Microsoft formally deprecates the 39-year-old Windows Control Panel

Comments

• Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  On brand. Settings is like control panel but dumber.

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  • snooggums@midwest.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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!

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    • naticus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I bet AI would be helpful here!!

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  • SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The only benefit is more tightly integrated Powershell commands for a lot of them… but even that is still lacking in a lot of areas.

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• TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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 income some old menu using a run command or some other terrible UX idea.

  MacOS and Linux distros don’t have this issue. Microsoft is a $3.2 trillion company. The absolute lack of effort they put into Windows is pathetic.

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  • sqw@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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  • Manalith@midwest.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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  • el_abuelo@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Does Linux have good support for VR yet? Specifically my HP Reverb g2 that seems to be reliant on windows mixed reality…

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    • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      [deleted]

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    • __Lost__@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I have the same headset, and as of a few weeks ago when I last checked, there is not complete support. I think the display works mostly, but the controllers don’t so it might depend on what you are doing.

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    • bluewing@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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• dan1101@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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.

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  • shotgun_crab@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    And it doesn’t take years to load, specially on older PCs

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    • catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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  • rtxn@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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  • esc27@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Settings in Windows 11 is close. I rarely find myself going to control panel when it was about 50/50 in Windows 10. Still more clicks than I would like but workable.

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  • sverit@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This. Settings does not have full audio devices information and settings.

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• taiyang@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Oh no. They really want me swapping to Linux full time with this shit, ugh.

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  • ripcord@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    What’s stopping you?

    Just get it over with.

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    • taiyang@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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    • coaxil@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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  • crawancon@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    THIS was your tipping point. control panel removal.

    LMAO

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    • yoshisaur@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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

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    • baggins@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Have you used Settings?

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    • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      This isn’t removal, is deprecation.

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    • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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 when tightly integrated with the OS, and that’s present in every Linux DE under the sun.

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  • Anti_Iridium@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Do it. I will too. I’ll do a QEMU Vm for my windows needs. I’m done with their behavior.

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    • taiyang@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Sure, once I decide on a more permanent distro. Manjaro was ok but I keep hearing bad things and it was a gaming partition, not an all purpose partition. I’m sure lurking in Linux communities will give me some ideas, though.

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• BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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!

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  • Nfamwap@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Spoiler: they will, because fucking printers

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    • w2tpmf@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah I see this as more of a “Printers are an antiquated technology that hasn’t changed much in the last 30+ years” problem.

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    • helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Printers are fortunately “plug and play” on Linux.

      Connect printer to the network. Hit the print button. Select printer from the dropdown. Boom. Done.

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    • MCasq_qsaCJ_234@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      In fact, they are going to remove third-party printer drivers and replace them with universal drivers. Link

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  • theangryseal@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I had to do this today on my wife’s laptop. The settings menu just wouldn’t do it. It just sat there for a thousand years.

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  • graeghos_714@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I recently added a printer to my PC. Having to launch that antique spooler window from like Windows 3.1 to print is a bit hilarious

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• NaibofTabr@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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.

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  • Peffse@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    UI designers have had a war on information density for a loooooong time.

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    • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      UI designers are paid off by big hand surgeon to make me scroll more

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  • 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They used to have people who knew what they were doing: …wordpress.com/…/designing-windows-95s-user-inter…

    Now their UI team seems to just be two guys shitting in a bucket (shamelessly stealing that expression from KiraTV).

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    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Thanks for sharing that post, it was super interesting.

      I wish I could see behind the scenes in the Windows UI discussions, to see how we get to what we have today

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  • catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They could, but as with Google, the middle managers have to justify their existence somehow.

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• kautau@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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

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  • bilb@lem.monster ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They should just copy the Plasma System Settings app.

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    • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It really is about the best settings app I’ve ever used, especially where it highlights the settings that have been changed from defaults

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  • 2pt_perversion@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Preach. Make an actual improved control panel, settings is garbage. It’s not just scattering things around it really doesn’t include a ton of necessary settings.

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    • kautau@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Right, the amount of settings you can’t actually change in settings and instead open up a legacy UI modal to change a specific thing is a demonstration that it’s very much lipstick on a pig rather than a core overhaul. There’s so much baggage in keeping Windows backwards compatible for enterprise that I’m not really sure they can get to a point of having a new control panel where everything is organized into a better UI without cutting some of that baggage and doing major refactors, which will break compatibility, and they make the most money from widespread enterprise licenses across massive private and public organizations, not from windows home licenses included with new computers

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• avisf@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s a interesting trip through Windows history everytime I need to change an admin setting:

  • 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))

  • 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.

  • Same with Powershell: A function or Cmdlet isn’t available? Let’s try this .Net thingy first, before we head to VBS

  • Need to manage Sound Devices? Better do that in Control Panel, since most of the useful settings are still missing

  • 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.

