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Editor’s take: Microsoft has spent years trying to phase out the traditional Windows Control Panel. Since Windows 10, the company has pushed users toward a modernized settings interface, but the transition remains incomplete – and often frustrating. The end of this drawn-out development process still appears far off.
Microsoft recently released new Dev and Beta builds of Windows 11 to Insider testers. According to prolific build explorer “phantomofearth,” the updates introduce another change to how users manage system settings. Windows 11 users now have one less reason to rely on the familiar Control Panel.
Microsoft has apparently moved another Control Panel setting to the Windows 11 “Settings” app. The change is currently hidden and not enabled by default, so Insiders must activate it manually. The newly migrated options, including the keyboard character repeat delay and repeat rate, now appear under the Accessibility > Keyboard section in the Settings app.
Welcome to yet another episode of Control Panel options moving to Settings. Hidden (not available by default) in the latest Dev and Beta CUs: migrated keyboard character repeat delay and repeat rate options in Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard. pic.twitter.com/Xgfi1xOXkf
– phantomofearth 🌳 (@phantomofearth) April 25, 2025
Microsoft recently moved all remaining options from the mouse properties dialog box to the Settings app and is now moving the same with keyboard-related settings. These options still allow users to customize how applications and Windows respond to keystrokes, but they now appear in a new location for operational consistency.
Keyboard options remain in the traditional Control Panel tool under Keyboard settings. Microsoft typically tests new features and changes with Insider builds before rolling them out to the latest “stable” OS updates. However, no guarantees or fixed timelines exist for these changes.
The Control Panel’s demise is proceeding at a particularly slow pace. Microsoft started replacing the legacy settings app in 2020 and confirmed a year ago that it would depreciate the feature for good. The Control Panel has been a part of Windows since version 1.0, released forty years ago. It took its “modern” form with Windows 95, offering a special folder containing shortcuts to various configuration applets stored as .cpl files on the system volume.
Most Windows options are now available in the modernized Settings apps on Windows 10 and Windows 11. However, a few loose ends remain in the aging Control Panel window. Given the pace at which Microsoft is moving with this migration, the now-depreciated feature will likely still be with us in time for Windows 12 and beyond.
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