After Windows XP I always felt like they were hiding the actual control panel from me, and I no longer felt in control.

They were (and are) and, to an increasing degree, you are not.

I think all the icons looked great, with minor changes, until Win10's new "Settings" --- in which it looks like they just decided to throw away decades of careful design and replace them with dumbed-down flat and bland ones. All the more infuriating that new Settings is noticeably less responsive and at the same time less functional.

Such visual style change has happened in quite a few applications, perhaps inspired by the same kind of 'wisdom'. Thunderbird is a prominent example.

Seems like the beginnings of the "flat" trend was of Jonathan Ive's making -- once Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall had gone, there was nobody who would prevent it.

Same here. One thing I also felt about Windows 2000 is that it was designed for professionals. Windows XP, in my mind, made compromises to appeal to a wider swath of consumers.

Totally agree (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28346076). Computing is coming to an end with these new dumb interfaces.

On that thread torgoguys says "I see 2000s UI as being from a time when (for the most part) they weren't trying to impress you with the gloss on the UI. They were just trying to make it clear and usable. More modern iterations of Windows has some advancements in interactions but not much in the GUI controls themselves." which is such a good observation, I think it bears repeating here. (emphasis added by me)

(wish #2) ...and that it had been available in a 64-bit version.

For me, it was Windows 7.

For me, it's the McChicken.

While I agree, Id also argue virtually every posters opinion on HN about design of the Windows CP is useless. Most of us are power users and it we are not power users we are incredibly opinionated about some UX stuff.

I like PC’s for power users. If we dumb down the PC, the people using it get dumber too.

But I don’t know. 7 year old me could figure out the classic control panel. I don’t think it was that hard.

'Normies' probably never open up the control panel/settings to change anything, ever.

please exclude me from your generalisations

I dunno, you seem like you've got pretty strong opinions on UX.

Imho, it's better to observe the generalizations we each fall under, and use it to learn more about ourselves.

Why? You certainly fit his profile.