Unified Control Panel

[blackhartct]

Just wondering what other people from this forum thing about this guys idea of a cleaner, more efficient and easier to use control panel. Personally I think its an amazing idea but i highly doubt that Microsoft will revamp it for Windows 7 but i can dream right?

It's Time: Unified Control Panel

[FthrJACK]

the problem with that is, it would be a very complicated control panel, and for some settings you would have toi seriously dig down, scarring some users and making it harder to navigate in general, and thus defeating the object.

Are you wanting gpo, hyperv, ad, dns, sites and services etc etc... all in there too???

[blackhartct]

the problem with that is, it would be a very complicated control panel, and for some settings you would have toi seriously dig down, scarring some users and making it harder to navigate in general, and thus defeating the object.

Are you wanting gpo, hyperv, ad, dns, sites and services etc etc... all in there too???

Um im a little confused on how this would make it "complicated". Currently the control panel isn't really a control panel. It serves as a glorified link page. that leads you all over the place unless ur an msdst and you know where every menu option is. With this you would never not know where you are or where you've been. Did you look at his mockups?

Edited November 11, 2008 by blackhartct

[MCT]

i think this shoulda been implemented long ago, i agree with what blackhartct said above, the control panel as it is currently is very dis functional although it is very safe lol, cant go wrong with 20 icons! haha

Edited November 11, 2008 by MCT

[cluberti]

This almost reminds me of what the Win9x control panels were like - I must say, I don't dislike the Vista/Win7 control panel, and I do find it easy to use, but some people do not. A return to the Win9x-style control panel might be useful.

[spacesurfer]

seems like they tried to make it simpler with the standard view with winxp but i always reverted to the classic view as i always knew where i wanted to go. i hated the standard view.

however, with the control panel items exploding in vista (slight exaggeration), i also feel it needs to be revamped (but not merged all into one).

i think only a few items should be consolidated into categories: disk management (chkdsk, defrag, repartition), display option (everything related to graphics, themes, etc.), devices (all about devices printers, scanners, sound, mouse, keyboard etc.), system settings (folder options, date/time, internet options).

otherwise, i like that power management, networking and few other things are available in one link rather than buried in menus.

good news is that in win 7, there will be device stage for your devices.

another thought is that only if the control panel was redesigned like the options menus in office 2007, that would be awesome. you can easily pick what you want on the left side bar and it would display what you picked in the windows on the right.

Edited November 11, 2008 by spacesurfer

[Win2k3EE]

Unified CP? WOW! It's sooo dizzy! The classic Win98 CP is the best. I'm not an old-fashioned, but "why change it, if it works?" type of guy.

[bj-kaiser]

Doesn't look like the worst idea to me. I'd call that an improvement. Especially that you dont have individual dialogs/windows for each settings group, but instead a "page" in the control panel. Personally I find that easier to use.

[Innocent Devil]

unified taskbar would be a great plus for win 7 if dey implement it

u can clearly see the difference compared to the OSX control center or GNOME control center or even KDE

if everthing fit in on page navigation will also be easy

[os2fan2]

Are you suggesting heading back to the Windows 2.x 3.0 days, where the control panel was unified?

A lot of the control panels can be accessed from elsewhere. None the same, you will eventually find what you are looking for in the control panel.

I can't see the advantages of integrating 'file-tools-options' of every installed application into the control panel. Some programs do have a place there. In my control panel, there are some 'hidden' cpls, some driver and application installed applications, and a number of home-made options (the three registry programs). A number of cpls are downloadable from msft, (desktop themes, directx, text services, and tweakui).

None the same, the control panel is still stuck in the windows 3.1 progman days. Worse, actually. You can't create a folder in the control panel, and move icons there. Even if you do manage to get things into admin tools, if they're .cpls, they still show in the control panel. You can't for example, create a folder 'input options', or 'woofies' or 'driver icons'.

Some installs add icons to the panel, while others add extra tabs to the icons, or replace the icon concerned. I suppose this was the intent of GUID's, but some ridiculous things have GUIDs. Still 'folder options' on a guid is pretty awful, when it would be better served by folder.cpl or something.

The MMC (microsoft management console) in my view, is a fairly silly idea. OS/2 went that way (where FDISKPM was replaced by a java app!). The idea is that you need to load some large app to do things like manage users and disks, the whole set is not user managable. User management is now scattered over three or four different applications, none of which gives complete service. It's better to have one icon.