YOU, MICROSOFT!
Spoiler: they will, because fucking printers
Let’s wait for CEOs to learn about the mess of Program Files\Program Files (x86), and how the user directory is filled with links replacing deprecated folders making it unusable. Windows is more of the inverted Babylon tower of hell than a consistent and complete vision of a product, one layer is built on top of another like a patchwork of a clinically insane. That’s with all their $billions, millions of workhours and a market monopoly.
Muahaha now I can prepare for my final form: crotchety old man complaining about how they killed off the control panel.
Become boomer
