Windows 7 Has Lots of "God Modes" 422
An anonymous reader writes "Those intrigued by the 'GodMode' in Windows 7 may be interested to know that there are many other similar shortcuts hidden within the operating system — some going back to Vista or before. Steven Sinofsky, Windows division president, said several similar undocumented features provide direct access to all kinds of settings, from choosing a location to managing power settings to identifying biometric sensors." Update: 01/07 23:46 GMT by CT : Link updated to source.
Re:I don't get it.... (Score:4, Interesting)
This has always been the case and is nothing new. This was already possible on 2k/XP and was actually abused by hackers like this:
1) Create directory and add a string that makes it look like the recycle bin (the folder will actually link to the recycle bin when clicked on by the user that tries to view the map and take on the same icon).
2) In that dir put whatever you want to be hidden from the operators of said computer
3) ???
4) Profit
Using this for evil (Score:4, Interesting)
Reading the article, seems that this crash 64 bits versions of Windows 7/Vista.
It could be a good idea to create folders like that, inside zip files, and send that zip file to people with these OS versions. Or maybe create folders in USB pendrives with that name, to protect these drives from be view in a 64 bits Windows 7. etc.
Re:Undocumented features! (Score:4, Interesting)
The original "God Mode" one isn't in that list. And, this doesn't say anything about creating folders with the canonical name as the extension. It's an interesting hack.
Re:Those strings can't be right (Score:3, Interesting)
NTHGTHDGDCRTDTRK
On the eight day god created Turok. All the other cheats have meaning too. Some have evaded me for all these years...
All Weapons
CMGTSMMGGTS
Come get some, maggots.
Big Heads
GSHNTTBNCTPRDCRD
???
Dana Mode
DNCHN
Dana Chan.
Disco Mode
SNFFRR
Saturday Night Fever forever.
Fancy Colors
LLTHCLRSFTHRNB
All the colors of the rainbow.
Fly Mode
LKMBRD
Look, I'm a bird!
Greg Mode
GRGCHN
Greg Chan.
Infinite Lives
FRTHSTHTTRLSCK
For those that truly suck.
Pen and Ink Mode
DLKTDR
Do you like to draw?
Quack Mode
CLLTHTNMTN
You call that animation?
Robin Mode
RBNSMTH
Robin Smith.
Show Enemies on the Map
NSTHMNDNT
Now you see them now you don't.
Show the Credits
FDTHMGS
???
Spirit Mode
THSSLKSCL
This is like, so cool!
Unlimited Ammo
BLLTSRRFRND
Bullets are our friend.
Unlock the Gallery
THBST
The best/
Raptor mode (Enemies have Raptor heads):
MRPTR
I'm a raptor!
Dino Chizzle (Turok rides a jackhammer type of thing):
RSFGKFFH
(Don't know if this one is a real cheat - someone test it!)
Re:Those strings can't be right (Score:2, Interesting)
IDDQD was good, but was much better teamed up with IDKFA.
IDSPISPOPD was fun for a while, but I really only used it to find the easter eggs in Doom2.
Re:Direct Copy article (Score:5, Interesting)
Check the datestamps. Cnet's article was posted the day before.
Re:I don't get it.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess the more relevant factor is not that the developers created all kinds of shortcuts for themselves, but that a subset of the users found them and think they're really useful.
As you point out, that doesn't necessarily mean your design is bad, but it's a pretty good indication that you might want to consider the possibility.
Personally I think Windows has gone way too far with the wizards. I was trying to connect to a shared printer the other day and kept going in circles, bouncing from wizard to wizard. Things like the TCP/IP settings and wireless connection wizard seem to keep popping up when you're trying to use Network Neighborhood, which has always seemed to be broken, and manually connecting only works if you know the address AND share name.
Re:Another way to trigger god mode (Score:4, Interesting)
Open up a command line and type IDDQD, press enter, and see what happens.
...or not
You know, suddenly I have an urge to add a "sudo" alias called "iddqd"...
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:4, Interesting)
A few years back, I had my (~80) mother set up with a PC running a fairly well locked down Linux setup. It was set up with icewm, and she had menu items for email, (thunderbird) solitaire, (pysol) and a few others. Basically I tailored is specifically to her needs. The mail was kept on a local imap server, and thunderbird connected to it. That way if she did something really weird to thunderbird and made it crash, her mail would be safe in server-space. I did most of what I could to grandma-proof the system.
Somehow she kept changing the theme on icewm. I don't know how... For the particular theme she kept getting, you have to be 4 clicks into a menu tree. But she did, and I'd ssh into her machine and tweak things back the way they belonged, from a spare copy. At one point I marked a bunch of her files as read-only, but some software sees that, sees that she owns the file, and "kindly" changed it back to read-write and made the bogus update. I kept wanting to change things so she didn't even own her own configuration files - they would belong to someone else, and she would have group-level read permission. Never had the chance to do it - testing was the hard part - I'd have to be there for that, and when we were there we had more important things to do that spend a lot of time on the computer.