Microsoft isn’t planning to kill off the Control Panel completely, but it wants you to gradually stop using it on Windows 11. Later this year, you’ll be redirected automatically to Windows Settings when you try to open the Fonts page in Control Panel (Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Fonts).
Windows Latest has been closely monitoring the development of the Control Panel for several years. We have observed that Microsoft’s migration strategy involves migrating (redirecting) the Control Panel to Settings step by step. The company doesn’t plan to remove the legacy settings management app on regular Windows versions.
Windows 11 comes with a modern font management panel in Settings, which is on par with the Control Panel version. The legacy version still exists in the Control Panel and appears in Windows Search. This opens the Control Panel > Appearance > Personalization > Font, where you can browse and use the legacy font management page.
Microsoft wants to “fix” this behaviour, and in a future Windows update, the Control Panel’s fonts page will be redirected to Settings > Personalization > Fonts. You won’t be able to access the legacy font page through the Control Panel or Search page.
While some users might dislike the modern interface, it’s on par with the legacy version, as all features have been added to Settings.
For now, Microsoft plans to allow you to access the old Control Panels fonts page by opening C:\Windows\Fonts in File Explorer.
You can also click the shortcut link on the Settings page, which opens the above directory in File Explorer, but that’s a temporary workaround for those who prefer the classic interface
When I opened the legacy Fonts page via File Explorer, Microsoft warned me, “This page is being decoupled from Fonts Control Panel. For more font settings, go to the Fonts page in the Settings app.”
Are the days of the Control Panel numbered? I don’t think so. The Control Panel is here to stay, but you’ll be redirected to the Settings page when all the features from the legacy version have been migrated. This will happen on a page-by-page basis.
The Settings app is slowly getting a lot of new features. For example, Windows 11 24H2 brings more Control Panel features to Settings.
As spotted by Microsoft watcher PhantomOcean on X, Microsoft is also testing a few new features for PassKey settings, such as the ability to manage your credentials and passkey sync directly from Settings.
