There comes a time in the life of an operating system, no matter how beloved or familiar, when it is consigned to the bone orchard. That is what Microsoft is doing with the Control Panel feature in Window 10.

It has long been known that Microsoft plans to do away with the Control Panel, leaving only the Settings menu as a means of adjusting Windows 10's functionality. However, according to Windows Latest, the Windows 10 October 2020 Update will do away with the Control Panel and introduce changes that members of the Windows 10 developer build have already experienced.

The move, which appears to be a gradual process by Microsoft, is likely to anger power users, as the Control Panel has proven very useful over the years. This is because there is something strangely warm and familiar about the venerable Control Panel options, and if you are familiar with WIndows, it is one of the first places you will go to solve problems such as a microphone not being recognized or a driver not being found.

In previous builds, there were ways around these redirects, but now Microsoft seems to have removed them all. We had heard rumors of this happening as far back as July of this year, when Windows 10 developer build 20161 first exhibited this behavior.

In September, the "Programs and Features" tab left the Control Panel and redirected to "Settings" again. This occurred in build 20211, where users were redirected to the "Apps and Features" area of "Settings" when trying to open "Programs and Features."

This was only the beginning, and Windows Latest noted that "sources familiar with the development believe that other pages in the Control Panel will no longer be supported in a future Windows 10 update."

Why would Microsoft do this? The Settings app matches the overall design of Windows 10 better than the Control Panel, which has a cleaner design that is designed for touch input. The control panel has no large touch targets, and the text-based links lend themselves to cursor use with a mouse, pointing stick, or trackball.

Nevertheless, the control panel has been around since Windows 1.0, released in 1985. For many users, it is like the DNA of Windows, and they will no doubt resent the changes and realize that "Settings" is not a complete solution. For example, the Settings app in Windows 10 has a more blocked design, which means that fewer items are displayed at the same time.

This makes me wonder why Microsoft decided to create a new Settings app rather than redesign the Control Panel to be more touch-friendly.

If you ask me, this change is long overdue. Older users may like the Control Panel, but I found having both the Control Panel and Settings in Windows 10 to be redundant at best and confusing at worst.

It would make Windows 10 much easier to manage if both functions could all be unified under "Settings," as I expect Microsoft will eventually do. That way, there would be no need to go back and forth between menus that have been around since 1985 and menus that were released in 2015.