Why is the Control Panel such a disaster in Windows?

[Action_Johnson]

Preface: I haven't really used Windows since it looked like Fisher-Price designed it in 2001.

 

Seriously, Windows 10 is a lesson in god-awful design.

Why on earth does there need to be this cheese-dick Apps & Features panel in conjunction with Programs and Features?

And why the f**k is a called "Programs and Features" instead of Add/Remove Programs??

Where the f**k did the normal, regular control panel go, and why did it have to get replaced with something a high-schooler would phone in?

This horsesh*t is littered all over the OS, like they took windows 7, put some lipstick on it, then duplicated half of the items in the control panel so it's impossible to find sh*t.

Not only is it redundant, but Windows's new/flat UI is also simply difficult to read unless you've got a b*tchin' 4k monitor. I love how fast I can build a computer, it really does shorten my workload. But holy cow is it unnecessarily difficult to use (File Explorer will always suck until they can integrate some sort of column view).

 

Don't even get me started on the disaster that's their idea of Color Managment....

[Mnky313]

Because people want modern design, trust me. I fucking hate it as well.
This is the same reason I can't buy a laptop that is a proper desktop replacement anymore, consumers would rather have modern looking thin and light laptops with 0 upgradability and not hulking 11 lb beast laptops that are true replacements for desktops.
Back to Windows 10, I've switched between 7 and 10 and constantly run into things where I'm like 'why the fuck would I want that' or 'what the fuck happened to the setting for that' etc.
I gave up and started from enterprise LTSB 2019 and built my own 'windows 9' with as much of the the windows 10 shit removed as possible.
I believe I made a thread here, ill update with a link if I can find it. 

I hate the way phone and laptop manufacturers are going, I don't want to lose features because you can make it slightly lighter or thinner. Just give me a device that can do it all, and bring back MXM!  

[Action_Johnson]

In a perfect world, everything would still be compatible with Windows 2000

[Mnky313]

19 minutes ago, Benji said:

IIRC, they want to completely remove the old Control Panel. I also don't get what is so difficult to use about the Windows Settings - I am not experiencing any problems.

I don't like it because any time I change settings It just dumps me back into the control panel, like wtf was the point of half-assing a new settings menu just for it to dump me back into control panel if I click on any 'advanced' settings or why give we a half working menu that doesn't work as well as the one that already existed?! Samsung and other phone makers does this shit as well, why make your own clock app, calculator app, messages app, etc. when there are already ones by google that work better and are built in to android, it's just useless.
Also this is one of the least annoying things in windows 10 imo, there are several more things that are WAY more obnoxious like the fact that the search is a dumpster fire most of the time and that I have to disable a shitload of services that serve no purpose but to collect data and do useless shit like the game bar that breaks more games than it actually works in or 'game mode' which I'm still convinced does nothing.
Or how about the fact that it doesn't matter what I set my default browser as most of the time it will default to opening edge randomly. What about the fact that it will change the default audio device fucking constantly, on reboot or just whenever it fucking feels like it even if that devices doesn't have speakers?!

[Mnky313]

22 minutes ago, Benji said:

@Mnky313 Well, at first, you should watch your language. Constant profanity won't really get you far (not to mention that it is annoying to read...)

I may have gotten a little riled up at the end there, I've just never understood why some of these 'features' are made in the first place when all they do is make it worse to use.

22 minutes ago, Benji said:

how come I have never had any of these issues (besides the Windows Settings menu opening the Control Panel for options that are not available in the Windows interface)?

Because your use doesn't exactly match mine? Idk what else you want me to say, for stuff like the search and audio sources changing randomly I know I'm not the only one that has these problems, even Linus complains about the windows search.

22 minutes ago, Benji said:

I see most of these problems as being too lazy to adapt to new things

It's not that I'm too lazy to adapt to new things it's the idea of why would I if the new thing is worse. What's the point of me learning something new if that new thing is not as good as what already exists? 

22 minutes ago, Benji said:

You'll never be able to change the progress of software. You will just have to get used to it

I genuinely hate this argument, you can make software better without adding useless nonsense, If I have something that is already working just fine why would I remove it and make something new that doesn't add any functionality and even removes some functionality for no reason? Android has had the same core design for literally a decade but with tweaks every year that add new features and make it more streamlined (don't get me wrong, android has it's issues especially with the removal of overlays and the probably mandatory isolated storage that is coming eventually). I don't want to 'get used to it', that's just me giving up and allowing them to win because 'welp, guess we just have to deal with their nonsense'. They are selling us the product we shouldn't just sit there and be like 'well this year's model is worse in these several ways but it does add this random feature that is kind of cool, guess I'll spend twice as much as I did last year' It's ridiculous what companies get away with because they know how to piss off consumers just enough for them to keep buying their stuff.

