Show hidden files in windows 7. How to see hidden folders. How to show hidden folders and files in Windows XP

Beginner users sooner or later have to look for ways to ensure the security of personal data on their computer. In one case, files can be encrypted or packaged in a password-protected archive, while in others you have to hide directories with personal photos and other data in the jungle of the file system or make them invisible in Explorer windows.

When the time comes to access the contents of a hidden directory, the question arises: how to show hidden folders in Windows 7. We hid it, but we don’t know how to show it back. This short but detailed article will answer the question posed.

Hidden folders and files are physically no different from regular ones. The only difference is that the former have the “Hidden” attribute active. It can be assigned to any file system object to which the user has access. Many system directories, for example, are invisible to the user by default in order to protect system files from inexperienced users.

Conductor

The point of any of the methods (except for using third-party software) is to change the value of the system registry key responsible for visualizing hidden folders in Windows 7.

Solving the problem begins by launching Explorer, for example, using the Win + E key combination (the contents of the “My Computer” directory will open).
Click on the “Arrange” button located under the window header.

In the “Tools” drop-down menu, click on the “Folder Options” item.

The same window opens through the main menu of the explorer.

Press the Alt key to display the main menu.
In it, click on the “Service” item.

From the drop-down list, select “Folder Options...”.

Switch to the “View” tab.

Scroll through the list of options in the “Advanced Options” frame.

To return hidden directories, move the switch next to the “Hidden folders and files” option to the second position – “Show hidden files...”.

Click “OK” to save the new Windows graphical shell settings.

Now Explorer will display all file system objects with the “Hidden” attribute, and this does not require a computer restart, or re-authorization in the system, or even a window refresh.

Icons with low brightness and color saturation indicate that files/folders have been assigned the “Hidden” attribute.

You can also get to the settings window, familiar from the previous section, through the control panel.

We launch it in any convenient way.

If its elements are shown as categories, go to the “Design and Personalization” section.

Here we click on “Folder Options”.

In the case where control panel elements are displayed as small or large icons, the Folder Options applet is already in the main window.

By the way, the quickest way to open a window with directory parameter settings is to use the “control folders” command. It should be executed through the search bar or the “Run” window. The key combination Win + R will help you do this.

Registry Editor

You can also change the value of the key that allows you to manage hidden objects manually using the registry editor built into Windows 7. To do this, let's launch it.

Open the “Run” window through Start or with the key combination Win + R.
Enter and execute the “regedit” command.

Administrator privileges are required to perform this operation.

Expand the HKEY_CURREN_USER hive, where all settings related to the current account are stored.

Go to the path: “Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced”.
Call up the context menu of the key with the name “Hidden” and click “Change...”.

1. Enter “1” as the new key value and press Enter or click “OK”.

All that remains is to re-enter the directory where the hidden objects were. You can also update its contents using the F5 key or the button located to the right of the address bar.

Total Commander

Many Windows users prefer the Total Commander file manager to Explorer due to the program’s enormous advantages in convenience and functionality. To enable the function of displaying hidden directories and files, perform the following chain of operations.

From the main menu, call the “Configuration” command.

In the drop-down menu, click on the item “Settings: Panel Contents”.

Activating the “Show hidden folders” option will help you display hidden directories. We mark it with a checkbox and apply the settings.

After saving the settings and closing the configuration window, Total Commander will begin to show hidden folders.

How to hide information

You can hide a folder or file by assigning the corresponding attribute to it/him. This is done as follows.

First you need to open the “Properties” of the object through the context menu or using the keyboard shortcut Alt + Enter.
Check the box next to the “Hidden” option in the “Attributes” frame.

If you clear this checkbox, the hidden file/directory will be displayed in the Explorer window.

Save the new settings by selecting the appropriate options in the warning window.

Regarding removable drives

After removing Win32 viruses that hid all files on the flash drive and replaced them with themselves, you have to change the attributes of all affected objects. A little trick will help you see their list and make them visible for the current media without activating the option to visualize hidden directories and files in Explorer.

Open the contents of the flash drive in Explorer or a file manager, use the right mouse button to call up the context menu of the free area and create a new text file with any name and resolution “bat” (when renaming it, replace “txt” with “bat”).

Through its context menu of the text file, call the “Edit” command.

As a result, the “Hidden” attribute will be removed for all objects located on the flash drive, and they will become visible without changing any settings.

Find hidden files

To find and display directories and files that have the “Hidden” attribute, call the Hidden File Finder program from the SecurityXploded team. It does not change absolutely any system settings. The program will only scan the specified directory or disk, filter all found files and folders by the “Hidden” attribute and display a list of found objects to which it is assigned. If you want to find data hidden by someone (photos, movies and even directories) without changing Windows 7 settings, install and run Hidden File Finder.

In the main window, click on the directory icon with a green arrow and indicate the scanning source.

We are waiting for the procedure to complete. It will be marked by the appearance of an information window, which we close.

The window displays only those file system objects that are assigned the “Hidden” attribute. Moreover, the names of the catalogs are highlighted in blue.

