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.
Unfortunately... (Score:5, Funny)
...theologians have recently determined that God has a "MicrosoftMode". Watch out for the Blue Screen of Death.
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:5, Funny)
I think the user experience design meeting at MS must have gone something like this...
"Listen, we've developed this feature that lets users manage their systems very conveniently. Access to everything from one place."
"Wow, that does look good. All in favor of hiding it?"
(all, in unison) "Aye!"
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:5, Insightful)
God bless their souls. I would want Grandma to be atleast 3 clicks away from the desktop from settings such as "Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions". Me? I just put the folder on the desktop as a easy way to tweak my gaming desktop.
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.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
So what you are basically saying is that seniors are very efficient at finding Linux bugs?
Looks like a good opportunity for crowdsourcing if you ask me...
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Noah's already experienced it but God gave us a new colorful interface element and promised it'll never happen again.
So that explains the Apple "Beachball of Death" :-)
The beachball (pinwheel, etc.) is the equivalent of the Windows hourglass, *not* the equivalent of the BSoD. Apple's BSoD is the kernel panic, just like any other self-respecting Unix.
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:Another way to trigger god mode (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"women still bleed for no freakin' reason" ... the occasion you seem to be referring to is NOT bleeding as you know it at all, it's a monthly cycle of cleaning and renewal. And although it is painful, and ugly, a lot of women still see the menstrual cycle as the gift it is - the ability to create a miracle.
As for all the other stuff about God vs. Lucifer - you're correct, "He's an absentee landlord! Worship that? Never!"
At least I know where I stand with the devil, well, I tend to kneel, actually... (use yo
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:4, Funny)
.... oh shit [google.com].
Re: (Score:2)
It's the WTOL* not the BSOD and is already quite famous.
* White Tunnel of Light
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:5, Funny)
That would explain why he freaked so much about his users interfacing with that Apple a while back...
Direct Copy article (Score:5, Insightful)
2) More importantly, from the article, I inferred these god mode settings were just (basically) command lines to initiate control panel activities? Not a big deal if that is the case. It is shortcuts of a way I guess. Or is there something more to this?
Re:Direct Copy article... i.e. PLAGIARISM (Score:5, Informative)
I guess Slashdot is now advocating outright plagiarism by giving it the eyeballs instead of what it rips-off? Do I get three guesses who the "anonymous reader" was that submitted the summary text?
Re:Direct Copy article... i.e. PLAGIARISM (Score:5, Funny)
You do indeed. Go ahead and post them and then I'll copy what you wrote and post it too - it makes it better, apparently.
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There's imaginary property, and then there's ethics and general courtesy. The former is not a prerequisite for the latter... or at least it damned well shouldn't be.
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Re:Direct Copy article (Score:5, Interesting)
Check the datestamps. Cnet's article was posted the day before.
Re:Direct Copy article (Score:5, Informative)
These folders are a bit more than mere shortcuts. They expose the contents of the corresponding folder to anything using the proper APIs to examine it. One of the canonical uses is to create a folder named "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" in the path used for start menu entries, which results in a start menu folder that contains all the control panel icons, allowing you to directly select one of them. This feature is not really as useful in Vista or Windows 7 (with the nice program finding box), but was quite useful before then.
Whooo!!! Its God on my Windows Computer w00t l33t (Score:5, Informative)
What to find all these God Modes? Just go to your registry and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID and search for "System.ApplicationName". Every GUID listed under CLSID with a System.ApplicationName entry can be used to do this same thing.
While you are at it, delete the key.
There. That should help.
Why not link to the real article? (Score:5, Informative)
Identical to the summary link, except from the actual source.
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Not quite ... the summary calls him "teven Sinofsky" ...
It's not like anyone proofreads here. Not when the average reader doesn't know the difference between rain/rein/reign, or break/brake, or lose/loose.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I don't get it.... (Score:5, Insightful)
If all of the features are in the Control Panel, why do the developers need shortcuts?
In other words, what's wrong with the Control Panel interface that hinders developers to the point where they have to hack in these types of kludges?
And, yes, I consider a directory with a "special string" a horrible kludge. Think of all the behind-the-scenes complications that this brings on. Every directory creation/access has to be checked for these modes. How does a godmode directory interact with a random app?
The mind reels.
Re:I don't get it.... (Score:5, Insightful)
"In other words, what's wrong with the Control Panel interface that hinders developers to the point where they have to hack in these types of kludges?"
