Windows 7 & Vista God mode

Pity about the name but 'God mode' is a handy trick for Windows 7 and Vista. In fact you don't need 'God' at all.

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Again, this isn't MS Office but it's too good to ignore ...

Given how sensitive some religious people can be, it’s little wonder Microsoft doesn’t want to talk about the Windows 7 and Vista ‘God Mode’. A pity about the name (it certainly wasn’t an official decision rather an unauthorized extra, so blaming Microsoft isn’t really fair).

Getting past the naming, ‘God mode’ can be very useful for finding options in Windows 7 and Vista.

Entering God mode

Make a new folder called:

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

It can be anywhere – we tried it in the Drive C root folder.

If you do it right, the folder icon will change to the Control Panel icon.

Enter the folder and it shows up a long list of control settings that are normally spread across many locations (Action Center, Admin Tools etc).

According to Cnet it works in Windows 7 32-bit but might crash 64-bit Windows. It worked on several 64-bit machines, we’ve tried … touchwood.

More 'Deity' modes

There are more special folder name codes in Windows ... try these out:

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

{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}

{36eef7db-88ad-4e81-ad49-0e313f0c35f8}

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

{60632754-c523-4b62-b45c-4172da012619}

{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}

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

{7b81be6a-ce2b-4676-a29e-eb907a5126c5}

{8E908FC9-BECC-40f6-915B-F4CA0E70D03D}

{93412589-74D4-4E4E-AD0E-E0CB621440FD}

{96AE8D84-A250-4520-95A5-A47A7E3C548B}

{9C60DE1E-E5FC-40f4-A487-460851A8D915}

{9C73F5E5-7AE7-4E32-A8E8-8D23B85255BF}

{BB06C0E4-D293-4f75-8A90-CB05B6477EEE}

{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524153}

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

{D9EF8727-CAC2-4e60-809E-86F80A666C91}

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

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

{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}

For example:

What does this do.{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524153}

Removing 'God' from 'God mode'

Claude Almer realized that the key number in curly brackets is the important bit - you can name 'God mode' anything you like:

The Prophet Mode - Peace be upon him.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Lord Vishnu mode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

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

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

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

Richard Dawkins godless mode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Ying tong iddle I po.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Windows 7 and Vista God mode without God

Searching God mode

You can search the ‘God’ folder from the search pane on top right to quickly find settings.

Windows 7 God mode with search

As you can see it doesn't just search the visible labels. Neither of the 'Display' items has the word 'font' but they are font related and show up. That's because each 'God' item has keywords that are also searched.

Windows Vista

Thanks to 'BBlohm' and Claude Almer for checking that 'God mode' also works in Windows Vista 32-bit.

Office Watch and several of our readers have tried it with Vista 64-bit and Explorer consistently crashes on any folder with a 'God' sub-folder.

Warning: Removing the 'God' folder from Vista 64-bit can be quite difficult so please don't try this yourself.

If you do have a ‘god’ mode folder that is causing problems here’s how to delete it.

Best to do with Administrator privileges enabled.
Enter the Command Prompt - CMD or ‘DOS’ box.
Go to the parent folder of the ‘God’ folder eg C:\ or wherever.
Remove the folder using the rmdir command eg.
rmdir GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
Make sure you use the exact folder name. It’s better to copy the name than re-type it.

We’re obliged to David L. from Kingston, Ontario for testing and confirming this tip. He also points out that enabling ‘Quick Edit mode’ (right click on the top left corner of the command window, select Properties |Options) will let you right-click to paste into a command line. David has gone to the trouble of writing up full directions here.

Windows XP

There's no 'God mode' in Windows XP. Explorer can't open the item.

Portability

You could put these special folders on a removable drive (USB) and plug them into a Vista or Windows 7 computer to quickly access various settings.

Article posted: Tuesday, 05 January 2010