Beyond Windows 7 “GodMode” – 94 More Secret Windows Shortcuts Unveiled

We posted about a small utility “God Mode Creator” before. If you liked the “God Mode” concept then you will surely like this. Ed Bott has uncovered a list of 94 secret Windows 7 shortcuts which are not documented by Microsoft. The list includes the following type of shortcuts: folders from current user profiles, other interesting per-user folders, virtual folders and Control Panel shortcuts, system and per-machine folders. You can head over to the article for the complete list and information by clicking here.

These new shortcuts involve the shell command, which is undocumented in the Windows 7 Help files or on Microsoft’s web site. The idea is to give Windows programs and users access to common locations using the Windows shell, i.e, Windows Explorer. The syntax is very simple – type shell, followed by a colon and the name of the shell folder location. For instance, the shell shortcut for your profile folder is shell:Profile. Even though these commands are not case-sensitive, they will not work in-case of a typo. You can use these shortcuts from the Run + dialog box.

Below are the shortcuts as found by Ed Bott and posted in his article:

Note: Many, but not all, of these shortcuts work with Windows Vista, and a some work with Windows XP too.

Folders from Current User Profile

shell:Profile
User Profile folder of logged-on user

shell:UsersFilesFolder
Same as shell:profile

shell:Personal
Documents folder from profile of logged-on user

shell:My Music
Music folder from profile of logged-on user

shell:My Pictures
Pictures folder from profile of logged-on user

shell:My Video
Videos folder from profile of logged-on user

shell:Contacts
Contacts folder from profile of logged-on user (deprecated)

shell:Desktop
Desktop folder from profile of logged-on user

shell:Downloads
Downloads folder from profile of logged-on user

shell:Favorites
Internet Explorer Favorites folder from profile of logged-on user

shell:Searches
Searches folder from profile of logged-on user; contains saved searches

shell:Links
Links folder from profile of logged-on user; contains shortcuts from Favorites node in Windows Explorer navigation pane

Folders from Public User Profile

shell:Public
Public User Profile folder

shell:Common Desktop
PublicDesktop folder

shell:Common Documents
PublicDocuments folder

shell:CommonDownloads
PublicDownloads folder

shell:CommonMusic
PublicMusic folder

shell:CommonPictures
PublicPictures folder

shell:CommonVideo
PublicVideos folder

shell:SampleMusic
Sample Music folder (by default in PublicMusic folder)

shell:SamplePictures
Sample Pictures folder (by default in PublicPictures folder)

shell:SampleVideos
Sample Videos folder (by default in PublicVideos folder)