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  • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s the kind of user-friendliness that Linux just can’t compete with.

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• MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  context menu hell™

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  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

    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??

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    • Agrivar@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I like the cut of your jib.

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  • mint_tamas@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I don’t think this is a real issue in the age of bespoke design for applications. Only a minority of then use the OS widgets for their interface. You can argue that this is a bad thing, but then the context menus are just a tiny portion of the entire issue.

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    • tehbilly@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      As annoying as it is, I’d rather have visually inconsistent elements rather than broken applications. There’s something to be said for backwards compatibility.

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  • P4ulin_Kbana@lemmy.eco.br ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I don’t get it

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• SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Microsoft is so ridiculously out of touch with its users demands.

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• pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I know people in IT who only use control panel. This will piss people off.

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  • Feathercrown@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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

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    • GaMEChld@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I have no problem with change. But I do have a problem with Microsoft’s lack of QC or proper design methodology.

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    • foo@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I mean I use windows and Linux for home and work. I’m happy with a changing ecosystem. The control panel is, often, the best tool to get shit done on windows.

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  • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Ew. They should expand their skill set to using terminal/power shell.

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    • Verat@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      To be fair powershell is more recent and windows has always used the control panel for most configuration, they are kind of rug pulling everyone who learned to use it and there arent clear terminal alternatives, for instance, how do I calibrate a game controller’s axis with the terminal?

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    • piccolo@ani.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The whole point of windows is the gui… otherwise i’d just stick with Debian.

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    • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Any time on Linux, but the windows shells are unusable. And configuration databases are much more convoluted things on windows than text files

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    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      If you want Windows without a GUI, you should be using DOS. The whole point of Windows is that it has a GUI.

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• iconic_admin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m not sure what to say. Settings just doesn’t let you get anything done. Are they going to add all the missing functionality to settings before getting rid of control panel? We all know the answer.

  If my company didn’t have a windows mandate I would fully abandon it at this point. What a joke.

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  • vithigar@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’m curious about how this impacts the buttons in the settings app that just open the appropriate control panel applet. Like “additional sound settings” for example.

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  • Zacpod@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yup. I have 1 app that requires window. That’s all that’s keeping me. That one app. And we’re migrating away from it towards a webif, so it’s only a matter of time.

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• mvirts@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Muahaha now I can prepare for my final form: crotchety old man complaining about how they killed off the control panel.

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  • wabafee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Become boomer

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• itsathursday@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Image

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• KeenFlame@feddit.nu ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Nice, take away the only tool that sometimes fixes what your engineers destroyed

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• feef@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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.

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  • flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Mmsys.cpl is the only way for me

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• chakan2@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Let’s be real…Microsoft finally depreciated Windows with Windows 11.

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• andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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. That’s with all their $billions, millions of workhours and a market monopoly.

  9 circles of hell via Wikimedia

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  • calcopiritus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s mostly because of backwards compatibility, and it’s a blessing imo.

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    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Or a forward compatibility, since they weren’t obliged to create these new paths, and they did, thus creating a problem for themselves.

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• werefreeatlast@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I haven’t personally used windows for a long while. I get to fix my wife’s stupid printer, scanner Adobe Acrobat. That’s it. I mean this is great! It means that we can just go on with our lives and automatically not be windows savvy anymore! So many benefits! I can just tell all my tech beneficiaries to take a hike or go Linux because I don’t know how to fix their dumbass windows! This is going to be great!

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• Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  They just have to rename, move, and otherwise obfuscate shit. Always in the general direction of worse.

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• Hadriscus@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Good god, this is sad to witness. As long as I’ve been using windows, they’ve added duplicates of every single thing, but presented differently, each version being slightly more incapable in slightly different ways. How can a piece of software be so utterly lacking in design and forethought is beyond me, for real.

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• pyre@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  no. fucking. way.

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• papabobolious@feddit.nu ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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.

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• 299792458ms@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Can’t wait for windows deprecating windows at this point

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• style99@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  This clearly calls for Windows God Mode.

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• stoy@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I recently found the YT channel Michael MJD, and it has made me realize how fun and cool Microsoft was in the XP and 7 eras.

  It was just before the cloud ruined everything and it was before the curse of the flat UI design.

  It was a more fun time.

  Windows 7 is the prettiest Windows ever made, with XP running Royale theme a close second.

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• Cursed@lemmus.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I thought it said “decapitates” at first and I lol’d

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• sebsch@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Next will be NT. I think they will put their thing above a Linux somewhere in the next future.

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• Reverendender@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Why do they hate their customers so much?

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• TachyonTele@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Is this just for 11, or are they going to ruin 10 some more with this change too?
  I’m not seeing it mentioned in the article.

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