More Info on "God" Mode in Windows 7

I have been asked a few times in the last week about the security implication of the so-called “GodMode” trick found on CNET as follows:

“By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard drive partition.”

So I decided to document my findings and set the record straight.

Firstly the folder does not need to be call "GOD MODE", in fact it was a poor choice for my initial communication of this feature.  A better name would have been "DOG MODE" to denote my numerous email typos that may of you have seen.  You can call this folder (or any of the other folders listed bellow) what ever name you wish.  Its the use of the text string afterwards that is actual linage to the feature.  

Please be assured that there are no security implications with this “trick”. It’s simply a documented feature of the shell whereby filesystem folders can be easily made into namespace junctions, as described here on MSDN. And yes this can apply to Vista as well.

One of the best descriptions of this “trick” can be found here on brandonlive.com.

In effect, since Windows Vista, each Control Panel item is given a canonical name for use in programmatically launching that item.

A question I have asked and have yet to validate in my lab (its on the books for this weekend) is to confirm that these folders do infact allow for a user to work around the lock down of the control pannel via GPO.  I have asked for an official comment on this from the product group but I suspect I'll have tested this before getting a response.  I will update you with my findings.

Please be aware this is one issue to the use of this, as noted here  - http://www.osnews.com/story/22691

An important note needs to be made about Windows Vista. While this trick is safe for all versions of Windows 7 (both 32bit and 64bit), the situation for Vista is different. Windows Vista 32bit users can use this trick, but Vista 64bit users can not. It will cause your system to enter an Explorer crash loop. If this happens to you, boot into a Safe mode command prompt, navigate to the god mode's parent folder, and execute rd /s God[Tab].

The following canonical names are defined for Control Panel items in Windows 7. All names are also valid on Windows Vista unless specified otherwise. Not all Control Panel items are available on all varieties of Windows and some Control Panel items might appear only when appropriate hardware is detected. These canonical names do not change for different languages. They are always in English, even if the system's language is non-English.

