Newsletter Archives

• Control Panel and consoles in Windows 11

  Posted on June 3, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.23 • 2024-06-03

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Ed Tittel

  Control Panel element counts are shrinking, but they remain surprisingly active and entangled in Windows controls, configuration, and management.

  Although more than a decade has passed since Microsoft began migrating functionality from Control Panel into Settings, Control Panel elements remain alive and active in Windows 11. Windows consoles are also still important, and likely to remain so, as a new AI-enabled release of Windows 11 is anticipated later this year.

  But the landscape between Settings and Control Panel shifts constantly.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.23.0, 2024-06-03).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Windows 11 Control Panel, God Mode, Microsoft Consoles, Newsletters, Settings

• God Mode works in Windows 10 Insider Preview

  Posted on June 4, 2015 at 06:49 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Our own RC Primak pointed me in the right direction…

  The old Vista-era parlor trick called “God Mode” not only works, it may have some uses in Win10.

  InfoWorld Tech Watch

  Windows News God Mode

• More about GodMode

  Posted on January 7, 2010 at 07:08 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I remember the first time I ever saw a GUID used for a Windows desktop icon. Brad Silverberg was giving a demo of Windows 95. He typed in a weird name for a new desktop icon; as I recall, double-clicking on the icon brought up the Control Panel. Everybody in the audience ooh’d and aaah’d.

  That’s why I wasn’t very impressed by the recent  “God Mode” revelations. It’s the same old stuff.

  Ina Fried has an “exclusive” email interview with Steve Sinofsky, in which Steve gave a dozen or so additional GUID “God Mode” lookalikes. But the fact is that this stuff has been documented for a long, long time.

  For example, by using the appropriate “God Mode” like name for a desktop icon, you can double-click your way directly into any of the Windows 7 Control Panel applets. Microsoft has a list of the GUIDs – the things in { brackets } – that work.

  There are lots and lots of tricks with GUID icon names. I haven’t found any of them to be particularly useful, but your mileage may vary.

  Other God Mode, GUID icon names