Show hidden folders in 7. How to set the visibility of hidden files and folders in Windows
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 versions of Windows. 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 for viewing.
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:
- By changing the Folder Options settings.
- Through Explorer, “Arrange” tab.
- Through Explorer, “Service” menu.
All methods lead to one menu with settings for folder attributes.
Another way is to use 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, find “View”, check to show 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 system folders with the “!” sign are not displayed in red in the directory, 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.
Commander provides such a useful feature as 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, 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, use command line. Administrator rights are required.
- Win + R bring up the line, enter the cmd command to open the console.
- 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, the 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 camouflaged with the attributes of system Windows files. If they got into hard drive, 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.
We consider ways to enable display of system hidden folders and files, how to return the hidden attribute, and how to correctly make changes to the registry after a 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
These are folders that have the Hidden attribute set. Typically, folders with this attribute are not displayed in Explorer. In order for hidden folders to start being displayed, you need to make changes to the settings operating system. In this material you will learn how to show hidden folders in Windows 7.
In order to force the Windows 7 operating system to show hidden folders, we need to open any folder and press the ALT button on the keyboard.
After pressing the ALT key, a series of drop-down menus will appear below the address bar: File, Edit, View, Tools and Help. Here we need to open the “Tools” drop-down menu and select “Folder Options”.
After this, a small window called “Folder Options” will open in front of you. In this window you can configure all the basic parameters that relate to the display of folders, files and drives in Windows Explorer 7.
It should be noted that if you are unable to open the “Folder Options” window through the drop-down menu, then you can use the search in. To do this, open the Start menu and type “Folder Options.” After this, the Windows 7 operating system will find the desired program and will offer to open it.
So, you have opened the “Folder Options” window, in order to show hidden folders in Windows 7 you need to go to the “View” tab and find the options that are responsible for displaying hidden folders.
You need two parameters:
- "Hide protected system files» – it needs to be disabled;
- “Show hidden files, folders and drives” – you need to enable it.
After making changes, close the window by clicking on the “OK” button to save the changes. After this, you will be able to see hidden folders and files. Now, if there is such a need, you can remove the “Hidden” attribute and the folder will become normal. To do this, right-click on the folder and select “Properties”. After that, disable the “Hidden” function and close the window.
In the Windows operating system there is such a thing as “ Hidden file"and now we will find out what it is, why hidden files are needed, how to create them, and also how you can display or show these same hidden files.
So, let's get started, the only thing I want to say right away is that when I create and display hidden files, as an example, I will have the version Windows 7, in other versions, for example, in Windows 8, this process is almost the same.
What is a hidden file in Windows?
Hidden file– this is a regular file, but it is not displayed. Hidden files can be displayed and also made normal, i.e. not hidden. In other words, hidden files are files that are marked as hidden. Hidden files, just like regular ones, take up space on your hard drive, so you shouldn’t hope that by hiding files you will free up disk space.
What are hidden files for in Windows?
Hidden files in the Windows operating system are mainly needed to make it possible not to display rarely used files. Those. for example, you have files that you rarely use ( but sometimes you use it), while they are displayed and take up space on the screen, thereby making it difficult to visually search for the file or folder you need at one time or another.
You can also use the ability to hide files to avoid showing any confidential information to other computer users, but this, as you understand, is unreliable, since another user can, just like you, display these files and view them. But in cases where you want some files and folders simply not to be seen by other users, then, of course, you can use the ability to hide files.
Hidden files are also used by the Windows system itself to hide from the user some system files that users do not need and are better off not seeing.
How to create a hidden file in Windows 7?
In Windows, you can hide both files and folders, so we will learn how to hide both files and folders.
To create a hidden file, right-click on the required file and select " Properties»
The window “ File properties", where we mark the attribute " Hidden" and click " Apply»
After that this file will be hidden.
In order to hide a folder, we also right-click, but on the folder and select “ Properties" Then we also mark the attribute “ Hidden" and click " Apply»
Then you need to confirm your action, and we can specify that this attribute will be applied to all attached files and folders or only to this folder. Click " OK»
If later you need to make these files or folders back to normal, i.e. not hidden, then the procedure is exactly the same, but with one difference: a tick next to the attribute “ Hidden"will need to be removed ( and not put). First, of course, you need to display these hidden files in order to go into their properties, and I will now show you how this is done.