Control Panel Item	Canonical name	GUID
Action Center	Microsoft.ActionCenter (Windows 7 and later only)	{BB64F8A7-BEE7-4E1A-AB8D-7D8273F7FDB6}
Administrative Tools	Microsoft.AdministrativeTools	{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524153}
AutoPlay	Microsoft.AutoPlay	{9C60DE1E-E5FC-40f4-A487-460851A8D915}
Backup and Restore	Microsoft.BackupAndRestore (Windows 7 and later only)	{B98A2BEA-7D42-4558-8BD1-832F41BAC6FD}
Biometric Devices	Microsoft.BiometricDevices (Windows 7 and later only)	{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}
BitLocker Drive Encryption	Microsoft.BitLockerDriveEncryption	{D9EF8727-CAC2-4e60-809E-86F80A666C91}
Color Management	Microsoft.ColorManagement	{B2C761C6-29BC-4f19-9251-E6195265BAF1}
Credential Manager	Microsoft.CredentialManager (Windows 7 and later only)	{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70}
Date and Time	Microsoft.DateAndTime	{E2E7934B-DCE5-43C4-9576-7FE4F75E7480}
Default Location	Microsoft.DefaultLocation (Windows 7 and later only)	{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33}
Default Programs	Microsoft.DefaultPrograms	{17cd9488-1228-4b2f-88ce-4298e93e0966}
Desktop Gadgets	Microsoft.DesktopGadgets (Windows 7 and later only)	{37efd44d-ef8d-41b1-940d-96973a50e9e0}
Device Manager	Microsoft.DeviceManager	{74246bfc-4c96-11d0-abef-0020af6b0b7a}
Devices and Printers	Microsoft.DevicesAndPrinters (Windows 7 and later only)	{A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A}
Display	Microsoft.Display (Windows 7 and later only)	{C555438B-3C23-4769-A71F-B6D3D9B6053A}
Ease of Access Center	Microsoft.EaseOfAccessCenter	{D555645E-D4F8-4c29-A827-D93C859C4F2A}
Folder Options	Microsoft.FolderOptions	{6DFD7C5C-2451-11d3-A299-00C04F8EF6AF}
Fonts	Microsoft.Fonts	{93412589-74D4-4E4E-AD0E-E0CB621440FD}
Game Controllers	Microsoft.GameControllers	{259EF4B1-E6C9-4176-B574-481532C9BCE8}
Get Programs	Microsoft.GetPrograms	{15eae92e-f17a-4431-9f28-805e482dafd4}
Getting Started	Microsoft.GettingStarted (Windows 7 and later only)	{CB1B7F8C-C50A-4176-B604-9E24DEE8D4D1}
HomeGroup	Microsoft.HomeGroup (Windows 7 and later only)	{67CA7650-96E6-4FDD-BB43-A8E774F73A57}
Indexing Options	Microsoft.IndexingOptions	{87D66A43-7B11-4A28-9811-C86EE395ACF7}
Infrared	Microsoft.Infrared (Windows 7 and later only)	{A0275511-0E86-4ECA-97C2-ECD8F1221D08}
Internet Options	Microsoft.InternetOptions	{A3DD4F92-658A-410F-84FD-6FBBBEF2FFFE}
iSCSI Initiator	Microsoft.iSCSIInitiator	{A304259D-52B8-4526-8B1A-A1D6CECC8243}
Keyboard	Microsoft.Keyboard	{725BE8F7-668E-4C7B-8F90-46BDB0936430}
Location and Other Sensors	Microsoft.LocationAndOtherSensors (Windows 7 and later only)	{E9950154-C418-419e-A90A-20C5287AE24B}
Mouse	Microsoft.Mouse	{6C8EEC18-8D75-41B2-A177-8831D59D2D50}
Network and Sharing Center	Microsoft.NetworkAndSharingCenter	{8E908FC9-BECC-40f6-915B-F4CA0E70D03D}
Notification Area Icons	Microsoft.NotificationAreaIcons (Windows 7 and later only)	{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}
Offline Files	Microsoft.OfflineFiles	{D24F75AA-4F2B-4D07-A3C4-469B3D9030C4}
Parental Controls	Microsoft.ParentalControls	{96AE8D84-A250-4520-95A5-A47A7E3C548B}
Pen and Touch	Microsoft.PenAndTouch (Windows 7 and later only)	{F82DF8F7-8B9F-442E-A48C-818EA735FF9B}
People Near Me	Microsoft.PeopleNearMe	{5224F545-A443-4859-BA23-7B5A95BDC8EF}
Performance Information and Tools	Microsoft.PerformanceInformationAndTools	{78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC}
Personalization	Microsoft.Personalization	{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}
Phone and Modem	Microsoft.PhoneAndModem (Windows 7 and later only)	{40419485-C444-4567-851A-2DD7BFA1684D}
Power Options	Microsoft.PowerOptions	{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}
Programs and Features	Microsoft.ProgramsAndFeatures	{7b81be6a-ce2b-4676-a29e-eb907a5126c5}
Recovery	Microsoft.Recovery (Windows 7 and later only)	{9FE63AFD-59CF-4419-9775-ABCC3849F861}
Region and Language	Microsoft.RegionAndLanguage (Windows 7 and later only)	{62D8ED13-C9D0-4CE8-A914-47DD628FB1B0}
RemoteApp and Desktop Connections	Microsoft.RemoteAppAndDesktopConnections (Windows 7 and later only)	{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B}
Scanners and Cameras	Microsoft.ScannersAndCameras	{00f2886f-cd64-4fc9-8ec5-30ef6cdbe8c3}
Sound	Microsoft.Sound (Windows 7 and later only)	{F2DDFC82-8F12-4CDD-B7DC-D4FE1425AA4D}
Speech Recognition	Microsoft.SpeechRecognition (Windows 7 and later only)	{58E3C745-D971-4081-9034-86E34B30836A}
Sync Center	Microsoft.SyncCenter	{9C73F5E5-7AE7-4E32-A8E8-8D23B85255BF}
System	Microsoft.System	{BB06C0E4-D293-4f75-8A90-CB05B6477EEE}
Tablet PC Settings	Microsoft.TabletPCSettings	{80F3F1D5-FECA-45F3-BC32-752C152E456E}
Taskbar and Start Menu	Microsoft.TaskbarAndStartMenu	{0DF44EAA-FF21-4412-828E-260A8728E7F1}
Text to Speech	Microsoft.TextToSpeech	{D17D1D6D-CC3F-4815-8FE3-607E7D5D10B3}
Troubleshooting	Microsoft.Troubleshooting (Windows 7 and later only)	{C58C4893-3BE0-4B45-ABB5-A63E4B8C8651}
User Accounts	Microsoft.UserAccounts	{60632754-c523-4b62-b45c-4172da012619}
Windows Anytime Upgrade	Microsoft.WindowsAnytimeUpgrade	{BE122A0E-4503-11DA-8BDE-F66BAD1E3F3A}
Windows CardSpace	Microsoft.CardSpace	{78CB147A-98EA-4AA6-B0DF-C8681F69341C}
Windows Defender	Microsoft.WindowsDefender	{D8559EB9-20C0-410E-BEDA-7ED416AECC2A}
Windows Firewall	Microsoft.WindowsFirewall	{4026492F-2F69-46B8-B9BF-5654FC07E423}
Windows Mobility Center	Microsoft.MobilityCenter	{5ea4f148-308c-46d7-98a9-49041b1dd468}
Windows SideShow	Microsoft.WindowsSideShow	{E95A4861-D57A-4be1-AD0F-35267E261739}
Windows Update	Microsoft.WindowsUpdate	{36eef7db-88ad-4e81-ad49-0e313f0c35f8}