You don't use Windows, hey?
My thought when I read the article was similar. If your developers are making themselves obscure shortcuts, you might want to have your UI team rethink their design.
Re:I don't get it.... (Score:5, Insightful)
well that's why they're developers, not users. Your developers need to see stuff in the OS on a more regular basis than the average user. Finding connected hardware ID strings, even as a guy getting a PhD in computer science isn't exactly top of my priority list. If you look at the godmode everyone was playing with it's not exactly insightful. It's just a list, sorted alphabetically by type of task, of menus. Useful if you're changing stuff for the sake of changing stuff (say the first time you set up your computer or if you're testing), but there's no obvious logical connection between my folder display settings, my windows defender settings and my 'location and other sensors' options. It's handy to have if you want to see a list of a lot of stuff you can do, but not really very functional.
If anything they don't really belong together unless you're doing stuff with the operating system that is very different than your average user, like say, trying to test the functionality of all this stuff, in order.
Admittedly control panel isn't a great implementation, I think MS is still grappling with which direction to take your system settings, either the sort of godmode exhaustive list, which IMO is far too confusing for the average user (albeit alphabetical at least), and the task dependent options where you only see your folders settings options if you're messing with folders, mouse settings with mouse software etc. In the end they've settled on an ugly hybrid of the two, but I think that covers all bases better than the alternatives.
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.
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If your developers are making themselves obscure shortcuts, you might want to have your UI team rethink their design.
Unfortunately, it seems they do, since with every "upgrade" of their OS and apps you have to relearn the thing all over again. More unfortunately, they're just not very good at UI or they wouldn't have to.
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
Re:I don't get it.... (Score:5, Informative)
Hmm. I just went for a stumble through the Win XP registry...
Some other types that hide their contents, and what opens when you double-click them (not sure if they’ll work on other versions of Windows):
{E88DCCE0-B7B3-11d1-A9F0-00AA0060FA31} - Compressed folder access denied error message
{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} - Control Panel
{2559a1f5-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0} - Default e-mail client
{2559a1f4-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0} - Default web browser
{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262} - Folder, but seems empty
{63da6ec0-2e98-11cf-8d82-444553540000} - FTP folder
{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D} - IE with extensions disabled
{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} - My Computer
{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D} - My Network Places
{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E} - Network connections
{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48} - Network connections
{9DB7A13C-F208-4981-8353-73CC61AE2783} - Nothing
{C4EE31F3-4768-11D2-BE5C-00A0C9A83DA1} - Nothing
{AFDB1F70-2A4C-11d2-9039-00C04F8EEB3E} - Offline files folder
{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} - Printers and Faxes
{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} - Recycle bin
{E211B736-43FD-11D1-9EFB-0000F8757FCD} - Scanners and cameras
{FB0C9C8A-6C50-11D1-9F1D-0000F8757FCD} - Scanners and cameras
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF} - Scheduled tasks
{1f4de370-d627-11d1-ba4f-00a0c91eedba} - Search results folder
{e17d4fc0-5564-11d1-83f2-00a0c90dc849} - Search results folder
{F5175861-2688-11d0-9C5E-00AA00A45957} - Subscription folder
{BDEADF00-C265-11d0-BCED-00A0C90AB50F} - Web folders
Re: (Score:2)
having more than one way to do something can have a variety of benefits:
1) power users can take a faster path to the action and avoid confirmation dialogues when they know what they're doing. Terminal/console windows are great examples.
2) there's often two or more "intuitive" places for something to be. instead of picking one, put it in both places and it becomes a tad easier for 50% of the population to use. Is sleep after so long in screensaver a screensaver feature or an energysaver feature? Give acc
Re: (Score:2)
In other words, what's wrong with the Control Panel interface that hinders developers to the point where they have to hack in these types of kludges?
Is the Control Panel accessible via the CLI? That would be a reason. Still an awful way to provide CLI access to these functions.
Re: (Score:2)
This isn't a special way to access the Control Panel for developers because there is some sort of problem with the new layout.
Rather, this is part of a more general feature for developers to create and display namespaces within Windows. Microsoft simply used the same method for managing the Control Panels applets that it suggests its developers use for their own applications.
Now, the article points out there is a way users can exploit this feature to get the Control Panel applets listed discretely without a
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
“Basically, this” is synonymous for “what he said”. My use of it had nothing to do with the “this” reference in programming. Calm down.
