Windows 10?

[Rick Danger]

Some chatter on the web concerning enabling "God Mode" in Windows 10 as a way of quickly uncovering hidden features and controls. I found the accompanying article on the website RedmondPie.com.

But "God Mode" is nothing new: it's been around since the rollout of Windows Vista. "God Mode", is also known as "Windows Master Control Panel shortcut" or "All Tasks". By creating a folder with a certain name, users have access to all of the operating system's control panels from within a single folder. The hack was published outside of Microsoft documentation in 2007.

There have been some reports that using this method may cause unexpected results or repeated crashes, e.g., with 64-bit Windows Vista versions. In 64-bit Vista, creating a GodMode folder will cause Explorer to repeatedly crash and restart, requiring that the user boot into Safe Mode to delete the folder. Microsoft stated that they were unable to reproduce this error.

I tried it on my Windows 8.1 laptop. The GodMode folder contains 249 controls grouped under numerous headings like "Action Center", "Administrative Tools", "Credential Manager", "Family Safety", "File History", "Power Options", "RemoteApp and Desktop Connections", "Sound", and "User Accounts". The "Ease of Access Center" has the most items (26), followed by "System" (21).



While at first glance there doesn't appear to be anything here I haven't seen before the fact that I don't have to use multiple clicks digging through Control Panel to me makes this a useful feature. That's assuming there are no hidden stability issues using it under Windows 8.1. Apparently one reason why "GodMode" isn't mentioned more frequently is that it has been speculated that it would be eliminated in every new version of Windows since Vista. Also, while I found mention that malicious software can exploit GUID-based shortcuts I haven't found anything referencing such exploits.

I am NOT recommending this. Certainly if something bad happens, I'll post it. Also, if you are uncomfortable with modifying system settings or have no familiarity with Windows Control Panel in any versions, this is definitely not for you.


How To Enable GodMode In Windows 10
By Paul Morris | August 4th, 2015

If you’re a hardcore Windows fan who likes to keep up with all of the features and functionality of Microsoft’s OS, especially those intricacies that the company has chosen not to tell you about, then the chances are that you already knew about the hidden "GodMode". This was the term given to a special folder containing links to a multitude of settings throughout the Windows system, and has been present in the last three major versions of Windows. Thankfully, especially for those that like to tinker with some forbidden settings, the rather powerful sounding GodMode is still present in Windows 10.

It’s also relatively simple to initiate GodMode in Microsoft’s latest OS as per previous versions of Windows.

Enabling GodMode in Windows 10:

Step 1: Right click on the Windows 10 desktop and select the option titled New, then Folder, to instruct the operating system to create a new desktop located folder item.

Step 2: Make sure the newly created folder is given this special name: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Step 3: Hit the Enter/Return key to create the folder with the given name. This will automatically turn the folder into a special GodMode folder.

Step 4: Double click as usual to enter into the newly created "GodMode" folder. Once created, this special folder will have a veritable smorgasbord of settings for over forty categories, including things like Work Folder, User Accounts, Windows Defender, Windows Mobility Center etc. Of course, it’s worth remembering that as with previous versions of Windows, an individual user’s mileage may vary from the settings included within the special folder depending on the hardware that’s running within the machine. It’s also worth noting that the system account used to create and name the folder will need to have full administrative privileges for this to work.

Windows 10 has been available as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1 users for the best part of a week now. It’s immediately apparent that the improvements within have resonated with users. The arrival of GodMode was an inevitable one given how power users have already started digging into the OS to unearth features that Microsoft would rather not tell us about.

http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-ena...in-windows-10/