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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.
...theologians have recently determined that God has a "MicrosoftMode". Watch out for the Blue Screen of Death.
Liberal? Conservative? Compare perspectives at Left-Right
God mode is DNKROZ or DNCORNHOLIO, not {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}. Maybe the other codes are for infinite ammo, all weapons, etc?
1) The article is a copy/paste of the cnet article (kind of a fail for aviran's place).
2) More importantly, from the article, I inferred these god mode settings were just (basically) command lines to initiate control panel activities? Not a big deal if that is the case. It is shortcuts of a way I guess. Or is there something more to this?
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
it is a good day to die
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.
If all of the features are in the Control Panel, why do the developers need shortcuts?
In other words, what's wrong with the Control Panel interface that hinders developers to the point where they have to hack in these types of kludges?
And, yes, I consider a directory with a "special string" a horrible kludge. Think of all the behind-the-scenes complications that this brings on. Every directory creation/access has to be checked for these modes. How does a godmode directory interact with a random app?
The mind reels.
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.
Does Windows 7 have Quad Damage?
IIRC it was possible in Windows 95 or so to create a Menu Start folder with all of Control Panel's elements using a folder with a special "extension".
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?
it's intended to be used by developers as a shortcut, but it's undocumented. How does hiding a feature from a developer make things easy on the developer?
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?
How about being able to edit the parameters of something you've "pinned to the taskbar"?
Whats up with this whole "Library" thing? What is wrong with "My Documents"
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 ?
Unix existed when MS wrote and sold DOS. Inexcusable.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Reading the article, seems that this crash 64 bits versions of Windows 7/Vista.
It could be a good idea to create folders like that, inside zip files, and send that zip file to people with these OS versions. Or maybe create folders in USB pendrives with that name, to protect these drives from be view in a 64 bits Windows 7. etc.
-Woof woof woof!
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.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
All these stupid articles are simply fanboys trying to get clicks on their sites
Well, this one may be; it's firewalled off at work. But Google shows me a lot of FAs on the subject so I RTF C|NET A. Computerworld and a host of other larger sites also covered it.
Free Martian Whores!
Why don't you document everything and release it at the same time as the software?
It's odd that as their OSes became more complex, they also had less and less documentation. The IBM XT came with fat books that completely explained line commands, interrupts, and all sorts of other goodies. Now you get a skinny booklet geared to a 5th grade reader.
Free Martian Whores!
Nope, didn't work :(
Summation 2
The original "God Mode" one isn't in that list. And, this doesn't say anything about creating folders with the canonical name as the extension. It's an interesting hack.
::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.
You do indeed. Go ahead and post them and then I'll copy what you wrote and post it too - it makes it better, apparently.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
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.
To end all theologist discussions, In Windows God isn't almighty, can't erase from existence bugs/worms/virus, nor avoid Blue/Black Screen Of Death, no matter how much wish for that.
Didn't we just used to call these "back doors?" Maybe I'm missing the point.
--
Toro
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.
All are on the linked MSDN article except {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} This is the undocumented Master Control Panel showing all the "Hidden" options that do not appear on the regular control panel.....
Documentation on this would be nice?
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
This feature is deocumented. Take a look at the tips.txt file from Windows 95: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/135893
That file first describes these magical folders. I will admit that it does not clearly document that other items can be created by using their GUID, but I suspect someplace they have documented that.
I will note the "All Tasks" GUID is undocumented (a search of msdn.microsoft.com, and the whole of microsoft.com confirms this, since the GUID only comes up in user posted content), with the exception that it is effectively documented by the registry entry responsible for it.
Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
You have to consider the userbase too. It became steadily non-technical and only the technically inclined would even open the manual. Just like car manuals, TV manuals, etc. Not to mention the growth of the internet which made it easy to get up-to-date documents with a click. Printing out the whole of MSDN(which will outdated quick) into telephone directory sized books and distributing it with every computer is a colossal waste of rainforest.
This space for rent.
It's odd that as their OSes became more complex, they also had less and less documentation. The IBM XT came with fat books that completely explained line commands, interrupts, and all sorts of other goodies. Now you get a skinny booklet geared to a 5th grade reader.
This is not even remotely odd when you account for the interest level of the average user then and now.
To say nothing of all the information still being there, if you want to look. Only now it's in the Intarcloud in a constantly updated and searchable form.
This is REALLY old news. I've been using folders with the CLSID appended for well over a decade.
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.
/. should probably change the link to this to the original author, Ina Fried at http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10426627-56.html?tag=mncol
Aviran's plagiarism shouldn't benefit from slashdotting.
Yep, another name for the 'foes' list. One-click for your convenience!
Your brain is not a computer.
...with all the God Modes they have hidden, I _still_ have to go to cmd.exe to remove the hiberfil.sys
This is not news, it existed in previous Windows versions. I remember making shortcuts with these names in Windows 95. These names point to registry keys if I am not mistaken.
