Submission details
"Look & Feel" of Control Panel items is all over the place
For some reason, someone decided that it was "OK" to allow every Control Panel item have an entirely different User Interface.
- Some are standard Dialogs.
- Some are "explorer" windows with a left-side "task menu"...and all of those task menus are only loosely related to what you clicked on.
- Some have links to other Control Panel items, that just lead you in a circle.
- NONE of them have an intuitive way to "return to control panel". (No, the back button is not intuitive!...especially not when only some of the CP items have a back button in the first place)
There have been MANY standardized UI's used to drill down through a large number of settings. Why not use one of them?
It would really go a long to way helping people "understand" their computer.
Change Control Panel configurations to use a common UI.
Suggestions:
- Simple tree-view like MMC
- Office 2007 style ie "Word Options" (just add icons)
- Even an Outlook style interface could work
Medium
Medium
Not fixed
Discussion (15 comments)
Yes! Definitely way too many clicks to get to some of the settings! Especially common ones like "Hide Extensions of known file types", or anything having to do with changing the page-file.
Control panel needs to be built from scratch. Apples control panel is a nice one. very simple it goes straight to the point with out useless (and some outdated) images and text
I would preferr all applets to be replaced by Explorer windows. But in 7 it seems that the navigation pane on the left hides itself it is just showing useless crappy information ;-)
This is on my personal Top 3! The Controle Panel to me was the first major annoyance in Vista. It's really crappy and should be rebuild.
This is also on Top 5 Vista quirks
Microsoft could really learn from Mac OSX when it comes to the control panel.
YES YES!! you have to make many more klicks to get your settings done. eg. Try to change your IP Settings. XP: start->settings->network connections. Vista: it was to long i couldn´t even remember :)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511294.aspx
A lot of this is by design.
Look and feel
Task flow control panel items use a hub page to present the high-level choices, and spoke pages to perform the actual configuration.
DeathSeeker: That is all well and good. But none of the hub pages look the same, and none of the spoke pages look the same.
Click the above link; it explains the types of pages. Pretty much every non-dialog window in the control panel conforms to those guidelines.
I think it should be the aurora on the left with the links and stuff to other control panel places and then like a Office 2007 bar at the top or something for toolbar options, and this should be a unique look that is only for control panel. Maybe even a black bar at the top, I don't know but all control panel applets and control panel windows should use this look with the aurora on the left and the bar on the top!!
+1
-Mike
Vista's new control panel looks pleasing for the most part, until you fall into the "legacy" bits.
The structure is completely all over the place.
A search facility does not compensate for bad organisation.
+1. I agree. I think all entries under control panel should have a unique "control panel" look (options and related links on the left behind the aurora image, etc). Maybe they could open in the same window too?
Control Panel needs a total rework really. Everything needs to remain in the window, rather than popping up and stuff. Plus it all needs to look the same.
thenonhacker wrote on June 8, 2008, 12:58am
+1, and like it to combine MMC + the Outlook Style Interface concepts.
Also: A lot of the dialog boxes are so deeply-nested in far-away tabs and far-away buttons. They should make options easier to find in a few clicks.