What is wrong with phrasing like "configure how"?
I'm doing some editing and one sentence I'm navigating says "You can configure how the thing appears." (That's a paraphrase.) I think it is wrong because "configure" is a transitive verb and needs a direct object. "How" is not an object.
I'm not entirely sure that that's the clearest explanation of why this construction is wrong, however.
The phrase seems fine to me. The object is "how it appears", not just "how".
I don't think the construction is invalid but imo it does not read well. I would prefer something like:
You can configure the thing's appearance.