Having constant access to all folders and files on your computer is useful for an experienced user who will not accidentally delete important materials, and will protect and encrypt valuable information using special means. In all other cases it becomes necessary to use Windows features 7 hide and open files and directories.

How to hide a folder or file

You can change folder properties standard tools Windows 7, including Explorer.

1. Open Explorer and go through the tabs until we find our folder.
2. Right-click and select “Properties” from the menu that opens.
   Select “Properties”
3. Select the “General” tab, check the box next to the word “Hidden”. Click “OK” to exit. Check the box next to the “Hidden” option
4. A folder usually contains nested elements - subdirectories and files. Therefore, the system will ask you to clarify your intent. In the “Attribute Change Confirmation” window that opens, two options will be offered: “Apply changes only to this folder” (files when transferred or copied to open folder will become available for viewing) and “To this folder and to all its subfolders and files” (the files will remain invisible). Select as you wish and click “OK”.
   
   Choose the right option and click "OK"
5. If you need to hide not a folder, but separate file, we proceed in a similar way, omitting the last step.
6. After all the manipulations, the folder will change its color, the icon will become a little paler. So that it stops being displayed altogether, we change the parameters of the “Explorer” itself. To do this, click “Start” and open “Control Panel”.
   
   Select “Control Panel”
7. In the “Configure Computer Settings” window that opens, select the “Folder Options” tab.
   
   Select the “Folder Options” tab
8. In the “Folder Options” window, select the “View” tab, in the lower half of which there is a scrolling window “Advanced options”. The “Hidden files and folders” item we need is located at the very end of the scrollable list. Most likely, the label is set to “Show hidden files, folders and disks." We change it to “Do not show...”. The “Hidden files and folders” option is located at the bottom of the scrolling window
9. Click “Apply” and then “OK”. If everything is done correctly, the hidden folder in Explorer will no longer be displayed.

How to make hidden documents visible

First, you need to make sure that Explorer shows hidden items. To do this, in the “Folder Options” window we already know, you need to set the marker to “Show hidden files and folders”. After this you can work with the necessary documents. They will have a paler icon color.

If you need to “open” the file, that is, remove the “Hidden” attribute from its properties, then you need to use the “Properties” window again.

To make Explorer show hidden files, you can use the Registry Editor.

1. Press the combination of the Win and R buttons, in the “Run” window that appears, type the command regedit in the input line, click “OK”.
   Calling the Registry Editor
2. In the Registry Editor that opens, go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced section by sequentially opening the tabs.
   
   Looking for the Hidden parameter
3. Double-click on the “Hidden” parameter. Enter the number 1 in the “Value” field and click “OK”. Now hidden files will be shown by Explorer.
4. To achieve the opposite result, enter “0”.

How to view invisible folders and files in Windows 7 - video

How to show or hide information on a flash drive

From the Explorer's point of view, external drives, including flash drives, are the same disks as the rest of the computer. Therefore, in order to see/hide their contents, you need to act in the same way: change the Explorer settings and the properties of folders and files stored on the drive.

Note! Changing the attribute to "Hidden" will not hide the document from an alternative file manager or Explorer on another computer that is configured to display invisible elements.

Find files on your computer

In order to detect hidden files and folders, you must first make sure that they are displayed in Explorer, and only then launch Search. Now not a single document will escape you.

In specialized applications, everything is done faster

You can also view all hidden materials using other applications, for example, Total Commander, in which you should also first configure the display of files.

When opening access to hidden files, you should be aware that this step removes one of the levels of protection of information important to the system. Therefore, you should take care of other methods: data encryption, the use of software and hardware, as well as external media.

Windows 7 is based on a convenient system for displaying files and folders. They are clearly structured by location and purpose. When installing programs, depending on their operating principle, the files necessary for launching are created and stored in various directories. The most important files(for example, those that store program or user profile settings) are most often located in directories, by default hidden by the system from the user.

When viewing folders using Explorer as standard, the user does not visually see them. This is done in order to protect critical files and folders from incompetent tampering. However, if you still need to work with hidden elements, you can enable their display in Windows settings.

The most popular hidden folder that users most often need is "Appdata", which is located in the user data folder. It is in this place that all programs installed on the system (and even some portable ones) record information about their work, leave logs, configuration files, etc. important information. There are also files for Skype and most browsers.

To gain access to these folders, you must first meet several requirements:

• the user must have administrator rights, because only with such settings can you access the system configuration;
• If the user is not a computer administrator, then he must be granted the appropriate permissions.

