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Windows 7 Has Lots of "God Modes"
An anonymous reader writes "Those intrigued by the 'GodMode' in Windows 7 may be interested to know that there are many other similar shortcuts hidden within the operating system — some going back to Vista or before. Steven Sinofsky, Windows division president, said several similar undocumented features provide direct access to all kinds of settings, from choosing a location to managing power settings to identifying biometric sensors." Update: 01/07 23:46 GMT by CT : Link updated to source.
What to find all these God Modes? Just go to your registry and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID and search for "System.ApplicationName". Every GUID listed under CLSID with a System.ApplicationName entry can be used to do this same thing.
While you are at it, delete the key.
There. That should help.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10426627-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Identical to the summary link, except from the actual source.
The "God Mode" is just a different view for the many things available in the control panel.
There is such a thing as overdocumenting your software, this is rather an easter egg that happens to be very handy.
Ummm... What do you mean by "undocumented"? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee330741(VS.85).aspx All these stupid articles are simply fanboys trying to get clicks on their sites. This is old news. Move along.
I guess Slashdot is now advocating outright plagiarism by giving it the eyeballs instead of what it rips-off? Do I get three guesses who the "anonymous reader" was that submitted the summary text?
"On the eighth day god created turok" without vowels. Not that hard to remember.
$ make love
make: don't know how to make love. Stop
Firstly, it's just a trick involving the GUID that points to a shell folder - all of which is documented on MSDN. Ed Bott also concurs in his blog post.
Secondly, Vista had this too although it was then called "Master Control". Same thing so it's not exactly new.
Thirdly, it's doesn't offer you anything more than you would normally find in the Control Panel. Yes, it is all in one place but I can't be the only one that just types a couple of letters into the Start Menu to find the option I want.
Fourthly, the list of them are as follows:
Enjoy.
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Oh man do you need to learn about shortcut keys for Windows, next time you want to lock your system without a dialog hit your windowskey + L.
About the pin to taskbar, never use it, I find it a useless feature and I'd rather find a way to remove the taskbar preview functionality in Windows 7 (they removed the option to remove it after R1, makes no sense).
What library are you talking about? there are several.
My documents is exactly like it always was?
That last remark of you was totally useless and unrelated.
How about a mode where I can hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and hit Enter, and have it lock my screen, without having to wait in the middle for Windows to mode-switch to a different video screen, complete with fancy graphics, to ask me the same thing a simple dialog box asks me?
Windows-L.
How about being able to edit the parameters of something you've "pinned to the taskbar"?
Right click the icon. The top item in the popup list is a shortcut, so you can right click and select 'properties' (like any shortcut) and modify the parameters.
Whats up with this whole "Library" thing? What is wrong with "My Documents"
Library may refer to multiple folder locations. Got music in two separate locations (like a portable drive a local one)? Now it's all accessible from one place.
Thank God at least they put your whole user profile in the c:\users\ directory - wait, do they, or is user crap still sprinkled around in c:\program files\blah
All of the microsoft stuff is there, but I suppose there's nothing stopping a program from not using it (UAC perhaps would complain about an app trying to create files in Program Files).
::SPOILER ALERT:: If you want the nerdjoy of trying these all yourself stop reading now
woog.{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33}
-enter a default location for gps and other location aware programs
woog.{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}
-biometric devices control
woog.{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}
-power plan management
woog.{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}
-taskbar icons and notifications
woog.{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70}
-windows credential manager
woog.{15eae92e-f17a-4431-9f28-805e482dafd4}
-install a new program
woog.{17cd9488-1228-4b2f-88ce-4298e93e0966}
-default programs and file associations
woog.{1D2680C9-0E2A-469d-B787-065558BC7D43}
-public key tokens NOTE: does not change folder icon
woog.{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}
-manage wireless networks
woog.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
-network neighborhood
woog.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
-my computer
woog.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}
-printer installation and queue (Note: slightly different than printers & devices)
woog.{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B}
-remote apps and desktop connection
woog.{4026492F-2F69-46B8-B9BF-5654FC07E423}
-windows firewall settings
woog.{62D8ED13-C9D0-4CE8-A914-47DD628FB1B0}
-unknown, this did nothing on my machine
woog.{78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC}
-windows experience index
woog.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
-original 'GodMode' folder
The author stole his text from a CNET article by Ina Fried. Update the link to point to the original article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10426627-56.html
Covered it exactly. TFA is just plagiarized from cnet.
These have existed since Win95. I remember in Win95 using these tricks to put a Control Panel and Dial-Up Networking shortcuts on my Start Bar that expanded out just like later became in option in I think 98 or XP. I haven't done this in years, but I do recall that in '95, you could find all the correct values to use for these "tricks" by searching RegEdit.
Oh yeah, and as an extra bonus: Control-Shift-Esc opens the task manager without going to the annoying middle screen as well.
These folders are a bit more than mere shortcuts. They expose the contents of the corresponding folder to anything using the proper APIs to examine it. One of the canonical uses is to create a folder named "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" in the path used for start menu entries, which results in a start menu folder that contains all the control panel icons, allowing you to directly select one of them. This feature is not really as useful in Vista or Windows 7 (with the nice program finding box), but was quite useful before then.
Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
Why would it be intuitive? I don't think MS intended for people to be using it, which is why it doesn't come with an install icon.
Unless you meant you don't understand how to enable it, in which case I suggest you read the article more carefully.
"For example, the first one could be a folder named “thankscnet.{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33}” (use everything inside quotes–but not the quotes themselves)."
Note the "thankscnet." part. I don't think CNet went and copied the article from him.
Hmm. I just went for a stumble through the Win XP registry...
Some other types that hide their contents, and what opens when you double-click them (not sure if they’ll work on other versions of Windows):
{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31} - Compressed folder access denied error message
{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} - Control Panel
{2559a1f5-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0} - Default e-mail client
{2559a1f4-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0} - Default web browser
{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262} - Folder, but seems empty
{63da6ec0-2e98-11cf-8d82-444553540000} - FTP folder
{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D} - IE with extensions disabled
{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} - My Computer
{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D} - My Network Places
{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E} - Network connections
{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48} - Network connections
{9DB7A13C-F208-4981-8353-73CC61AE2783} - Nothing
{C4EE31F3-4768-11D2-BE5C-00A0C9A83DA1} - Nothing
{AFDB1F70-2A4C-11d2-9039-00C04F8EEB3E} - Offline files folder
{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} - Printers and Faxes
{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} - Recycle bin
{E211B736-43FD-11D1-9EFB-0000F8757FCD} - Scanners and cameras
{FB0C9C8A-6C50-11D1-9F1D-0000F8757FCD} - Scanners and cameras
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF} - Scheduled tasks
{1f4de370-d627-11d1-ba4f-00a0c91eedba} - Search results folder
{e17d4fc0-5564-11d1-83f2-00a0c90dc849} - Search results folder
{F5175861-2688-11d0-9C5E-00AA00A45957} - Subscription folder
{BDEADF00-C265-11d0-BCED-00A0C90AB50F} - Web folders
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
I did the following to recover from my crash:
Press Ctrl-Alt-Del
Load the task manager
Run cmd
Rename "GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}" to "folder"
Then I can delete "folder" in Explorer as it no longer crashes
It is meant for developers, and was documented in the Microsoft Developer Network documentation, of which you must be a subscriber to get.
In other words, Microsoft told the people who they cared to tell about it via their well known documentation system, and dumbass bloggers found it and said "Oh oh! Undocumented features!"
Tell me, how the hell can it be "undocumented" if Microsoft was the one who revealed it in their standard documentation system in the first place?
Dumbasses.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
It's odd that as their OSes became more complex, they also had less and less documentation.
This is not even remotely true.
I have in my drawer a large DVD case filled with MSDN documentation on primarily Microsoft OS and Server products. I get a new disk every couple of months. This is the Microsoft documentation, and it is vast.
In fact, if it were on paper, I'd probably need an entire library dedicated to it.
In other words, you don't know what you are talking about. There is, in fact, so much documentation that it can be difficult to find exactly what you need in the MSDN library.
The documentation isn't meant for end users, Microsoft designs their OS to be as easy as they can manage to make it for the user at the expense of making things more difficult for the developer. As such, all of the documentation is for developers, not users, because it is the developers who need it.
Getting the full documentation requires a subscription, but there is a lot online at http://msdn.microsoft.com./
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
Actually Windows keeps that around to prevent your hibernation file from becoming fragmented. It's not good from a security standpoint, but neither is your swap file.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This isn’t new news. None of this is hidden, it’s all documented. For the full list try here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee330741(VS.85).aspx
“Basically, this” is synonymous for “what he said”. My use of it had nothing to do with the “this” reference in programming. Calm down.
Yes, I repeated what he said, but I also said it in such a way that most people aren’t going to say “huh?” when they read it.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
They're in the same place in XP and 2000, under Control Panel > Network Connections > Choose an Adaptor > Right Click > Properties > Select TCP/IP > Choose Properties > Thank you. Rachel x
This is as trolly as I get today and it's Informative too...
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
All the MSDN library stuff is free and on-line. See this. Has been for years.
There is nothing like this for Apple, Linux, or any other OS - not even close.
Jibe!
Noah's already experienced it but God gave us a new colorful interface element and promised it'll never happen again.
So that explains the Apple "Beachball of Death" :-)
The beachball (pinwheel, etc.) is the equivalent of the Windows hourglass, *not* the equivalent of the BSoD. Apple's BSoD is the kernel panic, just like any other self-respecting Unix.