On the computer. They are there, but they are not visible.
one . Click on a file or folder right click mouse and select "Properties".
2. A window will open. Check the Hidden box and click OK.
The file (folder) will disappear. In fact, it will remain in the computer, we just hide it in this way.
By the way, many users are able to open hidden files and folders. So consider whether something is worth hiding in this way.
How to open (show) hidden files and folders
If there is no such item, then click on the Start button and open the Control Panel. Among the icons, find and open "Folder Options" (Appearance and Personalization → Folder Options).
In Windows 10, you need to click on "View" at the top of the window and select "Options".
Put a dot on the item "Show hidden files, folders and drives" (below) and click "OK".
Files and folders that are hidden will be lighter than regular files and folders.
Regular folder:
How to make a hidden folder normal
- Right-click on the file or folder you want to make normal and select "Properties".
- Uncheck the Hidden box and click OK.
How to disable showing hidden files and folders
Open any folder on your computer. Click on the word "Organize" (at the top of the window) and select "Folder and Search Options".
If there is no such item at the top of the window, click on the Start button and open the Control Panel. Among the icons, find and open "Folder Options" (Appearance and Personalization → Folder Options).
In Windows 10, to do this, click on "View" and select "Options".
A window will open. Click on the "View" tab (top).
Put a dot on the item "Do not show hidden files, folders and drives" (below) and click "OK".
On a note . In Windows 10, you can make it easier: View → Show or hide → Hidden items.
The computer has a lot of hidden files and folders in the Local Disk where the operating system is located (usually it is Local Disk C). This is necessary so that you do not accidentally spoil something.
If you delete any of these files or any folder, even if you just change the name, then the computer may stop working or start to freeze seriously. So be careful with system hidden files and folders!
Sometimes it becomes necessary to protect personal files or folders. This is especially true if more than one person works with the computer. One solution is hiding. Of course, it will not help in the case of experienced user. But it will hide information from unsuspecting eyes.
How to hide/show files and folders on a Windows 7 computer
Standard way
To hide a file or folder, you need to go through two steps in sequence:
Turning off the visibility of hidden folders
If the “Do not show…” option is set in the settings, then hidden files and folders will still be displayed, with the only difference that, compared to a regular element, the label of such objects is dimmer.
Changing Folder/File Options
After these steps, the folder or files will become hidden and will not be displayed.
Enabling visibility and viewing
To show hidden elements, you need to go to the folder settings and check the box next to the item "Show hidden files, folders and drives." And in order for a specific object to stop being invisible, you need to uncheck the “Hidden” option.
How to make a folder invisible - video
Via Total Commander
This method is related to the previous one in that in "Folder Options" there should also be a checkmark in front of the item "Do not show hidden files, folders and drives."
How to view files and make them open
To show hidden files and folders, press Ctrl keys+H.
To make the documents visible again, you need to use the combination Alt + A and uncheck the "Hidden" item.
Via Free Hide Folder
If you want to be sure that no one can see the hidden information, then you can use program Free Hide Folder, which requires you to set a password.
Free Hide Folder does not hide individual files. Available for free download on the Internet.
- When you first start the program, a window will appear in which you need to enter and confirm the password. By the way, it will also be required when uninstalling the program.
- The next window will ask you to enter the registration code, but this is not a prerequisite. To continue working, you need to select Skip.
- Then click on the Add icon and select the folder you want to hide.
- After the folder is selected, a message will appear stating that it is desirable to make a Backup. It is advisable to follow the advice.
Backup saves information about the program. If the latter is deleted, then after reinstallation, access to hidden folders will be restored.
In addition to Add, the general window has buttons for:
How to find hidden information and transfer it to a USB flash drive
Free Hide Folder hides folders so that they cannot be found using search. The only way is to open the program and select the Unhide tool. A special feature is that it does not hide documents that are on removable drives.
Because Windows search cannot detect documents hidden by Free Hide Folder, copying cannot be used. Thus, invisible folders cannot be transferred to removable drives.
With Image and Archiver
For this method, you will need a folder with files, any image and the WinRAR archiver. The program is available for free download on the official website. In this case, the bitness of the processor must be taken into account. To find out, you need:
You can take any image, there are no restrictions.
- Add desired folder to the archive.
