With the release of Windows 10 20H2, Microsoft is now preventing access to the venerable SYSTEM control panel and is instead redirecting users to the newly updated 'About' settings page.

The SYSTEM control panel was first introduced in Windows NT 3.51 and Windows 95 and provides information about the installed version of Windows, the bit-type of the operating system, the computer name, workgroup, CPU, and memory.

As the control panel provides a lot of information about a computer, it is commonly used when troubleshooting a Windows PC or determining a computer's basic information.

In July, BleepingComputer reported that Microsoft had updated their 'About' settings page to include most, but not all, of the information found in the SYSTEM page. At the time, Microsoft was also testing a hidden feature that would redirect a user to the About page when opening the SYSTEM control panel.

With Windows 10 20H2, Microsoft drove another nail into the control panel's coffin and is now preventing users from accessing the SYSTEM control panel. Now, when a user tries to open it, they are brought to the About page instead.

With the testing of a modern Disk Management tool, refresh rate option, and a test that redirects the 'Program and Features' control panel to the 'Apps & Features' settings, we can see Microsoft's gradual killing off of the Control Panel.

Ultimately, this is good because Windows 10 is a confusing mess of settings being located in different places. By organizing them under the Settings feature, it will make it easier to find a particular setting.

The good news for those who routinely use the SYSTEM control panel is that there is still a way to access it, which we describe below.

While Microsoft is redirecting the SYSTEM control panel, there is a way to access it via a specially crafted Windows shortcut.

To create a shortcut that opens the SYSTEM control panel, please follow these steps:

A video illustrating how to make this shortcut in Windows 10 20H2 can be seen below.

This SYSTEM shortcut can also be launched directly from the Start Menu by searching for 'SYSTEM' and selecting the icon that appears under the Apps section.

In the current Windows 10 Insider preview builds (tested on Windows 10 20231), all other ways to access the SYSTEM control panel redirect to the new About page.

Mozilla, Google, and Microsoft have been warning about the upcoming version 100 release for months, which is about to drop in March for both Chrome and Edge, followed by Firefox in May. Mozilla and Google have both been running experiments to test websites and report breakages. There’s a running list of issues, which is fairly small right now, and Engadget notes that the notable sites affected include HBO Go, Bethesda, and Yahoo.

“When browsers first reached version 10 a little over 12 years ago, many issues were discovered with User-Agent parsing libraries as the major version number went from one digit to two,” explains a team of web developers in a Mozilla blog. Much like the infamous Y2K bug that made the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900 for some computers, browsers have different formats for user-agent strings, and “it’s possible that some parsing libraries may have hard-coded assumptions or bugs that don’t take into account three-digit major version numbers.”

There are also plans in place if there are widespread issues. Mozilla says it will either hot fix broken websites or temporarily freeze Firefox’s major version at 99 if breakages are widespread and unmanageable. Google’s backup plan is to use a flag to freeze the major version at 99, and Microsoft hasn’t detailed a backup plan as far as we can tell.