Thursday, 21 January 2010

Windows 7 False God Modes

    Paul Thurrott wrote a little while ago about the Windows 7 God Mode. Where "God Mode" is the ability to access all of the Control Panel applets through a single standard Windows 7 Shell folder.  You can find his explanation here:
    So, this Windows 7 feature is pretty simple; you add a new Folder with a special name to your desktop and you get access to all of the Windows 7 Control Panel applet functionality and features through a single Explorer interface - which is pretty cool.
    Which got me thinking. Hey, this can't be that special… The name of the God Mode folder is just a GUID… So, I searched my Windows 7 local registry for that GUID and found the following;
    Note: the full path to the this registry location is:  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
    So,  nothing special here… Just a bunch of CLSID's and a reference to the Control Panel. Which means that this "God Mode" is just a "handle" to these GUIDS through the Windows Shell…
    Meaning, that we should be able to get access to any Object that has a shell folder and Icon using the same trick…
    So,  we should be able to access the Windows 7 Sensor Control Panel Applet by creating a folder on my desktop with the name;
    "Sensors.{E9950154-C418-419e-A90A-20C5287AE24B}"
    And, then what about "Windows Slide Show Settings"?
    Just create a folder with the name; Test.{E95A4861-D57A-4be1-AD0F-35267E261739}
    And, because these GUID folders under the CLSID tree have registered Icons, you get the pretty pictures as well.
    Have a look at the "collections of false gods" that I have created
    Now, I have the "Power" to create gods... and I never knew it... :)

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