- Place the archive and the image in the same folder, preferably located in the root of the disk.
- Using the Win + R combination, launch the Run tool, enter in cmd line and click "OK".
- AT command line go to the folder where the archive and image are located. To do this, enter the cd command and the address. In this case it is cd c:\.
- Then press Enter.
- Now in the line you need to write the names of the image, archive and new file. Also, all three positions must contain extensions. In this case, it turns out: COPY / B Image.jpg + FolderWithFiles.rar ImageWithArchive.jpg.
- Press Enter. If everything was written correctly, a message will appear on the command line that the files have been copied.
If you now open the created file, only the image that was taken as the basis will open.
The original files can be deleted.
How to view hidden files
To be able to view the files hidden in the image, you need to open the illustration itself using WinRAR.
But the archiver must first be added to the list of programs that can open images:
- In the "Open with" menu, click on the "Choose a program" item.
- Click on "Browse" and in the window that opens, find the folder with the archiver.
- Open the folder and select the shortcut to launch the program.
- Next, WinRAR will appear in the list of programs that can open the image. You also need to uncheck the box "Use the selected program for all files of this type." Otherwise, all images will be opened using the archiver.
When the user opens the image with the archiver, it will be seen that there is a folder inside.
But don't hide too much information in one file. If it takes tens of megabytes, even an inexperienced user will have suspicions.
Possible mistakes
How to enable the "Show hidden files and folders" option
Sometimes a situation occurs that the user activates the "Show hidden files and folders" option, but the switch automatically switches to the "Do not show hidden files and folders" position. In this case, you need:
Otherwise, the parameter must be created. To do this, right-click on an empty area of the window, select New, then DWORD Value. Name it CheckedValue and give it a value of 1.
- Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
- Find the Hidden parameter (with value 0), REG_SZ type, in the list and delete it.
- If the list contains the Hidden parameter, REG_DWORD type, then change its value to 1. Otherwise, the parameter must be created.
- Find the SuperHidden parameter in the list, REG_DWORD type, and change its value to 1.
- Press "F5" to refresh the editor window and close it.
What to do if "Folder Options" is missing
This usually indicates that viruses have entered the system. Perhaps the antivirus simply failed to identify and remove malware. And so that the user cannot visually detect them, the authors of such applications use the "Hidden" or "System" attributes. In addition, the menu item "Folder Options" is removed.
Even if the malware is removed, the antivirus will not be able to restore this item. This will need to be done manually:
It is possible that the Registry Editor was not blocked after a virus attack. In this case, you can use it:
- Using Win + R, launch the Run tool, enter regedit in the line and click OK.
- Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
In the right part of the window, find the NoFolderOptions parameter, REG_DWORD type. Double-click to open it and set the value to 0.
Hiding files and folders - simple and fast way protect personal information. Of course, the first two are less reliable, and sophisticated users may accidentally or intentionally discover the secret. But FHF and the archiver will hide personal data even from experienced eyes.
Good time of the day! In continuation of the article on removing the sdata / srtserv virus from a computer. Many people know the problem that after this virus folders on disks (local or removable) are not displayed, as if they were deleted. But at the same time, the volume of the drive remains unchanged (the files are written to the drive but they are not visible). At the same time, the usual windows explorer does not want to cope with this task (I think you understand what I mean). We will consider several ways to return our folders to their place, i.e. they will be visible again.
How to remove a virus from a computer that hides your folders, see the article =>><<=
Method number one: Remove attributes using the command line.
We follow the instructions:
1) Run the command line:
Start - Run - enter: cmd - click "OK";
Press the key combination Win + R;
(Win-key with the image of the Windows logo);
Before us is the command line.
2) In the command line, enter the letter of the drive or USB flash drive (in our case it will be drive Z):
Thus, we go to the root directory of our disk.
attrib -s -h -r -a /s /d *.*
4) Press Enter.
Waiting for the utility to install file attributes. At the end of the operation, the folders and files will become visible.
Method number two: Remove attributes using Total Commander
A very useful file manager with many features.
From the beginning, turn on the display of hidden files and folders in order to see which files we need remove or change attributes.
Configuration -> Panel content.
In this menu sub-item, check the box -> “Show hidden system files”.
These hidden directories are marked exclamation mark, so we mark them.
Now remove attributes:
We follow in:
File -> Change attributes.
