Windows 7 GodMode: nothing new, but it puts it all together.

I love it when I get wind of this kind of stuff!

Ok, this past week, as I was reading various CNet (www.cnet.com) articles about the Consumer Electronic Show, I ran across an article by Ina Fried entitled “Understanding Windows 7 GodMode“. Whenever I encounter the term”god” with anything computer, I’m intrigued…. so I clicked over to the article and discovered a powerful new little trick. Here’s the deal…

Folks that hack around in Windows, looking for shortcuts to it’s inner workings, have discovered that the Windows programmers often included tricky little ways to quickly access Windows utility features that you typically have to “drill down to” (i.e. click your way down through multiple menus to get to). Although these little tricks have only recently been discovered, it seems the programmers have been doing this for some time. (Fried talks about this in another follow up article on the GodMode).

Here’s how the trick works….  if you create a new folder, and name that folder in a very specific way, it becomes a special folder that groups together all the Windows control panel options into one place. No, it doesn’t give you anything new, but it does give you a birds-eye view of all the different, nifty little built-in utilities.

Now before I mention how to create a GodMode folder… one note of warning.  Hackers have found that the GodMode folder can be created in different versions of Windows besides Windows 7, including Windows Vista. However, with Windows Vista 64bit, some users have noted that creating the folder crashes their system. You can read more about this on Windows Valley. However, it seems to work just find in all versions of Windows 7, and in the 32bit version of Windows Vista.

If you want to give it a try, here’s what to do:

1. On the Windows Desktop (or really, in any other folder), RIGHT click and choose NEW / FOLDER
2. When the folder is created, and waiting for a name, type in       GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
   You can actually use any name you’d like, as long as you follow it with a period, and {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
3. The folder icon will to a special icon

When you open the folder, you’ll see a list of all the Windows control panel utilities, organized by type.

As I’ve mentioned, as you look down through the list of icons, you won’t see anything that’s not available somewhere in Windows. The cool thing is… they are all here organized in ONE PLACE. And to tell you the truth, as I browsed through this list I saw utilities that I never knew Windows included!

Needless to say, this new little folder has become a standard feature on all my home and work computers. If you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista 32bit, give it a try!

UPDATE: 01.20.2010

Since I originally wrote this article, I picked up a bit more information about GodMode I wanted to pass along. As I’ve mentioned, the icons you find when you open the God Mode window are all from the Windows Control Panel, they are just all shown at once, in one place, which can be very convenient. To expand on this… in a blog by Vishal Gupta, it’s explained that the code you see actually refers to a Windows registry key called “All Tasks”. It was created by Windows developers as the standard way to “search” the Control Panel.

For example, if you open the Control Panel in Windows 7 or Vista, and then use the Search box at the upper right to find a particular control panel command, behind the scenes, Windows takes your search term and compares it to the All Tasks page which is a cumulative listing of all the commands in the Control Panel. When you create a GodMode icon, what you are really doing is just creating a shortcut that opens the same All Tasks page that Windows uses for this search.

As proof of what I just said, try this: Open the Windows Control Panel, and in the Search box just type the letter “s”. The search results will be exactly the same window of icons you see in the GodMode window.

Now, having said all this….  the ability to create this icon is still pretty cool. No, it’s not a “secret hidden code” or what Windows hacks like to call an “easter egg”, but it is a useful trick that makes the Control Panel options more accessible.

Oh, and some readers have asked about the other codes that Ina Fried talked about in the follow-up article I link to above. Basically these other codes just reference specific sections of the control panel. One CNet reader tried some of these codes and came up with a list that describes what some of them are.

Remember, to use any of these, you create a new folder, and then name it using the syntax
YourName.{code}
Example:  CoolStuff.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
“godmode” – control panel

{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33}
mode1 – location sensors

{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}
mode2 – biometric devices

{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}
mode3 – power options

{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}
mode4 – taskbar icons

{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70}
mode5 – credentials

{15eae92e-f17a-4431-9f28-805e482dafd4}
mode6 - install from network

{17cd9488-1228-4b2f-88ce-4298e93e0966}
mode7 – default programs

{1D2680C9-0E2A-469d-B787-065558BC7D43}
mode8 – public keys

{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}
mode9 – wifi networks

{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
network

{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
computer (window)

{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}
printers

{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B}
workplace connections

{4026492F-2F69-46B8-B9BF-5654FC07E423}
firewall

Tagged as: God Mode, GodMode, Microsoft, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista