Microsoft reportedly sabotaged Windows 95 and 98's Control Panel, or it looks that way – is this a worrying revelation?

A possibly intentional delay with the Control Panel has been found
Presumably, it was necessary as a workaround in the distant past
But it may not inspire confidence in those facing odd bugs in Windows 11

A rash of recent issues with the Windows 11 24H2 update has left many users frustrated with their systems, and it probably won’t be any comfort for those folks to learn that Microsoft has reportedly tampered with old Windows versions to make them run slower (albeit in the distant past, and with one relatively small aspect).

As spotted by German tech site WinFuture (via Neowin), Oerg866 on X posted to reveal that Windows 95 and 98 had a ‘hard-coded 8 second delay’ when using the ‘Add New Hardware’ wizard in the Control Panel.

In an attempt to further speed up Windows 9x QuickInstall, I have patched SYSDM.CPL to remove the hard-coded 8 second delay(!!!) when new hardware is found and reduced it to 300 milliseconds. pic.twitter.com/BfGNpSjMfwNovember 4, 2024

While it isn’t at all clear why this occurs on the now-ancient operating systems, it’s worth wondering why Microsoft decided to implement this delay.

It seems a baffling move on the face of it, but there’s presumably a reason why the long pause was added in by programmers (unless it was just a mistake – which seems unlikely, and it’d be quite the blunder if it was).

What seems most likely is that the delay was introduced due to hardware limitations at the time, meaning there must have been some issues with devices back in the day which required this pause as a workaround. Why the delay had to be so lengthy is anyone’s guess, though.

It also makes you wonder if Microsoft introduced any other similar stalling tactics in these old versions of Windows – or indeed in more modern operating systems like Windows 10 or Windows 11.

Windows 95 loading screen

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Should we be worried about the Control Panel in Windows 11?

It goes without saying that we don’t need to worry about Windows 9x versions anymore (Windows 95 and 98 are older than me). There should be no reason for a similar delay to occur in Windows 11, either, unless it really was an error – which could prompt the question: are there other such blunders still hanging around in the legacy Control Panel?

That thought wouldn’t exactly bolster the confidence of anyone currently using the 24H2 update and running into some of the aforementioned problems with the upgrade.

The ton of bugs that come with Windows 11 24H2 include problems that have left PCs with Intel motherboards suffering from BSODs (Blue Screen of Death crashes). Also, a good few of these glitches are really odd affairs – like a File Explorer menu disappearing off the top of the screen – admittedly not nearly as head-scratching as the reported hard-coded delay, mind you.

The old Control Panel won’t be around forever, of course. Microsoft is planning to gradually migrate the legacy Control Panel’s functions into the new Settings app in Windows 11 with its modern user interface.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft to ask the company about the discovered delay in Windows 95 and 98, and whether it might be able to shed any light on what was going on behind the scenes here. We’ll be sure to update this story if we hear back.