The following are canonical names for Control Panel items found in Windows Vista that have been renamed or removed as of Windows 7. For compatibility with Windows Vista, all of these names are valid on Windows 7, but the experience can be different:

Control Panel Item	Canonical name	GUID	Notes
Add Hardware	Microsoft.AddHardware	{7A979262-40CE-46ff-AEEE-7884AC3B6136}	Maps to Microsoft.DevicesAndPrinters
Sound	Microsoft.AudioDevicesAndSoundThemes	{F2DDFC82-8F12-4CDD-B7DC-D4FE1425AA4D}	Now Microsoft.Sound
Backup and Restore Center	Microsoft.BackupAndRestoreCenter	{B98A2BEA-7D42-4558-8BD1-832F41BAC6FD}	Now Microsoft.BackupAndRestore
Windows Marketplace	Microsoft.GetProgramsOnline	{3e7efb4c-faf1-453d-89eb-56026875ef90}	Removed
Infrared	Microsoft.InfraredOptions	{A0275511-0E86-4ECA-97C2-ECD8F1221D08}	Now Microsoft.Infrared.
Pen and Input Devices	Microsoft.PenAndInputDevices	{F82DF8F7-8B9F-442E-A48C-818EA735FF9B}	Now Microsoft.PenAndTouch
Phone and Modem	Microsoft.PhoneAndModemOptions	{40419485-C444-4567-851A-2DD7BFA1684D}	Now Microsoft.PhoneAndModem
Printers	Microsoft.Printers	{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}	Maps to Microsoft.DevicesAndPrinters
Problem Reports and Solutions	Microsoft.ProblemReportsAndSolutions	{FCFEECAE-EE1B-4849-AE50-685DCF7717EC}	Maps to Microsoft.ActionCenter
Regional and Language Options	Microsoft.RegionalAndLanguageOptions	{62D8ED13-C9D0-4CE8-A914-47DD628FB1B0}	Now Microsoft.RegionAndLanguage
Windows Security Center	Microsoft.SecurityCenter	{087DA31B-0DD3-4537-8E23-64A18591F88B}	Maps to Microsoft.ActionCenter
Speech Recognition Options	Microsoft.SpeechRecognitionOptions	{58E3C745-D971-4081-9034-86E34B30836A}	Now Microsoft.SpeechRecognition
Welcome Center	Microsoft.WelcomeCenter	{CB1B7F8C-C50A-4176-B604-9E24DEE8D4D1}	Now Microsoft.GettingStarted
Windows Sidebar Properties	Microsoft.WindowsSidebarProperties	{37efd44d-ef8d-41b1-940d-96973a50e9e0}	Now Microsoft.DesktopGadgets