Enable Windows 10's Hidden "God Mode"

[Urhixidur]

Here's an equivalent (but a little more roundabout) way to create a God Mode control panel on your desktop.

Open a console. Set your current directory to your desktop folder. (You can, of course, choose to put the God Mode control panel elsewhere)

cd %USERPROFILE%\Desktop

Create a directory there, using any name of your choosing:

mkdir godmode

Using notepad (or some such) create a file with the following contents and save to the directory you just created using the name desktop.ini:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=God Mode
CLSID={ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

The LocalizedResourceName is the name that Explorer will display for your 'godmode' folder, and can be anything you choose. Back to the console, enter the directory:

cd godmode

Change the attributes of desktop.ini to system hidden:

attrib desktop.ini +s +h

You're done! Once Explorer refreshes, you should have a God Mode control panel on your desktop (or elsewhere).

A similar trick, omitting the CLSID line, can be used to change the display name of any folder.

 

[miluthui]

This may come handy thank you

 

[Guest]

Works good with Windows 8 too. This is a a real time saver. It's all in 2 or 3 mouse clicks instead of searching through menus to finds it. When you click best performance option in windows 7 it uses the classic settings from the versions previous to Vista.

 

[Jefffosterusa]

Ha, I doubt there's Windows in Heaven, God hates disorder.

 

[mcborge]

I first heard of this early last year and I've had it sitting on my desktop ever since... A very useful feature. A recent update removed the icons label text for some reason and I cant rename it but it still works ok.

 

[Julio Franco]

We've updated this article from the Windows 7 days, also added other godmode-style folder shortcuts you can create and a downloadable zip file containing all of them as well.

 

[EClyde]

Always good to rerun articles from around the web that have been available for years

 

[koblongata]

Nifty! Thanks.

 

[infinity306]

Ah, one of the benefits of using a closed-source operating system --
many of its modes and secrets are hidden from users by the benevolent
vendor. People running Linux have all this, and more, available to them --
it just takes a little knowledge.

LMAO.. same on windows... these are just shortcuts.. anybody with knowledge can get to each of these in other ways as well..

 

[avioza]

these are just shortcuts.. anybody with knowledge can get to each of these in other ways as well..

Agreed, start learning Powershell.

 

[lazer]

I thought I remembered God mode from many years ago. Now I see that there are comments from SEVEN years ago.

So I guess I am not the laziest person on earth, there are others like me who work at Techspot....

But still it is good to remember.

 

[Dustyn]

What about Jeebus mode?

 

[Emexrulsier]

Wish they would stop calling it "god mod" its nothing new, its existed on many versions of windows and all the settings can be accessed via other methods, it doesn't give you are more access to secret areas.

 

[Wizwill]

I think it was Isaac Azamov or Robert Heinlein who said "any sufficiently advanced technology is mnagic"

 

[MoeJoe]

Godmode on a MSI Godlike Carbon is like ... um ...

Godlike.

 

[alansmith]

The 'trick' has been around for many versions of Windows, but it's the first time I've seen it called God mode. What's God got to do with it?

 

[alabama man]

Why is there a devil in kimono in the title picture?

 

[Uncle Al]

A good article and exactly the sort of thing I look for out of Techspot.com so please keep up the good work!

 

[gromexe]

I first heard of this early last year and I've had it sitting on my desktop ever since... A very useful feature. A recent update removed the icons label text for some reason and I cant rename it but it still works ok.

1) Right Click Desktop (Or any folder. You can always move the file to any folder after creating it on your Desktop)

2) Select [New > Shortcut]

3) Where it asks for location, Enter: "explorer.exe shell:::{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}"

4) Hit Next

5) Type a Name for the shortcut. Example) "God Mode"

That's it!

Now you can Right Click this shortcut and select the Properties dialog. There you can change the icon of the shortcut.

You can also right click the shortcut and choose to Pin to Start or Taskbar

 

[mcborge]

1) Right Click Desktop (Or any folder. You can always move the file to any folder after creating it on your Desktop)

2) Select [New > Shortcut]

3) Where it asks for location, Enter: "explorer.exe shell:::{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}"

4) Hit Next

5) Type a Name for the shortcut. Example) "God Mode"

That's it!

Now you can Right Click this shortcut and select the Properties dialog. There you can change the icon of the shortcut.

You can also right click the shortcut and choose to Pin to Start or Taskbar

It fixed itself a couple of years ago but thanks for the info anyway.