Yes, I repeated what he said, but I also said it in such a way that most people aren’t going to say “huh?” when they read it.
Re: (Score:2)
If all of the features are in the Control Panel, why do the developers need shortcuts?
In other words, what's wrong with the Control Panel interface that hinders developers to the point where they have to hack in these types of kludges?
And, yes, I consider a directory with a "special string" a horrible kludge. Think of all the behind-the-scenes complications that this brings on. Every directory creation/access has to be checked for these modes. How does a godmode directory interact with a random app?
The mind reels.
I think 'developers' in that context meant Microsoft Developers who develop Windows and possibly testers of the OS. They would need it to quickly test something instead of going through an additional step. And no, it's not a kludge, atleast it wasn't created for the GodMode features. Control Panel items have been 'special' folders internally with those 'special strings' internally ever since atleast Windows 95.. All it does is call a COM component with that Class ID as a GUID which populates the folder with
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It takes a lot less time to type a dozen characters into a box/console than it does to click through a half dozen menus and panel interfaces to get where you're going.
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I'm not totally certain what this is, but I already make shortcuts to commonly used Control Panel items and put them where ever I like. I've done it on Windows 2000. Display properties, network configuration mouse settings are the three that I use most, it saves me a couple clicks.
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This is obviously how the control panel and other special folders are implemented in the first place. Not a short cut. Put in the right code & you'll get the regular control panel directory.
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We create shortcuts to the places we need to go often. The average user doesn't go the same places the devs or support guys do, most likely.
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Yeah, if you wanted to formalize something like this why not add a system call that accepts a GUID and a void* and then if the GUID is a 'special' one then it forwards to the internal code to interpret the void* argument and do random stuff? Why tie it in with the filesystem and string parsing at all?
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The developers need it because the settings exist before the control panels that manipulate them. Totally different teams of people are involved in kernel/infrastructure coding as opposed to UI/HMI. The "special strings" are a general feature used since Windows 95 to make things appear in the file system that don't actually reside on the disk, including printers and the standard control panel.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You mean besides the fact that it's been completely rearranged and the various bits renamed and specific settings moved from place to place so many times nobody can find anything?
It took me three minutes playing around in the Windows Seven control panel just to figure out how to change the TCP/IP settings. They're in a different place from Vista, where they were in a different place from XP, which in turn put them in a different plac
The real question is... (Score:5, Funny)
Does Windows 7 have Quad Damage?
Re:The real question is... (Score:4, Funny)
Only if you dual wield dual core processors...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Only if you dual wield dual core processors...
I prefer to equip my quad core offhand and lay about me like a madman with a USB cable... but to each his own.
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.
Some thoughts (Score:5, Informative)
Firstly, it's just a trick involving the GUID that points to a shell folder - all of which is documented on MSDN. Ed Bott also concurs in his blog post [edbott.com].
Secondly, Vista had this too although it was then called "Master Control". Same thing so it's not exactly new.
Thirdly, it's doesn't offer you anything more than you would normally find in the Control Panel. Yes, it is all in one place but I can't be the only one that just types a couple of letters into the Start Menu to find the option I want.
Fourthly, the list of them are as follows:
Enjoy.
Re: (Score:2)
Slashdot God{aa29f560-cc37-11cf-bff4-4449932ba000} (Score:2)
Nope, didn't work :(
'GodMode' strings do the following: (Score:2, Informative)
woog.{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33}
-enter a default location for gps and other location aware programs
woog.{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}
-biometric devices control
woog.{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}
-power plan management
woog.{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}
-taskbar icons and notifications
woog.{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70}
-windows credential manager
woog.{15eae92e-f17a
Linked article is plagiarism (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Mod Parent up (hopefully the /. editors will notice this and correct the link to the actual author).
We've had these since Win95 (Score:2, Informative)
These have existed since Win95. I remember in Win95 using these tricks to put a Control Panel and Dial-Up Networking shortcuts on my Start Bar that expanded out just like later became in option in I think 98 or XP. I haven't done this in years, but I do recall that in '95, you could find all the correct values to use for these "tricks" by searching RegEdit.
False prophet (Score:2)
"God Mode?" (Score:2)
Didn't we just used to call these "back doors?" Maybe I'm missing the point.
--
Toro
This is not news. It is well documented. (Score:5, Informative)
Stuck in Satan-mode (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Those strings can't be right (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Those strings can't be right (Score:5, Funny)
Using that will doom you :)
Re:Those strings can't be right (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (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: (Score:2)
I just did "bind q impulse 255", never needed a god mode.
