Hidden system documents mean those directories that are not displayed when the computer is running. The purpose of such “secrecy” is to preserve elements important for work that can be accidentally deleted by the user.

This material will talk about how hidden folders make visible. The methods will be described for versions 7 and 10 of the Windows operating system.

Types

In this operating system There are two categories of hidden documentation:

• Just hidden elements. Their attribute is set to "Hidden". In this way, you can hide any elements yourself by changing the state in the properties.

Attention! But sometimes, folders and documents containing viruses can be hidden in this way!

• System folders and files. Their properties have the S attribute. This means that they are system elements and their deletion or modification may lead to an error in the operation of the computer. You can only display their contents using the following options.

How to perform the procedure on Windows 7

This type of operating system is quite popular compared to others. Therefore, it would be logical to start with it. So, how can you make hidden folders visible?

• Go to the Start panel and launch File Explorer. Two standard lists will appear.
• You need to activate the “Control Panel” line.
• Go to the subsection called “Design and Personalization”.

Attention! To make the search convenient, you need to set the sections to be displayed by category.

• After going inside the personalization settings system, you need to find a paragraph named “Folder Options”.
• Activate the option to show hidden system elements. Before you can make hidden folders visible, you need to change a couple of important details.
• After clicking on the line to display hidden elements, the settings window will open. It will be called "Folder Options".
• Now you need to move to the subsection called “View” and in the line about hidden files and folders, allow them to be displayed.

Additional method

Another much simpler option on how to make hidden folders visible in the Windows 7 operating system:

• Open any directory.
• At the top of the window, activate the section called “Arrange”.
• Select the line “Folder and Search Options”.
• As soon as a new window appears, launch the “View” subsection and activate the “Apply to folders” line. Thus, hidden directories can be made visible both in this section and in all others.

How to show hidden folders on Windows 10

Quite a simple way. Allows you to display only part of the hidden documentation.

• You need to launch Explorer through the Start panel.
• Next, you need to go to any directory and activate the “View” tab, on the top line under the window name.

• In the subsection that opens, place a marker in the field next to the “Hidden elements” function.

Additional method

This paragraph will tell you how to make hidden folders visible through the options in Explorer.

• First you need to open the search bar. This is done using the keyboard shortcut Win + Q.

• In the window that appears, you need to enter “Explorer Options”.
• After going to this section, you need to open a tab called “View”.
• Mark the line that allows display of hidden elements.

• It is also recommended to allow the display of system directories. To do this, you need to remove the marker before the line responsible for hiding system documentation.
• In the warning that appears, you must confirm your choice.

How to get a hidden folder back

In the event that the folder was hidden by the user and its location was lost, you must:

• Open a window with the directory in which the document is located.
• In the top line, activate the “Arrange” section. In the context menu that appears, click on “Search Options”.
• As soon as the window appears, switch to the tab called “View”. Activate the line to show hidden files and folders.
• Apply changes.

Results

As you may have noticed, displaying hidden files and hiding your own documents in the same way is quite simple. The given algorithms will help not only to find any important components of the system, but also to hide your own documents from unauthorized users.

Let's start with the fact that hidden files and folders in Windows 7 became so without the malicious intent of Windows developers. Vice versa. This is done to protect important information from accidental deletion. The data protection rule dates back to the earliest Windows versions. Another reason for hiding folders is to avoid cluttering your desktop with unnecessary information in daily use.

Important! By assigning the hidden flag to regular folders, the user makes them invisible to view.

Display using built-in win 7 tools

Let's figure out how to show hidden files and windows folders 7 built-in OS tools. There are three ways:

1. By changing the Folder Options settings.
2. Through Explorer, “Arrange” tab.
3. Through Explorer, “Service” menu.

All methods lead to one menu with settings for folder attributes.

Another method involves using third-party programs, for example, Total Commander. We'll look at this below.

Let's start with the first method

Go to Control Panel and open Folder Options.

Click on the tab and a folder management menu will open. Open the “View” tab, scroll to the end, until you set the display of hidden folders. Select "Display...". Click OK to close.

Folders opened this way will appear translucent in Explorer.

Let's move on to the second method

Open Explorer, click on “Arrange”, select the “Folder and Search Options” tab. Click on it, the same folder settings menu will open.

We perform the same manipulations on the “View” tab as in the first method, click OK.

Third way

In Explorer, select, for example, drive C, click on “Tools” -> “Folder Options”.

In the window we find “View”, check the display of hidden folders and files, as was done in the previous methods. Click OK.

How to show hidden windows 7 files and folders in Windows Commander

Download Commander from a reliable torrent storage and launch it. If the directory does not display system folders in red with a “!” sign, then the display option is disabled.

How to enable it

Open the “Configuration” toolbar, we need the settings tab.

Here you need to open the “Panel Contents” menu, checking the option to show hidden and system files, “Apply”, OK.

From now on, the hidden folder can be seen with all its contents.