Once these requirements are met, you can proceed directly to the instructions. In order to clearly see the result of the work, it is recommended to immediately go to the folder with the user, following the path:
C:\Users\Username
The resulting window should look like this:

Method 1: Activation via Start Menu

1. Click on the Start button once and type the phrase in the search box at the bottom of the window that opens. "Show hidden files and folders".



2. The system will quickly perform a search and offer the user one option, which can be opened by clicking the left mouse button once.



3. After clicking the button, a small window will appear in which the parameters of the folders in the system will be presented. In this window you need to scroll with your mouse wheel to the very bottom and find the item "Hidden files and folders". There will be two buttons at this point - "Do not show hidden files, folders and drives"(by default this item will be enabled) and "Show hidden files, folders and drives". It is to the latter that we need to switch the option. After this you need to click on the button "Apply", then on "OK".



4. After clicking the last button, the window will close. Now let's return to the window that we opened at the very beginning of the instructions. Now you can see that a previously hidden “AppData” folder has appeared inside, which you can now double-click on, just like regular folders. All items that were previously hidden will appear in Windows 7 as semi-transparent icons.



Method 2: activation directly through Explorer

The difference with the previous method is the path to the folder options window.

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 malicious programs that harm your computer and prevent their detection. 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 open window My computer, press the Alt key and select from the context menu Service and onwards Folders settings

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

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 Windows 7 operating system, it makes sense to uncheck this box only for experienced users. Otherwise, you risk disrupting performance by inadvertently deleting system files or system folders.

Most computer owners have dealt with hidden folders.

Sometimes this Windows tool is very useful for hiding your documents.

But it often happens that malicious programs have settled in elements hidden by developers, and the files urgently need to be opened and cleaned.

Why does Windows hide some of the system files and how to see them, how to make folders invisible yourself?

What are invisible files for?

Hidden items are normal folders, but they are not displayed like all the others.

These elements use the “hidden” attribute.

IN Windows interface such documents are not displayed by default.

Do not be mistaken that by hiding some folders, you can free up space on your hard drive. They will weigh the same as regular ones.

Folders are invisible for several reasons.

• Developers operating systems they deliberately make invisible some of the system files, which an inexperienced user can mistakenly delete, disrupting the operation of their computer. During everyday use, the user does not need to look into them and change anything, so many do not even know about the existence of these “invisible” ones.
• Users themselves sometimes hide some documents. This is especially true if the computer is working or children use it.
• This function is also convenient to use if you have a lot of files on your computer that you rarely use. To prevent them from taking up unnecessary space and preventing you from finding and viewing more important documents, you can hide them.
• You should not exclude the influence of viruses on your PC. They can be the cause of folders that have disappeared from view.

Files can be made visible on the hard drive as a whole or in a specific part of it.

Experts offer several options for solving this problem.

The easiest way

To use it, we will turn to Explorer.

1. Open the first folder you come across or press the Windows + E key combination.

2. Then select the line "View" in the main menu. Then click on "Show or hide" and select the item "Hidden Elements" .

Showing hidden folders

This solution is also quite simple. It will not be difficult to complete it, even if the user is not particularly computer literate.

• Need to open "My computer" ;
• Find the section at the top left "Service" , from the displayed list you need to select the line "Folder properties" (For Windows 7 or Windows 8, select "Folders settings" ).
• A new window will appear, from which you should go to the tab "View" ;
• At the bottom of the displayed list, mark the phrase "Show hidden files and folders" (When it comes to versions Windows systems 7 and Windows 8, your point is ), click on this line, then click "Apply" , and then to Ok;

• In a situation where there is a need to view hidden system files and folders, you need to uncheck the item in the same list "Hide protected system files" .
• But such an action is recommended to be performed only as a last resort.

It happens that the menu is not visible on the computer "Service" . In this case, use Alt key(there is a possibility that it is not displayed all the time).

You can also go to this window in another way:

• While in a folder, you need to select the command "Arrange" . It can be found in the upper left corner, directly below the address bar;
• In the menu that pops up we find "Folder and Search Options" .
• Here again we find ourselves in "Folders settings" and move to the menu "View" .
• We put a mark on the proposal again "Show hidden files, folders and drives" .
• Click Ok

Changing folder properties

After carrying out these simple manipulations, you will again be able to see hidden folders, along with everyone else.

In order to achieve this, it is enough to remove the attribute "Hide" from invisible folders.

• We start by clicking on the invisible folder using the right mouse button and finding the menu item "Properties" .