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Oh yeah, and I think I may be the only student to use Doom for my Geometry project in high school. That was fun. I built a castle that used geometric shapes we were covering in class... Not that hard to do but my teacher thought it was cool, haha. Oh, early nineties how I miss thee, it was a simp
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IDSPISPOPD
Despite not knowing what it stood for until checking it just now.
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Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris
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"Your memory serves you well"
Re:Those strings can't be right (Score:5, Informative)
"On the eighth day god created turok" without vowels. Not that hard to remember.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (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
Re:Undocumented features! (Score:5, Informative)
The "God Mode" is just a different view for the many things available in the control panel.
There is such a thing as overdocumenting your software, this is rather an easter egg that happens to be very handy.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
All these stupid articles are simply fanboys trying to get clicks on their sites
Well, this one may be; it's firewalled off at work. But Google shows me a lot of FAs on the subject so I RTF C|NET A. Computerworld and a host of other larger sites also covered it.
Re:Undocumented features! (Score:5, Informative)
Covered it exactly. TFA is just plagiarized from cnet [cnet.com].
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: (Score:3, Informative)
It is meant for developers, and was documented in the Microsoft Developer Network documentation, of which you must be a subscriber to get.
In other words, Microsoft told the people who they cared to tell about it via their well known documentation system, and dumbass bloggers found it and said "Oh oh! Undocumented features!"
Tell me, how the hell can it be "undocumented" if Microsoft was the one who revealed it in their standard documentation system in the first place?
Dumbasses.
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Ummm... What do you mean by "undocumented"? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee330741(VS.85).aspx [microsoft.com]
All these stupid articles are simply fanboys trying to get clicks on their sites. This is old news. Move along.
All are on the linked MSDN article except {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} This is the undocumented Master Control Panel showing all the "Hidden" options that do not appear on the regular control panel.....
Documentation on this would be nice?
Re:Undocumented features! (Score:4, Insightful)
And all the stupid posts like the GP are simply anti-M$ zealots that are just trying to get karma points. (Seeing how it is at +4 insightful right now shows how successful they are at gaming the moderator system).
Oh, wah, popular sentiments get modded up! I'm gonna tell!
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Why don't you document everything and release it at the same time as the software?
It's odd that as their OSes became more complex, they also had less and less documentation. The IBM XT came with fat books that completely explained line commands, interrupts, and all sorts of other goodies. Now you get a skinny booklet geared to a 5th grade reader.
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You have to consider the userbase too. It became steadily non-technical and only the technically inclined would even open the manual. Just like car manuals, TV manuals, etc. Not to mention the growth of the internet which made it easy to get up-to-date documents with a click. Printing out the whole of MSDN(which will outdated quick) into telephone directory sized books and distributing it with every computer is a colossal waste of rainforest.
Re:Undocumented features! (Score:5, Informative)
It's odd that as their OSes became more complex, they also had less and less documentation.
This is not even remotely true.
I have in my drawer a large DVD case filled with MSDN documentation on primarily Microsoft OS and Server products. I get a new disk every couple of months. This is the Microsoft documentation, and it is vast.
In fact, if it were on paper, I'd probably need an entire library dedicated to it.
In other words, you don't know what you are talking about. There is, in fact, so much documentation that it can be difficult to find exactly what you need in the MSDN library.
The documentation isn't meant for end users, Microsoft designs their OS to be as easy as they can manage to make it for the user at the expense of making things more difficult for the developer. As such, all of the documentation is for developers, not users, because it is the developers who need it.
Getting the full documentation requires a subscription, but there is a lot online at http://msdn.microsoft.com./ [msdn.microsoft.com]
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All the MSDN library stuff is free and on-line. See this [msdn.com]. Has been for years.
There is nothing like this for Apple, Linux, or any other OS - not even close.
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This feature is deocumented. Take a look at the tips.txt file from Windows 95: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/135893 [microsoft.com]
That file first describes these magical folders. I will admit that it does not clearly document that other items can be created by using their GUID, but I suspect someplace they have documented that.
I will note the "All Tasks" GUID is undocumented (a search of msdn.microsoft.com, and the whole of microsoft.com confirms this, since the GUID only comes up in user posted content), with the excep
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Wrong. MS didn't write DOS - they bought it. [patersontech.com]. $10k for the right to sell it, + $15k for the sale of an OEM license to ... IBM. Total: $25k.
