

To be sure, these forty-four icons do not offer the entire functionality of all of the sub-categories of the Category View… but you will almost certainly have what you are looking for.

No problem, this is easy enough to fix in the upper-right corner of the window, change the drop-down option from Category to either Large Icons or Small Icons. With that said, some people do not want the Category View… they long for the good old days of having your icons appear by default. All in all, we see why it is that Microsoft opted to display the Category View by default. Each of these, in turn, provides another sub-menu similar to this one. For example, opening the System and Security context reveals a series of sub-menus that include Security and Maintenance, Windows Firewall, System, Power Options, File History, Backup and Restore (Windows 7), BitLocker Drive Encryption, Storage Spaces, Work Folders, Administrative Tools, Flash Player, and Configuration Manager… the final two only appearing when those tools are installed on the box. The Category View has eight (8) categories, and clicking each one opens up a world of possibilities. The default view of the Control Panel has not changed extensively over the past few years. Fortunately, and this is true to this day, you could still click on the Windows button and type Control Panel and it would appear… just like always. I think it was Windthat no longer had Control Panel there. It was, actually… all you had to do was open the Context Menu of the Windows button a simple right-click (or Windows Key + X) opened it, and your Control Panel was listed right there…

When Windows 10 was released, people lamented that the Control Panel was no longer so easy to find. There was a lot more to do, which meant a lot more icons and so, Microsoft introduced us to the Categories View. The Control Panel that we knew in Windows XP evolved, through Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8/8.1. Once upon a time, the Windows Control Panel was an easy to navigate set of icons that consolidated in one place all of the administrative tasks we would need, both as an end user and as a desktop administrator.
