Microsoft has added many new features to Windows 11 over the past year, but the company is still working on some that haven’t shipped yet. Below that is a new Advanced Settings panel for Windows that allows power users to take more control of their operating system and improve their workflows. The new panel is intended to give developers more control over system settings and behavior, helping them discover powerful settings and creating a unified user interface.
While Microsoft announced in May that it would be integrating the power of AI into Windows 11, it introduced Dev Home like this:
With a renewed focus on your productivity, we announce a new home for developers on Windows – Dev Home. Dev Home is a new experience in Windows 11, now available in early preview, that gets you back on track and streamlines your workflow with features like WinGet Setup for easier and faster setup, Dev Drive for file system performance improvements, and a new customizable dashboard to track all your workflows and tasks in one place. With Dev Home you can easily connect to GitHub and configure your computer to program for the repositories you are interested in and easily install the tools and packages you need. Dev Home can also set up your cloud coding environments using Microsoft Dev Box and GitHub Codespaces. With Dev Home, built by and for developers, you now have your ultimate productivity companion so you can focus on what you do best: writing code.
The recently released Dev Home Preview for Windows 11 offers several developer-related features to make life easier for code authors. But Microsoft wants to go one step further and equip the app with “Advanced Windows Settings,” a section with additional options and settings that would otherwise require more complicated actions to enable/disable or adjust.
Microsoft announced the idea on the Dev Home GitHub repository and the company wants your feedback and ideas on what options or features should be included in Windows Advanced Settings. The post also acknowledges that developers want to change many settings or registry keys that are either not accessible through the Settings app or are difficult to find in the operating system.
Ultimately, Windows Advanced Settings will give developers (and regular customers) more control over their computers, provide access to new or experimental features for developer workflows, and raise awareness of features that could improve their experiences. Think of it as a developer-focused take on PowerToys.
Microsoft has now released some PoC images of the new Windows Advanced Settings window. Microsoft has made it clear that this is not intended to replace the standard Windows Settings window; Instead, it’s intended to give advanced users more control over how their operating system works.
The goals Microsoft wants to achieve with this new panel include:
- Give developers more control over their system settings and advanced behaviors
- We help developers discover powerful settings that can improve their daily workflows and machine performance
- Create a unified interface to manage and customize new development experiences on Windows (such as native file explorer and version control integration) so you can quickly transition to new features and customizations
- Work with the developer community to identify additional parameters useful for integration into the tool
- Can be easily scripted and applied to new and/or existing machines
Are not goals:
- This feature is not intended to replace existing settings in the Windows Settings app.
- This feature is not intended to complicate the way developers currently optimize their machines.
- This feature is not intended to replace existing interfaces in Windows, such as the For Developers settings page in the Windows Settings app.
Microsoft encourages users to provide feedback on the panel’s design via the GitHub discussion thread. It seems that the Windows publisher wants to make this new feature a success among experienced Windows 11 users and therefore it is very important to get their opinion on the feature right from the design stage.
Source: Microsoft (1, 2)
And you ?
What do you think of the new Advanced Settings panel for Windows? Is this a useful feature for experienced users or confusing for beginners?
What settings would you like to see in the Advanced Settings pane for Windows? Which ones do you use most often in your development work?
How does the Advanced Settings panel for Windows integrate with other developer tools like Visual Studio, GitHub, PowerShell, etc.? ?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of upgrading to Windows 11 to use the advanced settings panel for Windows? Is it worth investing in new compatible hardware?
What are the best practices for using the Advanced Settings pane for Windows? How to avoid errors, conflicts and performance problems?