The commander gives this useful feature, like changing a folder attribute. That is, we even turn the system directory into a regular one. Open the “Files” menu and select “Change Attributes”.

A window will appear where you need to select the “Load from file under the cursor” option, then uncheck the “System” and “Hidden” attributes. Next, we note, as shown in the screenshot, the processing of directory contents. After this change, folders, subfolders, and files will be affected. Click OK.

The same procedure is done in the Windows environment. To do this, open Explorer and select the desired folder, right-click to open Properties. Click on them; by default, a window with the “General” menu will open. Uncheck the “Hidden” property, click “Apply”, OK.

This folder will become normal. To return the hidden attributes, you just need to check the appropriate box.

Important! When changing an attribute in Seven, only the directory is visible, without displaying the contents.

How to make a folder visible via the command line

To finish what we started and open the contents of such a folder, we will use the command line. Administrator rights are required.

1. Win + R bring up the line, enter cmd command to call the console.
2. Next, enter the command attrib -s -h с:* /s /d, where instead of с: indicate the path to the folder or disk. The remaining command parameters remove the hidden and system attribute, start processing files, and allow display of processed folders.

The command takes some time to complete. When it completes, system and previously hidden folders can be seen in Explorer.

How to open hidden files on a flash drive

Working with a flash drive in the Windows 7 environment is no different from working with a disk. Therefore, to open hidden files, it is enough to use all three methods of the built-in Windows tools described at the beginning of the article, including Total Commander.

Important! When starting a flash drive, do not forget to scan the flash drive for viruses

How to show hidden folders through the registry

We must immediately warn you that the built-in Windows tools are sufficient for manipulating folder attributes. Tampering with the registry can end disastrously for an inexperienced user. If the risks are taken into account and the actions are thought out, we proceed.

We do it as shown in the screenshot:

The best thing to do is reboot your computer.

What to do if there is no Folder Options menu in Explorer

This is a clear sign that your computer is infected with viruses. Viruses are often disguised as attributes of Windows system files. If they got into HDD, then, most likely, the antivirus could not cope with them, so disabling folder properties is a direct influence of malicious code.

How to restore access? It’s sad that even after cleaning your computer from viruses, hiding folder settings remains.

We carry out the restoration as shown in the screenshot:

This parameter is forced by the virus, which is why the folder properties are hidden and inaccessible.

Considered ways to enable display of system hidden folders and files, how to return the hidden attribute, how to correctly make changes to the registry after virus attack. What can be done with the capabilities of Total Commander in this regard. We warn once again against interfering with the registry if you are not confident in your abilities. In case of erroneous entries, this may lead to reinstallation of the OS

Greetings, friends. Right here and now we will figure out how to hide a folder in Windows. And here it doesn’t matter at all what kind of system you have installed, be it XP, 7, 8, or even Vista, there is absolutely no difference. We won’t delve into why you need this, whether you want to hide a folder on your desktop or some specific files, but let’s get straight to the point. And we will have three ways to do this. Let's go from simple to complex. I’ll say right away that we don’t need any program for this; we’ll do everything with standard Windows tools. If you don't want to read, then go straight to.

Hiding a folder in Windows 7, XP, 8, 10, Vista

By default, on a computer with these systems, some system files are hidden and we can already make any folder or file invisible. To do this, just right-click and select Properties, tick Hidden and click OK. This is what it looks like:
After this, another window will pop up asking whether you want to apply this action only to the folder or to all attached files. Now this document cannot be seen, even after a reboot.

If you want to hide a folder or file for another specific user account, then do a right click, then on the item Safety, select the desired ultrasound unit, click Change and there we already set a ban on performing any actions.

How to show hidden folders in Windows

Let's go to Control Panel - Appearance and Personalization - Folder Options.

Go to the tab View, go down and put the button: Show hidden files, folders and drives.These manipulations will allow us to display what we hid before, that is, return them back to their original appearance, though not exactly what it was, because they will be visually different from all the others, because they have become translucent. And now they can always be distinguished. From Explorer hard drive it looks like this:

The second method of hiding is described in detail in the article:. This method is done using a Bat file and is designed for more experienced users, although they tried to convince me in the comments that any schoolchild could bypass such protection. Well, okay, let's move on. 🙂

Hide a folder via command line

Now before your very eyes we will become advanced users. I recommend clicking Start and in the search bar write: Command line. After it has been found, right click on it with the mouse and select: Run as administrator.The console will open and in it we write: attrib +h “path to folder”. To copy the path to the file, hold down Shift and then Copy as path. The full picture will be like this:

attrib +h "C:\Users\Alexander\Desktop\New folder" - Hide folder

attrib -h "C:\Users\Alexander\Desktop\New folder" - Make visible

Or you can do this:

attrib +h +s "C:\Users\Alexander\Desktop\New folder"

But in this case, removing the Hidden attribute through the control panel will no longer work, since we made the file system. The reverse command will help you return everything back, but instead of a plus, we put a minus in front of h and s.

