Earlier this week, we had shared with you an intriguing Windows 7 tip called God Mode. Of course, its not as phenomenal as it sounds. In fact it isn’t even new. What it does is create a folder (rather a shortcut) containing an exhaustive list of Windows 7 options. The trick itself is extremely simple and all the user needs to do is create a folder named “GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}“.

The shortcut is basically a globally unique identifier (GUID) which points to the Control Panel. The first potion of the key (i.e. portion before the period) is totally inconsequential. In fact “Test.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}” would work just as well (but obviously Windows 7 Test Mode doesn’t sound as juicy as Windows 7 God Mode).

Windows Vista (32 bit only) users can achieve something similar by creating a folder named “Master Control.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}“. This trick was discovered by Ramesh Kumar and is popularly called the Master Control Panel.

Windows Guru Ed Bott has now come up with a fairly large list of useful GUID shortcuts for Windows Vista and Windows 7. Some of them are:

Windows 7 and Vista (GUIDs)

AutoPlay: {9C60DE1E-E5FC-40f4-A487-460851A8D915}

Computer Folder: {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Default Programs: {17cd9488-1228-4b2f-88ce-4298e93e0966}

Get Programs: {15eae92e-f17a-4431-9f28-805e482dafd4}

Performance Information and Tools: {78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC}

Personalization: {ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}

System: {BB06C0E4-D293-4f75-8A90-CB05B6477EEE}

Windows Update: {36eef7db-88ad-4e81-ad49-0e313f0c35f8}

Wndows 7 only (GUIDs)

Action Center: {BB64F8A7-BEE7-4E1A-AB8D-7D8273F7FDB6}

Backup and Restore: {B98A2BEA-7D42-4558-8BD1-832F41BAC6FD}

Biometric Devices: {0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}

Display: {C555438B-3C23-4769-A71F-B6D3D9B6053A}

Recovery: {9FE63AFD-59CF-4419-9775-ABCC3849F861}

Speech Recognition: {58E3C745-D971-4081-9034-86E34B30836A}

Troubleshooting: {C58C4893-3BE0-4B45-ABB5-A63E4B8C8651}

Remember that you need to create a new folder and name it according to the format “FolderName.GUID“. While, these shortcuts won’t provide any new functionality, using them you can create your own version of Control Panel containing the most frequently used options. You can find the full list provided by Ed Bott over here.