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Windows 7 "God Mode" Mythbusting

Posted January 2010 by Steve Sinchak

The tweak of the day everyone is talking about is the so called Windows 7 "God Mode."  Simply create a new folder, call it GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} and you will have a shortcut to every setting on your computer.  Sounds great right? The problem is no new features or settings are exposed. Only a list of tasks that can be accomplished within Control Panel that Windows 7 and Vista use for start menu and control panel search.

The feature is not actually even called God Mode but All Tasks.  Since the All Tasks feature is simply a shell folder you can access it a few different ways.  The most direct method is to open up Explorer and type in shell:::{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} in the address bar and hit Enter.  Alternatively, create a folder and name it anything.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}.

At one point during the Windows 7 betas this feature was even exposed to users as All Tasks but hidden in the final releases.  That caused me to do some extra editing on the final review of my Windows 7 Tweaks book.

In this case someone named the folder GodMode which sounds like a secret feature burried deep within Windows. In reality its just another shell folder. If you need to change a setting simply search for it in the Start Menu.  That is what this feature was actually designed for.

Although if you are the kind of person that likes to navigate through a list of 279 tasks instead of simply typing in what you need try out this even better backdoor secretly created by the president of the Windows division.  Create a new folder and name it: SinofskyBackdoor.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}.

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