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
The documented ones are for views that you can normally get to in Explorer. The "All Tasks" folder is an implementation detail for the control panel search feature (instead of special casing the indexing of control panel tasks, a virtual folder contains all of the tasks). It's not intended to be used for any other purpose, so it is not documented.
True, but OP is over the top with calling for EU action on undocumented features. It's an internal hack that's not meant for public distribution and might not work after a patch. (They won't be testing if this feature works for every code change they make in Windows, if they document it, they have to).
This space for rent.
Open up a command line and type IDDQD, press enter, and see what happens.
...or not
You know, suddenly I have an urge to add a "sudo" alias called "iddqd"...
Bow-ties are cool.
You copy and paste a Cnet article and post it up and expect no one to notice ?
At least give credit next time.
And all the stupid posts like the GP are simply anti-M$ zealots that are just trying to get karma points. (Seeing how it is at +4 insightful right now shows how successful they are at gaming the moderator system).
Oh, wah, popular sentiments get modded up! I'm gonna tell!
Bow-ties are cool.
Why would it be intuitive? I don't think MS intended for people to be using it...
Another name for parts of software which go unused is "bloat." If the traditional interface is lacking, fix it. If this new interface adds value, polish it and document it as a feature.
This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
soooo its like a shortcut to the control panel. yippeee.
You have way, WAY too much free time on your hands. It's freakin slashdot man, we dredge up other people's news and talk about it. It's not exactly the preimminent news organization, and it certainly is not a bastion of truth and fairness in journalism.
So this guy's a douchebag, so what? Why get your panties in a bunch about something that really doesn't matter.
Simmer down man, simmer down.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
Yes. As a matter of fact, the stuff to the left of the dot being "God" is just a joke started by the person who first decided to sell a few inches of column space. You could, in fact, put "Man" there, or make it actually usefully descriptive ("Control Panel").
Personally, I'd put "FSM" there, but for some reason the whole shortcut dealie doesn't work in Linux Mint. Shows how advanced Windows is. We don't even HAVE a God in Linux. Except Linus, of course, but he's a minor deity. :)
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Probably why its not documented - typically things not tested aren't ;).
Anyhow it works on Windows 7 x64.
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
Like why my "windows explorer has stopped working" ....2-3 times a day?
And while they are at it, fix the Zune software so it works better with W7.
Its so buggy, its just a PITA.
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
I agree on the Windows wizards. I think they make sense in *applications*, where the user might request assistance with performing a common task, but one which normally requires several steps. (For example, "mail merge" is something that benefits from a wizard. People who use it are often users who RARELY need it, and don't remember how it works. When they do want it (say, for a Christmas card mailing list generated from Outlook contacts?), a friendly UI that walks them through all the options and steps isn't a bad thing.
But in the operating system itself, I think MS used them far too often. It feels really unprofessional to me, for example, when I see wizards offering to handle user account management functions on a server. If the people administering a corporate server really need a wizard to assist them, I think the company may have some problems with the quality of their admins! I know in Windows Server 2000 and 2003, the only times I ever launched one of those wizards was out of curiosity. I wondered what they could possibly help me with.... and was totally disappointed. Besides insulting my knowledge of the product, I didn't see any real speed increase or advantage they gave me at all? I could at least see it, if they set up some default folders in a new user's home directory, and let you configure some default mapped network printers when running a "new user creation" wizard or what-not. But there's nothing even that advanced or helpful.
The "troubleshooters" are equally poor and annoying. Everyone I know who ran into things like wireless connectivity issues HATED the "Windows troubleshooter" that popped up and offered to assist! Instead of solving anything, it usually just makes them go through a loop of answering questions and performing functions that don't fix the real problem. (EG. Reset the wireless network adapter and force it to grab an IP address again, when the underlying issue is actually an incorrect saved WEP or WPA key.)
In Windows as in DOOM, GodMode helps you defeat UAC
There's imaginary property, and then there's ethics and general courtesy. The former is not a prerequisite for the latter... or at least it damned well shouldn't be.
Not to mention the growth of the internet which made it easy to get up-to-date documents with a click.
Odd that that's what people complain about Linux. How am I supposed to research a command or other feature if I don't know it's there? I wouldn't have known that windowskey+L locked the screen if somebody at slashdot hadn't mentioned it. I had no idea you could lock the screen.
Printing out the whole of MSDN(which will outdated quick) into telephone directory sized books and distributing it with every computer is a colossal waste of rainforest.
It wouldn't have to be on paper, a CD holding printed documentation in book form (PDF maybe) or plain HTML would suffice.
Free Martian Whores!
Why did you link to the plagiarist's site instead of the original CNET article from which the text was copied verbatim.
/.'ers who modded this story up.
Oh I know - it was submitted anonymously by the site owner.
Shame on the
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
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.
