Comments on: That "God mode" Explorer trick does less than you think

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:45:32 +0000

This works only with Vista and Windows 7. To delete the folder, open a Command Prompt window and use the Remdir command.

By: Tried God Mode on XPSP2 - doesn't work

Tried God Mode on XPSP2 - doesn't work — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:08:50 +0000

Dear ED.

Tried the above God Mode tip on Windows XPsp2 and it just comes up ‘Windows cannot open this file. To open this file, Windows has to know what program created it. Do you want to choose the program from a list?’ and I don’t know what program to choose!

I copied the name accurately from your article and created a new folder on the desktop and used the copied name for its name like you said. Why doesn’t it work?

Yours puzzledly – wouldn’t mind a reply, can’t delete the folder now either!

Christopher Burke (ulrichburke@hotmail.com)

By: Greg D'Unger

Greg D'Unger — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:40:17 +0000

XP has this as a Folder Option. On the View tab you can check “Show Control Panel in My Computer” (Removed in Vista).

The Control Panel namespace gets automatic categories that show up in the left panel tree structure like “Administrative Tools”, “Fonts”, “Network Connections”, etc. plus the folder shows all the Control Panel applets along with descriptive comments for each.

This tip got most of its wings from sounding like it’s something better than it is. But its momentum may be driven by MS’s own reorganization of Explorer and namespaces that makes exploring and maintaining Win7 seem a bit too complicated.

By: Roddy

Roddy — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:46:14 +0000

Great…finally a listing of all those hidden settings hiding behind tabbed pages and “more” or “advanced” buttons. Finding settings in the Control Panel is a nightmare when you only go in once a year to change your IP Address, DNS Server IP address or some similar item. Where was that anyway?

I concur with last post…a full list mode should be a standard Control Panel view option.

By: Bob Wells

Bob Wells — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:57:53 +0000

Note to Microsoft… this should be a standard Control Panel View by option, i.e.:

View by: Details

-or-

View by: Administrator

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:48:20 +0000

Ed’s on drugs! This is the most incredible feature I have ever seen. It like turns my Win7 into a Win95 like interface. Who could want more? Now I’m gonna party like it’s 1999.

By: Knucklehead

Knucklehead — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:49:42 +0000

In case anyone is as careless as me and installs on a 64 bit Windows Server 2008 operating system, I had to go to Safe Mode Command Prompt, login as another user, rename the folder I’d created (on the original profile). It would not delete until I’d renamed it. Doh!

By: Observer

Observer — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:54:58 +0000

Cool tool, useful for power users, geeks and wannabes, not so much for those who just use their machines for standard stuff. I have had it available for a few weeks, use it occasionally, none of my customers have 7 yet so it’s not too useful for them but a lot are planning to upgrade so I see lots of use for it in the future.

By: labauer

labauer — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:42:20 +0000

Very cool. I like seeing the list rather than click – click -clicking through.

By: Ed Bott

Ed Bott — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:01:17 +0000

No, this does not work in XP. XP Does not have the same rich Control Paznel with multiple entry points via tasks.

By: rocker

rocker — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:32:33 +0000

I just need to know…does it works on Windows XP????

By: JT

JT — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:39:12 +0000

The search features are great but sometimes if you don’t know exactly what you happen to be looking for a complete listing is more helpful. Added this to my desktop.

By: lucklucky

lucklucky — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:41:03 +0000

I also think this is much more usefull than wading through hoops and bureaucratic windows (pun intended). Thanks for the pointer.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:44:26 +0000

I’m impressed. It’s much easier to wade through settings when you see them all, rather than hiding them behind more and more options. I’ll use this, probably a lot.

By: tom

tom — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:22:19 +0000

Something I mentioned on Dwight’s site: it crashed my explorer. I do not have information about why it should do that, but the older articles mentioned in the comments above (when somebody did the same in vista) also mention the possibility of the trick crashing the explorer.
removing the folder gets you back on track.

Tom