It’s been a long time coming, and it could still be some time coming yet. But Windows 11 Build 22509 Control Panel changes show the shape — if not the ultimate destination — of things to come. The lead-in graphic for this story shows Control Panel (CP) from Windows 11 left, and Windows 10 right. (Right-click the image and select “Open image in new tab” or equivalent to see it in its full glory.) Careful examination of the image shows items missing from 11 include Administrative Tools and Windows Tools. The new look includes more modern icons and rounded corners, too.

What Windows 11 Build 22509 Control Panel Changes Presage

The loss of Administrative Tools and Windows Tools is no big thing. Administrative Tools is a portmanteau in File Explorer that leads to a bunch of stuff easily accessible through other means. It includes:

A lot of this stuff is seldom used, and all of it is easily accessible by name, through God Mode, and other means…

Same thing goes for Windows tools, which provides access to 36 items ranging from Character Map to WordPad (in alphabetical order), with considerable overlap with the previous Administrative Tools item. IMHO, neither of these leaving CP is a loss, let alone a great one.

Look for Increasing Vanishment Ahead

Long term the impetus seems clear. MS will move more stuff out of CP and under Settings. Ultimately, CP might disappear completely. But that’s probably a long-term phenomenon at least a few years into the future, if not further out that that. According to WindowsLatest, the next Windows 11 Insider Preview Dev Channel update will do away with still more CP elements. It should be interesting to see which ones go away, and in what order.

As this stuff starts falling out of CP, count on me to keep you informed. I thrive on this kind of administrivia, and revel in sharing it with my readers — that means you! Stay tuned, and we’ll all keep up with the incredible shrinking collection of Control Panel elements.

I’m a regular at ElevenForum.com and TenForums.com. I try to read all new threads there daily, but probably average two out of three over the long haul. This morning, I saw a post at ElevenForum entitled “Services to Disable Windows 11.” My immediate response was “Why bother?” These days, Windows is self-tuning and runs pretty lean — especially Windows 11. That’s why I assert “Modern Windows Service Tweaking Is Counterproductive.”

More on Why Modern Windows Service Tweaking Is Counterproductive

One especially interesting analysis in response to the original poster’s list of prospective services to disable is especially illuminating. It comes from long-time Guru-level user @Bree, who says:

If you open Resource Monitor, look at Services on the CPU tab and sort by Average CPU, then you’ll find that of your list SysMain has the highest CPU use – of less than 0.2%. In fact my total CPU use by all running services is just 2%.

The general point is that while it’s theoretically possible to trim down the default set of services and processes to lighten the Windows load, the gains are small. In addition, turning things off that Windows thinks should be turned on can occasionally cause stability problems (read the whole thread for more details).

The Black Viper Perspective on Tweaked Services

BlackViper.com has been active on the Internet recommending such tweaks since the days of Windows 95/98. The last set of such tweaks for Windows 10 on his site is for version 1803 (as in March, 2018, almost four years ago). There are no such tweaks for Windows 11, period. To me, this says even a long-time, professional-grade tweaker no longer finds it worthwhile or rewarding to do this kind of thing with modern Windows versions. I couldn’t agree more, and stick by my title for this piece! ‘Nuff said.