How to show hidden files in Windows 7?
In order to display hidden files, open " Control Panel" It can be opened from the desktop
If the control panel icon is not displayed on your desktop, you can read the material “ How to display Computer, Control Panel, Recycle Bin icons on desktop in Windows?" in which I tell you how to display this and other icons or you can use the menu " Start", where there is also a shortcut to launch the Control Panel.
After you have opened the control panel, look for the item " Folder Options"or if you have everything grouped into categories in your control panel, then select " Design and personalization", and then click on the item " Folder Options»
Note! You can also click “Show hidden files and folders” to go directly to the desired tab.
The window “ Folder Options", where we need to go to the tab " View" and in the section " Additional options » find item « Show hidden files, folders and drives", mark it and press the button " Apply" To close the window, click " OK»
Note! In order not to show hidden files, you must select “Do not show hidden files, folders and drives” in the same window..
Now we check, our hidden files are now displayed, their icons, compared to regular files, are a little lighter.
That's all, good luck!
Hidden files and folders in Windows 10 are used by the system and programs to hide them so that the user does not delete them by mistake. Hidden folders are hidden specifically from users, as they are important in the system, and deleting them can lead to incorrect Windows work 10 or a specific application. Sometimes there are exceptions to the rules. Knowing how to enable hidden folders in Windows 10 can help you troubleshoot problems and other problems that may occur on your system. Sometimes you need to show hidden folders to clean " Temp"and all sorts of temporary files that get clogged up on the system drive. Remember! In Windows 10, there are two types of hidden folders - system folders and protected system system files, which can be displayed differently. Let's look at how to show hidden folders in Windows 10.
How to show hidden folders and files in windows 10
Method 1. This is the most quick way to show hidden systemic file folders in Windows 10. It won't show you protected system files and folders (see method 2). Open Explorer, aka " This computer". Click the " tab View"and check the box" Hidden elements". If you don't have the "View" tab, then stretch the window wider and it will appear.
Method 2. If you need to show protected system folders and files in Windows 10 that will not appear when using method 1, then we will figure out how to show them. press a combination of buttons Win+R and enter control.exe folders to open folder properties. go to the "tab" View" and find two items:
- Hide protected system files (recommended). - Uncheck the box to show folders.
- Show hidden files, folders and drives. - Set the value.
In this article I would like to show you how to see hidden files and folders in Windows 7. In Windows this function disabled by default. The fact is that users can unintentionally change the contents of a file or even delete something that is hidden and allows the OS to work, as a result of which the functionality of Windows can be disrupted.
For system security purposes, this is useful, but this function is used by attackers to write malware, harming your computer and preventing them from being detected. But we will talk about this a little later. From this we can draw a small conclusion that the visibility of hidden files and folders has its advantages. Moreover, if you have your hidden folder on your computer, you need to learn how to enable hidden folders.
There are several ways to get to the folder settings where you can enable hidden files and folders in Windows 7, let's look at them.
Enable hidden packages via my computer
Opening My computer, click on the drop-down menu Organize > Folder and Search Options
In the open My Computer window, press the Alt key and choose from context menu Service and onwards Folder Options
In the Folder Options window that opens select View, from the list of Additional parameters, go down the list, look for Hidden files and folders, put a tick on the item Show hidden files, folders and drives and click OK.
Folder settings via control panel
Click Start > Control Panel, further select Design and personalization, next select Show hidden files and folders
The Folder Options window will open, in this window you also need to go down to the bottom of the list, find hidden files and folders, and check the box next to the item Show hidden files, folders and drives and press OK.
Having completed these manipulations, hidden files and folders will be displayed on your computer.
show system files in windows 7
In order to show system files, you need to uncheck the box next to the item in the folder options window Hide protected system files (recommended).
WARNING: For stable operation of the operating room windows systems 7 It makes sense to uncheck this box only for experienced users. Otherwise, you risk disrupting performance by inadvertently deleting system files or system folders.
