Microsoft has been slowly moving to iradicate the Control Panel from Windows for well over a decade at this point. It began with Windows 8 in 2012, and has slowly progressed through Windows 10 and now Windows 11, slowly but surely moving over legacy settings and options to the modern “Settings” app available today.
Control Panel is still available on Windows 11, but it’s certainly not as capable as it used to be. That’s because the majority of settings you need to configure on Windows are now in the modern app, with just a handful of settings still present in Control Panel.
The option to change user account name is finally being migrated from Control Panel to Settings. Here it is in 26300.7877, doesn’t work just yet (see duplicated “Change account *type*” button that opens the dialog for changing between standard user and administrator) pic.twitter.com/tM5eLkQgUuFebruary 21, 2026
The removal of Control Panel will be a long time coming, but we’re not there yet. Even with the main Control Panel app no longer being the primary place for settings on Windows, even the modern Windows Settings app still relies on it sometimes. Many smaller options and settings you can find in the modern Settings app will lean on legacy Control Panel applets.
Microsoft has promised that 2026 will be a good year for Windows 11, with the company planning to address top level “pain points” from users and ensure the platform is the best place to be for power users, developers, and gamers.
The last several months have been overshadowed by Microsoft’s obsession with AI, which has eroded user trust and driven Windows’ reputation to an all time low. The company is hoping to claw back some positive sentiment this year with a wave of quality of life improvements and updates slated for the year ahead.
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