Windows 7 'God Mode' discovered

Posted on 11 Jan 2010 at 15:41

GodMode may be overstating its case, but this week a rather handy Windows 7 secret has been discovered. What you do is create a new folder, rename it GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}, press Enter and it will take on a Control Panel icon and be shortened simply to GodMode.

When you double-click the icon, you're presented with a comprehensive and categorised list of all Windows 7's control panels in one folder. Because this folder - like all Windows 7 folders - is searchable, it means it's incredibly quick to perform tasks like altering the mouse settings, troubleshooting problems and even creating new disk partitions.

The practice of using these strings of characters contained in curly braces as a folder name is an old Windows trick. In fact, GodMode also works on 32-bit Vista. There are many other so-called GUID shortcuts you can use to create 'secret' folders. Here are just a few:

Manage Wireless Networks.{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}

Network and Sharing Center.{8E908FC9-BECC-40f6-915B-F4CA0E70D03D}

Network Connections.{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}

HomeGroup.{67CA7650-96E6-4FDD-BB43-A8E774F73A57}

Recovery.{9FE63AFD-59CF-4419-9775-ABCC3849F861}

To use any of these, simply right-click on the Desktop, choose New, and then Folder. Paste the string into the name area, and press Enter. You can rename the portion before the '.' to any name you like.

Author: Jim Martin

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User comments

More shortcut strings

Here are some more strings you can use. I found many of them in the registry. I named a couple so you will have an idea about what they do.
{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}

{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}

{E95A4861-D57A-4be1-AD0F-35267E261739}

Network Map.{E7DE9B1A-7533-4556-9484-B26FB486475E}

{D555645E-D4F8-4c29-A827-D93C859C4F2A}

Admin tools.{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524153}

{C58C4893-3BE0-4B45-ABB5-A63E4B8C8651}

{C555438B-3C23-4769-A71F-B6D3D9B6053A}

{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33}

{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}

{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}

{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}

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

{15eae92e-f17a-4431-9f28-805e482dafd4}

{17cd9488-1228-4b2f-88ce-4298e93e0966}

{1D2680C9-0E2A-469d-B787-065558BC7D43}

{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}

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

{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

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

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

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

{62D8ED13-C9D0-4CE8-A914-47DD628FB1B0}

{78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC}

Have fun.