Additionally

If you want to hide a folder or files on a flash drive or removable hard drive, please understand that this will only be applicable on your PC or laptop. If, when connecting them to another machine, it turns out that the display of hidden files is turned on, then everything will of course be visible. In addition to everything else, there is one more option, but I am not considering it here and do not consider it serious at all. You can see more details about it in this short video. If you liked this material, then the best gratitude for me would be if you share it with your friends on social networks.

Good day! Me Lately People are increasingly asking how you can hide a folder on your computer from children or unwanted eyes, so I decided to write a short article about how to make your folder disappear from view and not provoke anyone to look into it.

Regardless of where it is, and without resorting to third party programs, which we will definitely consider in the future, how to use them, but now about the important things. There are a lot of options for hiding a folder, but we will look at the two simplest methods.

Keep in mind that none of the considered methods for hiding a folder on a computer will hide your data from a user who is good at using a computer.

How to hide a folder on your computer in Windows 7 without resorting to third-party programs.

Using this method, you can hide absolutely any folder, regardless of its location on the computer. We will look at how to hide a folder on the desktop using windows 7.

Step 1. Click right click on the folder that you want to hide from prying eyes, then select Properties

Step 2. On the General tab at the bottom check the Hidden box and press the button OK or Apply and then on OK.

Your folder has all disappeared.

How to hide a folder on your computer in Windows 7 using a life hack

To hide a folder using this method, we also don’t need additional programs, you and I can hide a folder on your computer with the help of a little trick.

So, let's get started.

Step 1. Create a new folder on your desktop, or select your existing folder.

Step 2. Click right click on the newly created folder, select Rename, press on the keyboard Alt key while holding down the Alt key, dial 0160 on additional numeric keypad, release the Alt key and press the Enter key. Our folder name has disappeared, but the folder is still visible. Next, what we need to do with this folder is to change the stash of this folder. Let's move on.

Step 3. Click right click on our untitled folder, then select in the context menu Properties, in the window that opens go to top menu - Settings

Click on the button Change icon. We scroll to the right the shortcuts offered to us, looking for the transparent icon we need, in our case this is an empty area, select it with the left mouse button, then we need click on the OK button, as shown in the figure below.

Users of Windows 7 and other OS editions from Microsoft can set the attributes of any folder, except for some system ones.

What is an attribute

An attribute is metadata describing additional parameters of a file/directory. Compared to other metadata related to folders, the concept of “attribute” does not include the date of creation and modification of the directory, or access rights to it.

For the average user, the presence of such metadata means that he will be able to make directories in Windows invisible in Explorer and file managers, archive and index files located in the directory, as well as compress data to save disk space and encrypt the contents of the directory. From the entire list, we are interested in the ability to hide a folder.

How to assign attributes

IN any Windows, released over the last 15 years, making hidden directories is extremely easy, so any user can handle the task. Let's look at how this is done, in several ways.

Using the proposed method to hide confidential data is unreliable: any user will be able to detect hidden folders and the information they contain. Therefore, the method can only be used to temporarily hide data from those less knowledgeable about the intricacies file system Windows users, for example, very young users.

• Launch Explorer and open the folder or drive where the target directory (which we want to hide) is located.
• With help context menu or the “Alt+Tab” combination, call up its context menu.

• In the window that opens, on the first tab “General” we find the “Attributes” field located at the bottom and check the box next to “Hidden”.

• Click “Apply”.
• When a window appears to confirm the change of attributes, select a satisfying condition and click “OK”.

• We go back to the folder where our hidden object is located, or update the contents of the explorer by clicking F5.

Folders are painted in a less bright color. This symbolizes that everything worked out.

Activate the option to not display hidden directories

To ensure that directories assigned the “Hidden” attribute are not visible in Windows Explorer, you must disable the option to show hidden objects.

• Call up the Explorer window by going to any directory, disk, or launching “My Computer”.
• Call the main menu item called “Arrange”.

If it is not there, press the hardware “Alt” key.

• Activate the “View” tab and move down the list of additional parameters.
• Move the checkbox to the “Do not show...” position so that hidden directories become invisible to the user.

To make Windows start visualizing objects with the “Hidden” attribute again, move the switch to “Show...”.

• Save the new settings for displaying hidden objects by clicking “Apply”.
• We get acquainted with the information in the warning dialog and take note of the information provided.

• Close the settings window.

Working with hidden directories in Total Commander

Using file manager on a computer, as an alternative to a primitive explorer, Total Commander and other analogues also allow you to change the attributes of directories and files located in them.

• Move the cursor to the required directory or select it.
• Call the dialog for changing object attributes in Total Commader.
• Check the “h Hidden” option.

• Click "OK". The catalog display color has changed.

To enable the option of not displaying hidden objects, call “Settings”, located in the “Configuration” item of the main menu.

On the “Panel Contents” tab, deactivate the “Show hidden files” option and save the new configuration.

Working with attributes using command line We will not consider it due to the fact that this method of hiding folders will seem difficult to the vast majority of beginners.

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