Through the context menu of any object or their group, you can go to the selected directory, open a file, make it visible or delete it.

Choose the method that is most suitable for your case, because none of them is universal.

Video instructions

How to enable display of hidden files?

By default, Windows hides important system files to prevent the user from accidentally deleting them. However, sometimes there is a need to look at them, and in our article we will tell you what should be done in this case.

Windows XP

To enable the display of hidden files in Windows XP, you will need to open the Control Panel. You can find it through the Start menu. In Control Panel, find the Folder Options icon and double-click it. In the dialog box that pops up, you will need the View tab. Find Hidden files and folders in the list of options, check the Show hidden files and folders option, and then click OK.

Windows Vista

To see hidden files and folders in Windows Vista, you will also need to open the Control Panel, but you should look for another section in it - “Appearance and Personalization”. It will contain the already familiar “Folder Options” item. When the window of the same name appears, open the “Show” tab and in the “Advanced options” list, check the “Show hidden files and folders” checkbox. To apply the changes, click OK.

Windows 7

In Windows 7, the procedure and names of the options are almost the same as in Windows Vista. In the Control Panel, go to the “Appearance and Personalization” section, select “Folder Options”, in the pop-up dialog box, open the “View” tab and in the “Advanced options” list, check the “Show hidden files, folders and drives” option. Don't forget to click "OK" to apply the changes.

Windows 8

In Windows 8, viewing invisible files is a little easier. You don’t need to go to the “Control Panel” - just open “Explorer” on any folder. From the top menu bar, select View. When a panel with a set of options opens, find the “Hidden elements” item on it and check the box. There is no need to do anything else.

Finally, we note that not only system files can be hidden. If you wish, you can hide a folder or file yourself to hide them from prying eyes. Read about how to do this in our articles.

Are you interested in the question of how to view hidden files and folders in Windows 7?

If yes, then you are in the right place. In this lesson we will look at how to see everything on your hard drives hidden files and folders inWindows 7. In fact, it is very simple, I have already touched on this topic once, I wrote, . Well, today we will do all this in the Seven.

So, let's go. Enable viewing of hidden files and folders in Windows 7.

Let's go to " Start - Control Panel».

In the folder that opens, change the view type to “Small icons”.

Now we find the item “ Folder Options" and open it.

In the window that opens, go to the “View” tab, then go down to the very bottom and put the switch on the item “ Show hidden files, folders and drives"Then save by clicking "OK".

Now let's check. I go to the drive (C:) and already here I see, Hidden folders are shown.

This is how, with a few clicks, we made hidden folders and files visible in Windows 7. But in general, I recommend enabling this feature only if necessary.

If we have any hidden folder inWindows 7 and we need to access it, we enabled the ability to view hidden files and folders. Once we had done all our work, we immediately turned off this option.

That's all I have!

You may need this to troubleshoot problems with your computer, for example, when removing a virus, traces of malware, or junk from a disk. Most often, when following our instructions, the user needs to see directories such as AppData,ProgramData And GroupPolicy, where malware particles most often settle.

After completing the manipulations for which you needed to show invisible files and directories, it is recommended to hide them out of sight again. Please remember that inept or careless handling of the contents of the system directories mentioned in the article may result in Windows failure or cause the computer to not operate correctly.

Enable showing hidden folders and files in Windows 10

open Explorer (any directory on your computer);
click View in the main menu at the top of the window;
Check the box Hidden elements:

If the window size is smaller, you should look for this checkbox in the group Show or hide:

Enabling showing hidden directories and files in Windows 7

Here's a slightly different procedure:

Don’t forget to return everything the way it was later! Do not leave the conductor like this.

All important system files and directories in Windows 10 are invisible by default - they do not appear in Explorer. This was done primarily for security, so that users do not accidentally delete data necessary for the correct operation of the system. However, sometimes there is a need to access this system data - for this it is useful to know how to open hidden folders in Windows 10.

Just launch and follow the instructions, or do everything manually as described below!

How to open hidden folders in Windows 10

You can show hidden folders in Windows 10 in the Explorer window without having to configure the system through the Control Panel:

You managed to make hidden Windows 10 folders visible, so be careful not to accidentally delete their contents.

How to make a folder invisible

If you need to hide a folder on your desktop, doing so is quite simple:

Right-click on an empty area of the desktop → “Create” → “Folder”.
Click on the folder RMB → “Properties” → “Settings” → “Change icon”:
After completing these steps, the folder icon will become invisible.
Press the combination “Win+R” → enter the command charmap.
Select the empty symbol at the end of the table → copy it.
Right-click on the folder → “Rename” → erase the name → paste the copied symbol.

Now this folder is invisible and cannot be found through a search on the computer. To see it on the desktop, you need to select all the icons using the combination “Ctrl + A”.

Conclusion

Try not to leave the display of hidden folders enabled in Windows 10 - immediately after performing the necessary manipulations with their contents, make the directories invisible again. If you constantly need access to a certain directory, then simply remove the “Hidden” attribute from it.