Microsoft continues to migrate legacy Windows tools into modern versions found in the Windows 10 settings with the introduction of a new Disk Management tool.
Since Microsoft introduced its modern Settings interface in Windows 8, users have been left with a confusing mess of how to configure Windows settings.
Do they use the new modern Windows settings interface, old legacy tools, or the Control Panel to customize the operating system?
In July, Microsoft announced that they were migrating the widely-used System control panel into the modern Windows 10 About settings page.
Microsoft has also started testing redirecting Windows 10 users who opened the older System control panel to this new About page.
To BleepingComputer, this indicated that Microsoft ultimately wants to do away with the old legacy controls in the Control Panel and eventually move everything to the new modern Settings interface.
Windows 10 Settings gets a modern Disk Management tool
Since at least Windows 95, if not older, users have had access to the standalone Disk Management tool (diskmgmt.msc) that is used to manage the storage devices used by Windows.
With today's release of Windows 10 Insider build 20197, Microsoft has now introduced a modern 'Manage Disks and Volumes' utility that has better integration with the Storage Spaces and Storage settings.
This new tool allows Windows users to view disk information, create and format volumes, and assign drive letters.
To access this new tool, you would go to Settings > System > Storage and click on Manage Disks and Volumes.
Microsoft has stated that this not currently replacing the existing Disk Management MMC tool, and Windows users can still use it if they wish.
Comments
micsaund - 3 years ago
This new disk tool UI looks really crappy IMO. It looks like when I first prototype code and just present the textual data, before I add the "nice looking" stuff. TBH, it looks more plain and basic than I'd expect from one of their first year interns.
Nunos - 3 years ago
Ugly they seem to have plenty of room on the right in all that white space where they could offer a graphical representation of the disk structure or perhaps more information.
johnd0e8 - 3 years ago
TONS of white space. The Settings UI is so bad, IMO.
JohnC_21 - 3 years ago
Where new definitely doesn't mean better. That is one crappy UI. You can immediately see the partition structure in Old Disk Management. What the hell is Microsoft thinking? You might as well forget this and go with a third party partition manager.
TanyaC - 3 years ago
OMG! That is so bad. Useless looking. As everyone said, a graphical representation is far more meaningful. You can't tell from the above pic, but they are calling it a management tool. Can you actually do anything other than click a drop down and see partial detail about the partitions?
This terrible UI layout is endemic throughout Windows. They aren't going to change that any time soon.
fromFirefoxToVivaldi - 3 years ago
I wish they would just stop with this cancer.
ComputerHelp69 - 3 years ago
Pretty much what everyone above said. :-(
eLPuSHeR - 3 years ago
I also agree with what everyone has already said. Very bad UI. I wish MS would forget the modern UI fiasco for good.
Xylyze - 3 years ago
How can this be considered an improvement?
sphar1970 - 3 years ago
The entire Windows 10 "Control Panel" wreaks of 1985 era Windows 1.0
pneen - 3 years ago
1) this is clickbait
2) this is inaccurate. this is FAR from finished. So so so unfinished. Microsoft thinks that they are finished though.
3) this gives users hope
4) this tells microsoft that its okay to publish unfinished, buggy and poorly designed work.
5) this tells microsoft that you do not care that settings and control panel are still separate and that you're okay with them having taken a 3 year hiatus from this work. Don't believe them when they say that they're working on porting settings to the new app.
Out of all of these, #4 is the worst thing you could do.
-Microsoft released the new Task View with 1803 and it still sucks yet no article said that.
Windows Explorer crashes occasionally. It took them 2 years to add naming. You still need SylphyHornEx to reorder virtual desktops.
-Microsoft released the new touch keyboard in 1709 and it took over a year for it to get to where it was before. It still doesn't have a gap between the split keyboard.
-Microsoft deprecated the win32/control panel sound mixer and told everyone to use the one in Settings. It's a terrible experience. It makes UWP and WinUI look really bad, even though they're not as bad as people here make them out to be.
-Microsoft deprecated their system XAML and yet just released two new versions of Windows 10 that are rolling out: 20H1 and 20H2 BUT they do not use WinUI! In 20H2, tiles weren't removed properly.
-1903 brought two bugs: swiping up on a taskbar item focuses on the first item and then opens the jumplist, making it slow to open. pressing win+left/right to snap a maximised window is broken
-this list could go on and on but my point is that microsoft gets a pat on the back from these articles for releasing terrible work that people in any other company would be fired for, yelled at, or made fun of for.
so dude. lawrence. you've gotta make microsoft accountable.
Wolverine 7 - 3 years ago
This does look fairly badly designed..its gonna be one of those win changes,that everyone regrets,..and hates..change for change sake,and often less usable than what it replaces,..or often it is...
We can only hope ms listen to users at some point,..i wont hold my breath,...
As far as Mr Abrams goes,there,s no point in shooting the messenger...its not his fault..
h4x0rm1k3 - 2 years ago
Is this going to allow the option to attach (or create) .VHD files too in the newer version of the app? The reason I ask is because Backup & Restore (windows 7) which I use to make backups of windows uses the .VHDX file format which can be mounted in disk management and given a drive letter in case I need to recover a file or something I deleted in 1 of my old backups that way so find it a really handy function.