Windows 7 Tip of the Week - God Mode
Tip date: August 7, 2010
Tipster: Mehul Patel
Months ago, reports far and wide lauded a "secret" Windows 7 God Mode that would grant you access to hidden OS features using, literally, a secret code. The truth is, Windows 7 God Mode is nothing of the kind, neither god-like nor a mode. So I resisted writing much about it, until recently I began getting a second round of emails about this trick. And now that the dust has settled, looking at it again, I can see the attraction.
What God Mode really is, is a way to access every single Control Panel feature via simpler-to-read list. Critics have poo-poo'd God Mode because there's nothing new in there, and because it's supposedly simpler to type key words into Start Menu Search than it is to scan a long list. That is incorrect. The beauty of God Mode, ultimately, is that it presents its capabilities in list form. And if you don't know what to search for, Start Menu Search is useless.
So God Mode really is an excellent Windows 7 secret, because it reveals a long list of features you may never have otherwise discovered. In this way, it works a bit like the Office 2007/2010 ribbon in that it doesn't necessarily offer anything new, but it does surface features you probably would never have otherwise found.
