GodMode on Windows 7

By Ina Fried on 05 January 2010

Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden "GodMode" feature that lets users access all of the operating system's control panels from within a single folder.

By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

The trick is also said to work in Windows Vista; however, some are warning that while it works fine in 32-bit versions of Vista, it can cause 64-bit versions of that operating system to crash.

To enter "GodMode", one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Once that is done, the folder's icon will change to resemble a control panel and will contain dozens of control options. We're not sure it's our idea of playing God, but it is a handy way to get to all kinds of controls.

We've asked Microsoft for more details on the feature and how it came to be. But so far, Redmond is silent on the topic.

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Topics: godmode, windows 7

Comments (6)

DanielS commented on 21/01/2010 11:29

It's just the Control Panel in a different view; it's listing all the options you can change rather than you navigating to them in the default "category" view.
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So? commented on 06/01/2010 08:41

The ability to link a folder to a system type folder has been around since the Windows 95 days, sorry to burst the "Windows 7 - I am God" bubble. Look for the string between {} in the registry and you will find other system folders you can link too!
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turbojazz commented on 05/01/2010 21:00

Just tried on Win 7 x64 Ultimate and worked like a charm. No crashing.
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Old Bob commented on 05/01/2010 15:06

It is possible to make shortcuts to any command in GodMode. Just Right Click the command and select Make Shortcut. This could speed up your work flow if you use one of these commands frequently.
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Old Bob commented on 05/01/2010 15:02

You dont have to use the word GodMode in the name of the folder. You may substitute any string for GodMode as long as the rest of the folder name is unchanged. Example: NewControlPanel.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} will work OK.
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eagle9 commented on 05/01/2010 14:36

hey its a pretty cool feature, just tried it and it does work on vista 32.
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