Windows 10 Tip: Find Control Panel and Other Familiar Windows 7 Tools

Windows 10 Tip: Find Control Panel and Other Familiar Windows 7 Tools
The Windows 10 interface, while rather intuitive, does take a bit of getting used to if you’re coming from Windows 7.

| July 31, 2015 in

The Windows 10 interface, while rather intuitive, does take a bit of getting used to if you’re coming from Windows 7. You might have a hard time finding the settings or features that you need to tweak Windows to work how you like.

The cool things is, that the familiar Control Panel and other traditional admin utilities are still available, and they are easy to find.

Familiar Utilities in Windows 10 via hidden Quick Access Menu

If you were a Windows 8.1 user, you should already be familiar with what we referred to as the Power User Menu(really called the Quick Access menu). To access it in Windows 10, just right-click the Start button and you’ll see a menu of a lot of the familiar built-in utilities you used in Windows 7 – including the Control Panel .

Or if you’re more of a Keyboard-Kung Fupractitioner, you can use the key combo: Windows Key+X to bring it up.

While you can access a lot of these features going through the new Settings app in Windows 10, these familiar tools come in handy until you get acclimated to the new OS.

All of these open on the Desktop like you’re used to, and not in a Universal app that you aren’t familiar with. In the example below I launched the Control Panel, Command Prompt, and Device Manager. And in case you’re wondering – yes they all still work the same as they did before.

It probably safe to assume that a lot of the older-style features will be replaced at some point in the future. But it’s nice to see some familiar friends that you’re used to help make it easier to get around.

Notice that this menu also provides another way to power down your system as well. And, if you want to put your PC in hibernation mode, check out article: How to Enable Hibernate mode in Windows 10.

About Brian BurgessBased in MN, Brian Burgessis Editor in Chief at groovyPost. He also has contributed to other notable tech sites InformationWeek and How-To Geek. Follow him on Twitter @mysticgeek or email at [email protected]

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3 Responses to Windows 10 Tip: Find Control Panel and Other Familiar Windows 7 Tools

July 31, 2015 at 5:51 pm

Another way of doing it is by creating the God Mode shortcut, which will let you see all the commands that you need. I’ve created a folder with the shortcuts that I need and it couldn’t be easier.

For those that are unfamiliar with the god mode just Google it. If unsure, I’ll post back…

August 13, 2015 at 4:19 pm

Would appreciate any help you can give. On another subject, I’ve been using Microsoft money to do my banking. Windows 10 say to download IE 6 ( been running IE 10 on Windows 7) Search box is no help , only giving info on loading IE 9, 10 or 11. Any help would be appreciated.u

John Graham August 14, 2015 at 4:01 am

Dear Brian,

Greetings fro London sir; I have been to your website looking for a solution to a problem that has transpired in Media Player subsequent to the Windows 10 upgrade.

I know Windows 10 does not support Media Player, but it was working initially, although what has somehow started to happen is that when I try and burn a CD or even simply select an album to play music in Media Player, the list of tracks is doubled so the music plays with each track repeated and the list for the album too much for the available disc space.

Have tried to follow your kind instruction regarding accessing control panel to return the WMP to default settings but can’t seem to manage.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Sincerely,
John Graham

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