4 ms·

Sounds kind of like what Control Panel used to be.

WorldMaker 8y ago
That's basically all this is. It's the GUID of a Shell Object root that is the parent or grandparent of a lot of things like the old Control Panel applets, many of the MMC snap-ins, and related other junk. It's also why this million year old "trick" (you'll find mentions of "GodMode folder" going back decades across nearly every Windows Version) is increasingly obsolete and useless. Windows 10 even helpfully labels a bunch of that stuff as "Windows 7" as a reminder it is the old/obsolete way to do a thing. The modern Setting app isn't hacked into the Shell Object space so doesn't let you do hacks with folders named with Shell Object GUIDs. Though if you do want to deep link into the Windows 10 Settings, it does allow deep linking through ms-settings URLs, and those are actually easier to memorize if you wanted than random GUIDs, and should work most places you can launch web URLs on Windows. For instance: ms-settings:colors
- RouterRooter 8y ago
  >Though if you do want to deep link into the Windows 10 Settings, it does allow deep linking through ms-settings URLs,< so would this be why Microsoft is very interested in having port 80 open for business? [aside from using 80 for updates]
  - naniwaduni 8y ago
    URLs have nothing to do with port 80.
    - RouterRooter 8y ago
      so this is not like the URL that would be typed into a browser? like this sort of thing: https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/URL.html https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/URL.html
      - naniwaduni 8y ago
        This is a URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18995045 We'd look for it on port 443, not 80. This is also a URL: mailto:example@example.org?subject=This%20is%20an%20example&body=This%20is%20a%20continuation%20of%20the%20example. There are a bunch of ports that might be used in the course of handling it, but most of them aren't port 80. URLs are a quite general concept that don't necessarily even require networking: data:text/plain;base64,SGVsbG8sIFdvcmxkIQ
        RouterRooter 8y ago
        yess port 443 for a https address, and port 80 for an http address. The impression i immediately had was that windows 10 system settings of an individual machine could be reached, across the web , using a URL just like any webbrowser and server normally would operate.
        WorldMaker 8y ago
        These URLs use a custom protocol handler that is only registered on that machine and is never exposed externally. It's the same technique that is used in every operating system these days to handle application-specific URLs, such as the exact same way that most iOS and Android apps launch each other. There's no "server", it's just Windows looking up "Does any application handle `ms-settings:`? Oh yes, this one is registered to do that." and then passing on whatever information was provided after the colon to that app's startup handler. URLs are the modern CLI. It's not a secret.
RouterRooter 8y ago
I think of it as a way to collect all possible settings into one place, so you wont have to click around so much. It is ancient in practice but i think its handy to have as long as you know what each setting actually does or does not.

That's basically all this is. It's the GUID of a Shell Object root that is the parent or grandparent of a lot of things like the old Control Panel applets, many of the MMC snap-ins, and related other junk. It's also why this million year old "trick" (you'll find mentions of "GodMode folder" going back decades across nearly every Windows Version) is increasingly obsolete and useless. Windows 10 even helpfully labels a bunch of that stuff as "Windows 7" as a reminder it is the old/obsolete way to do a thing. The modern Setting app isn't hacked into the Shell Object space so doesn't let you do hacks with folders named with Shell Object GUIDs. Though if you do want to deep link into the Windows 10 Settings, it does allow deep linking through ms-settings URLs, and those are actually easier to memorize if you wanted than random GUIDs, and should work most places you can launch web URLs on Windows. For instance: ms-settings:colors

RouterRooter 8y ago
>Though if you do want to deep link into the Windows 10 Settings, it does allow deep linking through ms-settings URLs,< so would this be why Microsoft is very interested in having port 80 open for business? [aside from using 80 for updates]
- naniwaduni 8y ago
  URLs have nothing to do with port 80.
  - RouterRooter 8y ago
    so this is not like the URL that would be typed into a browser? like this sort of thing: https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/URL.html https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/URL.html
    - naniwaduni 8y ago
      This is a URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18995045 We'd look for it on port 443, not 80. This is also a URL: mailto:example@example.org?subject=This%20is%20an%20example&body=This%20is%20a%20continuation%20of%20the%20example. There are a bunch of ports that might be used in the course of handling it, but most of them aren't port 80. URLs are a quite general concept that don't necessarily even require networking: data:text/plain;base64,SGVsbG8sIFdvcmxkIQ
      - RouterRooter 8y ago
        yess port 443 for a https address, and port 80 for an http address. The impression i immediately had was that windows 10 system settings of an individual machine could be reached, across the web , using a URL just like any webbrowser and server normally would operate.
        WorldMaker 8y ago
        These URLs use a custom protocol handler that is only registered on that machine and is never exposed externally. It's the same technique that is used in every operating system these days to handle application-specific URLs, such as the exact same way that most iOS and Android apps launch each other. There's no "server", it's just Windows looking up "Does any application handle `ms-settings:`? Oh yes, this one is registered to do that." and then passing on whatever information was provided after the colon to that app's startup handler. URLs are the modern CLI. It's not a secret.

RouterRooter 8y ago

I think of it as a way to collect all possible settings into one place, so you wont have to click around so much. It is ancient in practice but i think its handy to have as long as you know what each setting actually does or does not.