Heard of the Windows 7 ‘GodMode’? The name is a bit much, because, if I truly had God-like powers over my Windows 7 machine it wouldn’t crash unexpectedly or freeze. Maybe they should have called it something like ‘ConvenientAccessModeForControlPanelsCheatsheet’ but then again maybe not. Anyways, ‘GodMode’ goes like this: you create a folder (anywhere) and you give it the specific name XXXXX.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} where XXXXX could be ‘GodMode’ or ‘Gaia’ or ‘AgnosticPowerUser’. The folder icon changes to an administrative control-like icon and you have access to lots (all?) control panel settings. Given that Start Menu in Windows 7 has gotten much better with finding phrases (e.g. try “power plan”) the GodMode may not be so relevant?
GodMode seems to devolve (nice pun, huh?) to be just a general trick where if you know the GUID to a particular control panel then you can use it in the same way. For example from my 32 bit Windows 7 machine these will work:
Network Connections.{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}
Wireless Networks.{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}
Power Options.{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}
To find the GUID to use, search your registry for the phrase “.ControlPanel” and you’ll find references to control panels and you can find out the appropriate GUID. This is left as an exercise to the reader. Note that fooling around in the registry can have unwanted consequences so be careful and read up on good practices for working in the registry. Here's what the full GodMode panel looks like:
Update: 2017-02-21. This still appears to work in Windows 10.
Update: 2023-08-10. This still appears to work in Windows 11 Pro.
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