• On the screen we will see a window showing the properties of the hidden folder. We will need to remove the check mark from the item "Hidden" and complete the operation by clicking on Ok.
• If the folder you need contains other documents, the window will ask you to remove the attribute "Hidden" specifically from this folder or from it and all the folders in it. If your task is to make all attachments visible, select the appropriate item and click on Ok.

That's how easy it is to display all invisible folders.

If you then need to turn off visual viewing of hidden documents again, you can perform this task in the Folder Options window.

Use the system registry

Sometimes it is not possible to use the first method for various reasons.

For example, malware hid any documents on your PC and blocked the ability to customize the operating system.

Then you can try to solve the problem with the help of the system registry.

There it is necessary to adjust the parameters that are responsible for displaying invisible elements, which means returning them to their normal appearance.

So let's get started:

1. Go to the menu "Start" (it is located in the lower left corner of the desktop on the control panel);

2. Click on the word "Run" . In the window that appears, enter the word "regedit" and press Enter (For PCs with systems version seven and eight, you will need to enter the word "regedit" directly to the menu search bar "Start" ). Having done all this, you will see the system registry on the monitor, in it you need to find the item we need.

3. The window on the left will display a list of sections available in the registry. You will need to move step by step from section to section: HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Explorer, Advanced.

4. Move to the required section on the right side of the window, then find the parameter "Hidden" , click on it twice and replace it in the displayed window in the line "Meaning" number zero to number one. If it turns out that the required parameter is not in this section, you need to create it. Right-click on the empty space on the right side of the registry window and click in the list that opens "Create" , and then - "Parameter" . Rename the newly created parameter to "Hidden" and assign it a value of one by clicking on it twice.

5. Now you need to go to the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SOFTWARE, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Explorer, Advanced, Folder, Hidden, SHOWALL.

6. In it, look for the “CheckedValue” item to assign it the value one. Using the method indicated earlier, we create this item in its absence and also enter the number one here.

Hidden folders in Windows 10

How to make an invisible folder.

Turning to command line functions

The Command Prompt in Windows helps you perform many tasks in the operating system.

To display on screen command line, click on the menu "Start" , then click on "Run" .

In a new window enter "Cmd" and click OK. (For the seventh and eighth versions, enter the letters "Cmd" V search bar menu "Start".

A command line window will appear on the monitor.

To see invisible documents in a specific folder, you will first need to log into it.

To achieve your goal, enter the following commands one by one (after each of them, press Enter):

1. X:, where X is the designation name local disk(for example, D), on which the files or folders you need are located.
2. cd (for example, cd c:/windows/), where are hidden documents.
3. After you have moved to the desired directory, all you have to do is familiarize yourself with its contents. If you want only hidden folders and files to be displayed in the window, write: dir /a:h (if you enter the “dir” command without parameters, then only visible objects will be displayed on the screen).
4. To ensure the normal functioning of former hidden folders that you will need to view through Explorer while in the same directory, do the following for each object: attrib –s –h. This command will remove the “hidden” and “system” attributes (if the files or folders are actually system files, the “hidden” attribute cannot be removed from them). Note! If file or folder names contain spaces, you must write them in quotes (for example, attrib –s –h “Hidden folder 1”).

We turn to auxiliary programs

Many programs have been developed for Windows to help make hidden documents visible.

One of the most convenient and frequently used is Total Commander.

Download, install and run the program.

Then we begin our task.

• Open the menu "Configuration" , which is located at the top of the window;
• In the list that appears, select "Settings..." ;
• In a new window we look for the item "Contents of panels" and we head towards it;
• In the middle of the window there are settings items. Phrase must be marked "Show hidden/system files" and press the button "Apply" .

After completing these steps, you will be able to view the contents of invisible folders in the main window of the Total Commander program.

They will be displayed to you along with all the others.

How to prevent opening hidden files?

There are times when other users should not be allowed to change the visibility of hidden folders. It can be done.

The parameters that are in the registry will help us CheckedValue, In chapter HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\Showall.

As a rule, its value is determined by the number one.

By specifying the number zero for it, we will cut off the ability to show hidden files.

This method is quite effective, but since Windows 8\Server 2012, the visibility of hidden files in Explorer has been changed using a checkbox "Hidden Elements" , which cannot be influenced by such settings.

Also, prohibitions are not possible when using the “Total Commander” program and its analogues. They will still be able to find hidden elements.

What to do if you need to hide a file

The opposite situation also happens. Let's say you need to hide some documents or files. It's easy and won't take much time.