And in this menu we remove unnecessary attributes namely hidden and systemic. Don't forget to click "OK".
Method number three: Remove attributes using Far Manager.
This manager is also very convenient, albeit with a less friendly interface. But there is a huge advantage compared to Total Commander, it is free. And so let's look at how to change hidden file attributes using the free Far Manager.
Let's get started:
1) Open the disk we need in Far Manager: press the combination “Alt-F1? ( left panel) or “Alt-F2? (right panel), select the required media.
2) By pressing the “Insert” key, select the hidden folders and then press “Ctrl + A”, Removing attributes hidden (Hidden), read only (Read only) and system (System), leave Archive (Archive), confirm with the “Set” button.
It is also necessary to clean the RECYCLER folder, remove shortcuts (.lnk), unnecessary infected executable files (.exe) and, of course, the autorun.inf file, if any.
After these steps, the data on the media will be displayed in a normal way.
On this I will finish this article, I will be extremely happy if it helps you! Leave a comment if it helped you! And also comment on how you deal with the problems discussed.
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Display files and folders hidden by a virus
Sometimes you need to view or find hidden files or folders in Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. This is easy to do:
How to show or hide hidden folders and files in Windows XP
Open any folder or " My computer". In the menu at the top of the window, select " Service” and click on it with the left mouse button. In the drop-down menu, you need the lowest item - " Folder properties«:
Everything. Don't forget to click the " OK»
How to show (open) or hide (hide) hidden folders and files in Windows Vista / Windows 7
In Windows 7 it's even easier. Go to the Start menu, Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization, and find the section Show hidden files and folders.
After clicking on it, the same window will open as in Windows XP.
On the "View" tab, check the box next to " Show hidden files and folders«.
You can also uncheck the box next to " Hide protected system files«.
Everything. Again, don't forget to click the " OK«.
I had such a situation that when changing operating system, I did not know, how to show hidden folders in windows 7. Previously, there was XP, and there were no special problems with this.
Seven has undergone tremendous changes that distinguished it from previous operating systems. I had to dig around to figure out the basic settings. Now I will show you several ways to open hidden folders, since they are not visible in Windows 7 by default. Before starting the procedure, you can, in order to verify the results after following the recommendations. In the article, we will go over the standard, programmatic methods and use the command line.
Standard Guidelines for Showing Hidden Folders and Files in Windows 7
First you need to find the window where this option is enabled, for this you need to do one of the following:
1. Launch Explorer (my computer), in the window that opens, click "arrange". Then select "folder and search options".
2. Click "start" and in the search type the word "settings". When the list is built, select the element shown in the screenshot below.
3. Click "start" -> "control panel". Next, make sure that "large icons" or "small icons" are enabled, after which you can look for the "folder options" setting.
4. In the explorer window, press the ALT key, you will see an additional menu between the path bar and the main menu. Select "service" -> "".
After using one of the methods, a window with 3 tabs will open in front of you, go to the second one, which is called "view". Scroll down the scrollbar and check the box "show hidden files, folders and drives." Be sure to click on the APPLY button, then OK.
Note: If you need all items to be visible, make sure that the "hide protected operating system files" checkbox is unchecked.
As you can see, displaying hidden folders in Windows 7 is not difficult at all. For reliable results, go to system disk and try to find the hidden folders that have appeared and have a pale tint. 
There is another interesting method with . To do this, launch cmd and enter the command:
In the current directory all hidden folders and files will be displayed. If you want to change your current local disk, use the command:
cd/d local drive letter:
The example shows moving from drive C to D. To change to a directory, enter the following expression:
cd/folder name
Once you have selected the desired directory, enter the first command.
Using total commander
As is known, total commander is a tool for working with files and folders. Much more advanced in my opinion. standard conductor. On its example, we will analyze the inclusion of hidden elements.
- Run total commander.
- From the top menu select "configuration" -> "setup".
- In the window that opens, click on "panel content".
- Check the boxes for "show hidden files" and "show system files".
Click APPLY and OK.
After the done algorithm of actions, hidden elements will be marked with a red exclamation mark.
All suggestions work and help to show hidden folders and files in Windows 7. It's up to you to use one or the other. I would like to highlight standard ways and the use of total commander, as for cmd, this is rather informative information.