22 minutes ago, Benji said:

Maybe one day they'll manage to integrate every setting in the Windows Settings menu (which we've all been waiting for for quite some time).

And when if they ever do that it will be fine, but I still think they shouldn't of half-assed it or at least keep around the old control panel until the new resigned one is done and has a reason to exist.

[homeap5]

Start > run > control

Here is your old control panel if you like it.

[Action_Johnson]

1 hour ago, homeap5 said:

Start > run > control

Here is your old control panel if you like it.

Oh thank god

[homeap5]

2 minutes ago, Benji said:

@homeap5 The problem is that the Control Panel becomes more and more incomplete and forces you to use the Windows Settings and the old Control Panel in tandem, and that is probably what is being describes as a "mess".

Control panel is control panel. It's not "complete, ultimate system settings" solution. Is good enough for standard user to configre standard things. If you need to configure everything, even classic control panel will be not enough. Look at Linux which, as people says, is sooo flexible - you can't do even half of settings that modern win10 offers in new control panel. Just basic stuff that people need to configure.

 

Want to have control over thousand of settings? You can use special, 3rd party tool for that.

[GoodBytes]

17 hours ago, Action_Johnson said:

Why on earth does there need to be this cheese-dick Apps & Features panel in conjunction with Programs and Features?

Transition. Microsoft is dropping the Control Panel in favor to the Settings panel, which is far more organized friendly and interconnected. The Control Panel was a designed for small screen and small screen resolutions in the late 80's and 90's. It was fine then, but as other OSs demonstrated (Linux based OS and MacOS) that a central place for everything was the way to go for ease-of-use, and finding everything, and that was possible with better, larger, and higher resolution displays that early 2000's had.

 

Microsoft knew this (and it was highly criticized back then) tried patch their old control panel with Windows XP. That made things worse, adding another layer of clicks to pass through. They tried to improve things with Vista, but that didn't bring any actual improvements. After all these years, Microsoft finally decided to drop the Control Panel starting with Windows 8. The problem is that Microsoft has waited so long to move, that the majority of people that worked or knew about the Control Panel properly to start porting things, were long gone (retired or left), and the Control Panel, was built in a time where documentation in software development wasn't really a thing by standard unlike today. So porting things is now this long tedious things, where in every version of Windows, there is a few settings that are ported in the Settings panel. That said, the Settings panel has been massively better today compared to day 1 release of Windows 10, where you really needed the old and the new panel to do things. Now the old Control Panel is rarely used. A typical users doesn't even need to touch it.

 

 

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And why the f**k is a called "Programs and Features" instead of Add/Remove Programs??

Because, before with the "Add/Remove Program" name, you could ADD a program to your system. It was a feature that was NEVER used, in favor of double-clicking .exe/.msi setup wizard programs that one just downloads off the web, or get an application from the Store app.

 

Microsoft killed the "Add" part of "Add/Remove Program" since Vista. it could have been killed off back with Windows 98. I mean did you ever install a program from 'Add/Remove Program' panel.. I don't think so. I don't think people even knew you could do this.

 

So now it is called "Program and features", as this is a place where you can manage Programs and turn on or off OS features (Hyper-V, OpenSSH Client, OpenSSH Server, IE11, Wireless Display, Telnet, Subsystem for Linux (WSL), among a long list of other items).

 

I think the name is perfectly appropriate.

 

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Where the f**k did the normal, regular control panel go, and why did it have to get replaced with something a high-schooler would phone in?

There is no space for elitist in Windows or this forum. If a easy to use panel makes you insecure in life, then you should rethink things.

 

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This horsesh*t is littered all over the OS, like they took windows 7, put some lipstick on it, then duplicated half of the items in the control panel so it's impossible to find sh*t.

You have a search box in the start menu, and on the settings panel. Use it.

 

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Not only is it redundant, but Windows's new/flat UI is also simply difficult to read unless you've got a b*tchin' 4k monitor. I love how fast I can build a computer, it really does shorten my workload. But holy cow is it unnecessarily difficult to use (File Explorer will always suck until they can integrate some sort of column view).

File Explorer has column view.. it had it since Windows 95 (maybe before, I don't recall).

The option is under the "View" tab.