FTA, this is probably why they are "hidden": "These canonical names do not change for different languages. They are always in English, even if the system's language is non-English."
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
God mode cheat for Doom(s). Don't worry, it's possible you were busy or 6 at the time.
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
Odd that that's what people complain about Linux.
No, they complain that there's no documentation or that its exteremly poor.
How am I supposed to research a command or other feature if I don't know it's there? I wouldn't have known that windowskey+L locked the screen if somebody at slashdot hadn't mentioned it. I had no idea you could lock the screen.
Really? You've never pressed CTRL+ALT+DEL and seen the Lock this computer button? Have you every tried looking in the help either?
It wouldn't have to be on paper, a CD holding printed documentation in book form (PDF maybe) or plain HTML would suffice.
Why waste all the plastic when most users aren't going to need MSDN documentation? Those that do can get it already online or it comes with visual studio. MSDN isn't relevent, and user documentation is online with windows already. Again, have you ever checked out Help / Help and Support?
Well, one would expect that if they shelled out the equivalent of well over 100 2010 dollars (adjusting for inflation), they'd be getting more than just 720 kilobytes of magnetic data.
However, the software manuals of that era were rarely as big as they looked. They took up a lot of space because they often used fat ring binders inside a rigid cardboard outer box. The actual pages often used only a small portion of the ring binder and were printed in a huge font.
Err, why not just go to Start -> Help or press F1?
This space for rent.
No, they complain that there's no documentation or that its exteremly poor.
I'm complaining that windows documentation is extremely poor where it exists at all. Documentation you have to pay extra for is a no-go; for the price of Windows the damned thing ought to have stellar user docs, and it doesn't. Same goes for its apps.
You've never pressed CTRL+ALT+DEL and seen the Lock this computer button?
That wouldn't tell me that windowskey+L would do the same thing without the extra keystroke or mouse click.
Have you every tried looking in the help either?
How are you supposed to look for a feature you don't know it has? Plus, Windows help is abysmal.
Why waste all the plastic when most users aren't going to need MSDN documentation?
A single CD? Not a lot of petroleum wasted there. And the windowskey+L isn't something only a developer would need, nor are batch file commands, nor a lot of anything else. These things should be well documented, but they aren't.
Free Martian Whores!
Back in, from memory, NT4 days, you could name a folder with a GUID on the end of the name to get, for instance, your Control Panels folder directly on the desktop (without a pesky shortcut arrow)
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
And the name is horrible, for something that sounds as cool as "god mode" I demand at least local privilege escalation. A frekkin short cut is not enough.
I always wanted to be many Gods...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
I bet you're a god on Reddit.
I tried deleting it from the command line. That didn't work.
Also, Win-R requires explorer to be running. That's why you need to do Ctrl-Alt-Del to get the task manager up.
Thank god they haven't forced me onto Win7 at work yet!
I hate to tell you this, but these shortcuts date back to Windows 95. If you didn't know about them before now then I really don't think that it will affect your Windows 7 experience one way or the other.
Hi, can I be his sockpuppet too?
Where? I thought that site was deemed unsuitable for human visitation, and finally shut down because their traffic dropped to nil. Oh.. They still have one user. You. Please, please, don't go there any more. It will melt your mind, and you'll start having urges to post nonsense on Slashdot.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Odd that that's what people complain about Linux. How am I supposed to research a command or other feature if I don't know it's there? I wouldn't have known that windowskey+L locked the screen if somebody at slashdot hadn't mentioned it. I had no idea you could lock the screen.
It wouldn't have to be on paper, a CD holding printed documentation in book form (PDF maybe) or plain HTML would suffice.
Start -> Help. It's been there for about 15 years - toughly since they stopped distributing Windows and DOS with those inch-thick manuals, strangely enough.
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!
I'm complaining that windows documentation is extremely poor where it exists at all.
But it's not...
Documentation you have to pay extra for is a no-go; for the price of Windows the damned thing ought to have stellar user docs, and it doesn't. Same goes for its apps.
What documentation is missing, or only available for a fee ?
Hinduism is polytheistic. Clearly it was developed by Indians.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
exactly. But the MS fanboys say I'm flamebait when I state the obvious.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Finally they discovered God-modes. All these years I've been working with Win machines stuck in Satan-mode. Now life will be good...
Start -> Help
MS's help (like almost every other software company's help) is almost useless. How is F1 going to let you know that windowskey+L locks the screen?
Yes, I'm one of those guys who says "RTFM".
Free Martian Whores!
MS's help (like almost every other software company's help) is almost useless.
It's the same help that used to come in those books you liked so much. Only now you can search it, or copy/paste from it, or click on the shortcuts that take you directly to the relevant parts of the UI.
How is F1 going to let you know that windowskey+L locks the screen?
Er, maybe because THAT'S WHERE IT'S DOCUMENTED ?