Windows 7 “God Mode”

No doubt you have heard of the so-called “GodMode” trick found on CNET as follows:

“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.”

God Mode??? That is certainly an interesting name for it, but you could have called it anything. The name is defined renaming a Windows folder to “name.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}” so you could have called it “NewFolder” or, as noted on BrandonLive,… “ILikePuppies”.

Wow, you have discovered the “Headline Maker” trick in Windows… imagine the mayhem that can now ensue.

Please be assured that there are no security implications with this so called “trick”. It’s simply a documented feature of the Windows shell whereby file system folders can be easily made into namespace junctions or Control Panel items. The item in question is actually the All Tasks folder which simply provides a comprehensive list of possible Windows settings.

Beginning in Windows Vista, each Control Panel item was given a canonical name for use in programmatically launching that item to make it easier for developers to access core functionality in Windows. When you create a folder and give it the canonical name, the icon is transformed into the Control Panel item for the named task.

These canonical names are well documented on MSDN for Windows Vista and Windows 7 so feel free to have fun creating control panels all over your file system. There is no real magic here, but rather, a way for Developers to access the settings in Windows in an easy, centralized way.

For the rest of us… it’s just kind of cool to have an icon that gives you searchable access to every possible setting and have people ask about that nefarious “God Mode” icon on your desktop! :)