Lawsuits eventually drove the final price to $1M.
Considering that Microsoft made tens of billions in profit (not revenue - profit) off dos, ...
Re:How about a not-suck mode? (Score:5, Informative)
How about a mode where I can hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and hit Enter, and have it lock my screen, without having to wait in the middle for Windows to mode-switch to a different video screen, complete with fancy graphics, to ask me the same thing a simple dialog box asks me?
Windows-L.
How about being able to edit the parameters of something you've "pinned to the taskbar"?
Right click the icon. The top item in the popup list is a shortcut, so you can right click and select 'properties' (like any shortcut) and modify the parameters.
Whats up with this whole "Library" thing? What is wrong with "My Documents"
Library may refer to multiple folder locations. Got music in two separate locations (like a portable drive a local one)? Now it's all accessible from one place.
Thank God at least they put your whole user profile in the c:\users\ directory - wait, do they, or is user crap still sprinkled around in c:\program files\blah
All of the microsoft stuff is there, but I suppose there's nothing stopping a program from not using it (UAC perhaps would complain about an app trying to create files in Program Files).
Re:How about a not-suck mode? (Score:5, Informative)
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How about a mode where I can hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and hit Enter, and have it lock my screen, without having to wait in the middle for Windows to mode-switch to a different video screen, complete with fancy graphics, to ask me the same thing a simple dialog box asks me?
Winkey-L locks your screen, no waiting, no confirmations.
Whats up with this whole "Library" thing? What is wrong with "My Documents"
Libraries allow you to add other folders (e.g. public photo or music folders) and have their contents appear alongs
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Whats up with this whole "Library" thing? What is wrong with "My Documents"
The problem with "My Documents" is that it (and the rest of one's home folder, i.e. C:\Users\Foo) only open for read to the user who owns it. Which is as it should be, of course, but when you have multiple user accounts, you do sometimes (quite often, in fact) want certain documents shared between users.
Now, there was a folder for "All Users", which did just that, since... er... NT I believe? 2K and above had it for sure. The problem is that few people actually knew it was there and used it.
The idea of libr
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How about hitting your Windows Key along with the L key to instantly lock your workstation without question?
How about holding shift and right clicking the pinned item to get access to the properties link?
What's up with having My Music, My Photos, and My Videos INSIDE My Documents? I'd rather have a Libraries folder with Documents/Music/Photos separated properly...
The Users folder does contain your full profile, but really, what are you going to do with it even if it wasn't?
All of these answers exis
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Unix existed when MS wrote and sold DOS.
McDonalds' $0.99 turds-in-a-box are a relatively new concept too. Instant gratification at any cost is what sells these days.
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How about a mode where I can hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and hit Enter, and have it lock my screen
Windows key + L will do that.
How about being able to edit the parameters of something you've "pinned to the taskbar"?
To quote the late Lilly Tomlin's "Ernestine" character, "we're the phone company. We don't HAVE to."
What is wrong with "My Documents"
The "my computer" and "my documents" and the "my this" and "my that" has irked me ever since they implimented it. How about letting me make my own directories and name them wh
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That last remark of you was totally useless and unrelated.
Quite true. Microsoft was more practical, sacrificing correctness for ship dates. On the other end of the spectrum we have GNU/Hurd, which might be never finished because it is too ideological and ambitious. But if finished, would it be the Holy Grail of computing? Doubtful at best. MS always was more practical and it's blind focus on backwards compatibility and shipping products quickly was one of the big reasons it succeeded, at the cost of bloat and kludges .When Vista broke the trend and cleaned up a lo
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http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee330741(VS.85).aspx [microsoft.com]
godmode isn't needed, that's just the name of the folder (Cnet named thiers thankscnet). Also, that so-called 'godmode' folder probably isn't documented because it's broken on x64.
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I think they're referring to Microsoft developers developing the OS, not other developers developing for the OS.
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Why would it be intuitive? I don't think MS intended for people to be using it, which is why it doesn't come with an install icon.
Unless you meant you don't understand how to enable it, in which case I suggest you read the article more carefully.
Re:Liars (Score:4, Informative)
I did the following to recover from my crash:
Press Ctrl-Alt-Del
Load the task manager
Run cmd
Rename "GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}" to "folder"
Then I can delete "folder" in Explorer as it no longer crashes
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