Your actions:

1. Right-click on the folder or file you selected to hide;

2. Find the property line at the bottom of the drop-down list;

3. In the window that appears, check the word "Hidden" ;

4. Click on "Run" , then Ok.

How do you know if invisible folders are visible again?

It's easy to check.

• Just go to "My computer" ;
• Next, select the folder "Program Files" . In it, the former “invisibles” will have a translucent appearance, clearly standing out from the rest.

Conclusion

In the end, I would like to advise you to pay more attention to the security of your computer - use good antivirus programs, update them regularly, do not insert unverified flash drives into the device.

But, if your PC does become a victim of an attack by viruses that hide folders or hide in invisible files, do not be alarmed, but act.

Just use one of our suggested methods for identifying hidden folders. It works!

By default, the ability to see hidden files is disabled in any version of Windows. This is necessary so that inexperienced “dummies” do not accidentally delete anything and disrupt the operation of the OS. The solution is quite logical, since these folders are rarely needed. And even then - only to a few users. But sometimes there is a need to look at hidden files.

For example, during Windows optimization and garbage cleaning. Many programs ( Microsoft Word, Skype) create hidden files during operation. Over time, they become unnecessary, but are stored on disk and take up extra space.

Very often gamers need to enable hidden folders and files. After all, they are where saves from many games are stored.

Also, displaying hidden files is required by users who want to hide documents on a flash drive, but do not yet know how to find them later. In general, there are a lot of reasons.

Let me immediately note that in different Windows versions This setting is done in different ways. Although some methods may be the same. Therefore, below are several instructions on how to enable hidden files in all Windows - “seven”, “eight”, “ten” and XP. Plus given universal method, running on all OS.

How to open hidden files on Windows 7?

If you need to disable their display, then in the same window, check the box “Do not show...”.

Second way:

1. Go to Start, open Control Panel and click on the Folder Options shortcut.
2. Select the “View” section, scroll the slider down and activate the “Show...” item.
3. Save your changes by clicking Apply.

And the third way:

1. Open any folder you like.
2. Click the Alt button and a menu like this will appear.
3. Click Tools – Folder Options.
4. A familiar window will open: to enable showing hidden files, go to the “View” tab and check the “Show...” checkbox.

As you can see, there is nothing complicated here. Choose any method that suits you best and use it at the right time.

When you enable viewing of hidden files in Windows 7 using any of the methods described above, they will be visible everywhere. Including on a flash drive. You just need to connect it to your PC or laptop - and you will see the hidden folders (provided that they are there). The same applies to an external HDD.

We've sorted out the "seven", now let's move on to the "eight".

How to enable hidden files in Windows 8?

There are also 3 options to choose from. The first two are described above in the instructions for Windows 7. That is, you can enable hidden files in Windows 8 by entering the control folders command. Or by selecting the “Folder Options” shortcut in the Control Panel.

But there is another way to show hidden files in Windows 8:

1. Open any folder you like.
2. Select the "View" section.
3. Click on “Show or hide”, and then check the “Hidden elements” checkbox.

Ready. And not only in the current folder, but also in others. The same methods will help display hidden files on a flash drive or external HDD disk– you just need to connect them to your computer or laptop.

The last method, which works on Windows 8, is also suitable for the “ten”

To enable hidden files in Windows 10:

1. Open any folder.
2. Select the "View" section.
3. Check the "Hidden Elements" box.

After this you will be able to see hidden folders and documents in any section hard drive or on a flash drive (it must be connected to the PC).

If you want to hide the folders again, uncheck this box.

There is also another way to enable the display of hidden files in Windows 10:

Ready. Now you can open any hidden files on Windows 10. As you can see, the methods on different versions of the OS are quite similar, but differ in minor nuances.

Not many users use Piggy today, but we’ll still consider it. You can view hidden files in XP like this:

That's it - now you can open or delete hidden folders and documents.

If you don’t want to understand the differences between different versions of Windows, you can use the universal method

In this case, you just need to install file manager Total Commander (download link). The program sees hidden documents and works on all Windows.

How to see hidden files in Total Commander? To do this you need to do the following:

Now all folders and documents in Total Commander will be visible. And you don’t even have to go to the Windows settings and change folder display options.

Need to see hidden documents? Launch Total Commander and go to the desired hard drive partition. Or connect the USB flash drive and then open it through this file manager.

As you can see, all ingenious is simple. Now you know how to show hidden files and make them visible. And if necessary, you can easily find them. My only advice: if you find any unfamiliar folders, do not delete them. After all, they may contain important system files, the removal of which will disrupt the operation of Windows.