Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 4th Jan 2010 23:22 UTC
God mode. A term usually reserved for games of all shapes and sizes, with the coolest being Rise Of The Triad's god mode, it has now found its way to the world of operating systems. Someone has discovered that Windows 7 has a god mode - but it's not what you think it is.
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Some quick googling and I found a reference from october 2008: http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=681126
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Who came up with this term?
I can't see anything "GodMode" about it - it's just a special Virtual Shell Folder... read up on the windows shell namespace
I can't see anything "GodMode" about it - it's just a special Virtual Shell Folder... read up on the windows shell namespace
It's a fairly common term (or at least was) in gaming.
I remember it being used frequently in FPSs like Doom where by entering a cheat code would render you invincible to enemy attack (hence the "God" bit).
I agree with you that it's a highly inappropriate term for this usage and that there's nothing new, unusual nor "god" like about virtual shell folders (I remember using them on Windows 95 at college as a way of hiding naughty files from network admins that feared the command line)
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This has been a feature since Win95. Random name.{guid of shell namespace provider} will give you a folder with that namespace. There are many such providers in the system. For example, you could create "Bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}", which is a new recycle bin.
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RE[2]: Godmode? Swweeet!
by turrini on Tue 5th Jan 2010 11:07 UTC
in reply to "RE: Godmode? Swweeet!"
RE[3]: Godmode? Swweeet!
by rockwell on Thu 7th Jan 2010 15:07 UTC
in reply to "RE[2]: Godmode? Swweeet!"
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RE[4]: Godmode? Swweeet!
by turrini on Sat 9th Jan 2010 22:25 UTC
in reply to "RE[3]: Godmode? Swweeet!"
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So you can finally have on Windows something like /etc on Unix? Cool. 
Ignoring, for one moment, the fact that you're trolling: this behaves *nothing* like /etc
1/ you can't add / remove items from the shell folder like you would with normal windows/*nix folders
2/ it is useless in the command line beyond hiding files from users who can't use the command line
3/ because of #2, you can't write scripts to change the settings via the virtual shell folders (though many/most of the settings should be scriptable directly).
If you want to draw comparisons between this and *nix, then this is more like an application short cut to a GTK+/QT GUI with system settings than a symlink to a folder.
RE[2]: Sounds familiar
by Bending Unit on Tue 5th Jan 2010 13:58 UTC
in reply to "RE: Sounds familiar"
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RE[3]: Sounds familiar
by Laurence on Tue 5th Jan 2010 17:27 UTC
in reply to "RE[2]: Sounds familiar"
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Okay, next time I'll try to be funny I'll remeber to include a bold disclaimer, so that nobody feels offended. Anyway, thanks for the explanation.
I wasn't offended (I don't even like Windows).
The problem with trolls are they use "humour" to convey their point. So it's sometimes hard to tell those that are genuinely being humorous and friendly from those that are trying to provoke a reaction.
On this instance, I misjudged the post
RE[4]: Sounds familiar
by josephsmith on Wed 6th Jan 2010 04:56 UTC
in reply to "RE[3]: Sounds familiar"
RE[5]: Sounds familiar
by Laurence on Wed 6th Jan 2010 10:06 UTC
in reply to "RE[4]: Sounds familiar"
Member since:2007-03-26
Laurence: you are the one who needs to stop TROLLING, you p.o.s troll. Worthless ignorant annoying morons like you are the reason that I stopped posting on any internet forums for several years. Discussions on the internet always end with someone calling someone else a nazi, troll or anti-semite. Anyone who says or does something someone else does not like, is accused of trolling. This ugly habit is getting extremely annoying and is making internet forums unbearable. There is no freedom of speech or opinion on the interwebz. If someone does not like the color of your shirt, you are instantly labeled a troll.
Laurence = troll
Laurence = troll
Excuse me?
I've already appolagised for misjudging the post and even when I incorrectly assumed the original comment to be trolling I still replied in an informative, unbiased and mature fasion.
Thus so far the ONLY person here that's been arsy is yourself.
The irony is, if you've ever followed my posts, then you'd realise that I've tried to remain as unbiased as possible (defending any one or product that I felt was unfairly / inaccurately criticized even if I can't stand said corporation / product myself).
So you're now doing exactly what you've kicked off about hating about Internet discussions.
....in fact, I don't know why I even bothering with you in this stupid off topic arguement
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Oh no, another back-door into Windows?
Whereas I usually enjoyed the hidden pearls such as credits and/or photos of the developers and other cuties, these were usually entered via specific key strokes on a keyboard.
I don't desire to sound paranoid yet I wonder how much this one is exploitable as a back-door into the core of Windows 7?
Any access to system settings - especially just via the creation of a folder with a specific name such as in this case - could potentially be exploited for not-so-nice purposes by any application (local or remote) which can create this folder.
I'm not a deep explorer of operating system features or security weaknesses, yet there are two questions lingering in my mind:
-Are there other similarly defined folders giving even more access to the system settings?
-Is this something which is part of "MinWin" and will remain forever in all derivatives of Windows 7?
Any other I miss?
RE: Is this exploitable as a back-door?
by malxau on Wed 6th Jan 2010 03:23 UTC
in reply to "Is this exploitable as a back-door?"
Member since:2005-12-04
Oh no, another back-door into Windows?
This UI allows you to change settings that your logged on user credentials give you access to change. No elevation of privilege here. Anything you can do here you can do directly (eg. regedit et al.)
-Are there other similarly defined folders giving even more access to the system settings?
Possibly, but you'd still need to have permission to do anything with them. OS security is not defined by explorer-level dialogs. It's defined by permissions on files and registry entries.
-Is this something which is part of "MinWin" and will remain forever in all derivatives of Windows 7?
MinWin doesn't include a GUI, or explorer, or any shell namespace functionality. So no, MinWin does not contain anything close to this.
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