Windows 11 22H2 Devices and Printers

T

toomuchpie

Member
Has anyone figured out a way to change where the Devices and Printers option in control panel of Windows 11 points to? I'd like it to point to the old area ( shell:::{A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A} ).

It'd be great if that were a feature integrated into NTLite, but a manual option is fine too. I know that there are some registry keys you can add to add that old Devices and Printers area into the navigation pane of explorer, but that is not what I am looking to do.
 
Old is obsolete.
Devices and Printers can be found in Control panel like the old way in W11 by go to startmenu and open Windows tools to find Control panel and Devices and Printers to open.
Not all - but some tricks work on w11 outside NTL scope.
 
francis11 said:
Old is obsolete.
Devices and Printers can be found in Control panel like the old way in W11 by go to startmenu and open Windows tools to find Control panel and Devices and Printers to open.
Not all - but some tricks work on w11 outside NTL scope.
Click to expand...
Old is not obsolete. old actually works, unlike new. What you suggested isn't correct either. This is completely unhelpful.

FYI, I was working on someone's computer and they had a bad printer with "Driver unavailable". The new interface couldn't deal with it. No context menus, no option to click into that printer to do anything. I could click into the non-problematic printers no problem. I had to load up the old interface to remove it.
 
System Settings can't be extended, because it's written as a single UWP app. Every UI detail must be programmed ahead of time. You would need something like what Explorer Patcher does -- except for Settings.
 
toomuchpie said:
FYI, I was working on someone's computer and they had a bad printer with "Driver unavailable". The new interface couldn't deal with it. No context menus, no option to click into that printer to do anything. I could click into the non-problematic printers no problem. I had to load up the old interface to remove it.
Click to expand...
Some drivers on a usb would help in the field - even if online!
W11 have a tendency to pic up all drivers if use WU - but not if hardware is not connected.
 
NTLite has a setting to prevent WU from updating drivers. Windows Updates / Automatic driver update mode -> Never

For those who prefer reg files:
Code: 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DriverSearching]
"SearchOrderConfig"=dword:00000000
 
francis11 said:
Some drivers on a usb would help in the field - even if online!
W11 have a tendency to pic up all drivers if use WU - but not if hardware is not connected.
Click to expand...
Completely irrelevant. You could not do anything with that printer within the new UI. Nothing at all. No context menu, no 3 dots to go further in to make any changes (delete, properties, changing drivers, etc). That printer didn't even show up in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers. The only way to do anything with it was in the old interface.
 
garlin said:
System Settings can't be extended, because it's written as a single UWP app. Every UI detail must be programmed ahead of time. You would need something like what Explorer Patcher does -- except for Settings.
Click to expand...
Right, fair enough, but I am not asking about System Settings. In Windows 11, when you go to Control Panel and click on Devices and Printers, it will load up the System Settings menu instead of the old interface. I was hoping for a way to change that part within Control Panel.
 
toomuchpie said:
Has anyone figured out a way to change where the Devices and Printers option in control panel of Windows 11 points to? I'd like it to point to the old area ( shell:::{A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A} ).

It'd be great if that were a feature integrated into NTLite, but a manual option is fine too. I know that there are some registry keys you can add to add that old Devices and Printers area into the navigation pane of explorer, but that is not what I am looking to do.
Click to expand...

Good morning,

I think the option you are looking for is this:

explorer.exe shell:::{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

Regards.
 
Just to clarify, we're talking about W11 22H2 (not 21H2).

Update:
The trick is 22H2's Microsoft.DevicesAndPrinters is re-mapped to ms-settings:devices, because running CLSID {A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A} works just fine. You can even add a desktop shortcut with the old CLSID.

There's no obvious changes in the registry, and both control.exe & DeviceCenter.dll are the same files from 21H2. Whatever MS has done, it's subtle because Win32 control.exe is subverted without its knowledge.
 
Last edited:
garlin said:
Just to clarify, we're talking about W11 22H2 (not 21H2).

Update:
The trick is 22H2's Microsoft.DevicesAndPrinters is re-mapped to ms-settings:devices, because running CLSID {A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A} works just fine. You can even add a desktop shortcut with the old CLSID.

There's no obvious changes in the registry, and both control.exe & DeviceCenter.dll are the same files from 21H2. Whatever MS has done, it's subtle because Win32 control.exe is subverted without its knowledge.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Thanks for the clarification. I forgot to specify 22H2. Hopefully someone can figure out a way to revert this back in the future.
 
I finally figured out this puzzle, 22H2 loads a different shell32.dll and switching back to the old DLL will restore Control Panel to its previous design. While these instructions are relatively safe, FOLLOW THEM AT YOUR OWN RISK.

1. Download the 21H2 ISO.

2. Using 7-Zip, open the ISO file (don't extract the archive, unless you hate yourself).
Browse sources\install.wim -> 5 -> Windows\System32​
Extract shell32.dll to a local folder.​
​
3. On your live 22H2 system, install PowerRun. Open a CMD shell as TrustedInstaller user:
Code: 
cd C:\Windows\System32
ren shell32.dll shell32_OLD.dll
copy C:\local\folder\shell32.dll .

3. Restart Windows. You can't delete or move shell32.dll while it's in use by Windows. But you can move it aside by renaming the DLL (which is how Windows Update works to replace system files on reboot).

You will have to repeat this step, every time you install the monthly update or run "sfc /scannow".

Windows 10 x64-2023-05-25-21-29-36.png

Windows 10 x64-2023-05-25-21-29-56.png
 
Wow, that's amazing
garlin said:
I finally figured this out, 22H2 loads a different shell32.dll and switching back to the old DLL will restore Control Panel to its previous design.
While these instructions are relatively safe, FOLLOW THEM AT YOUR OWN RISK.

1. Download the 21H2 ISO. Using 7-Zip, open the ISO file (don't extract the archive, unless you hate yourself).
Browse sources\install.wim -> 5 -> \Windows\System32. Extract file shell32.dll to a local folder.​
​
2. On your live 22H2 system, install PowerRun. Open a CMD shell as TrustedInstaller user.
Code: 
cd C:\Windows\System32
ren shell32.dll shell32_OLD.dll
copy C:\local\folder\shell32.dll .

3. Restart Windows. You can't delete or move shell32.dll while it's in use by Windows. But you can move it aside by renaming the DLL (which is how Windows Update works to replace system files on reboot).

You will have to repeat this step, every time you install the monthly update or run "sfc /scannow".

View attachment 9776

View attachment 9777
Click to expand...
Wow, that's amazing detective work you've done. I really appreciate the effort. It's unfortunate that a monthly update or running sfc /scannow would revert it back to the proper shell32.dll file. It makes it impractical as a permanent solution, but knowing that is also good.
 
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