Show hidden files in windows 7. How to enable the display of hidden files? How to see hidden files and folders in Windows XP

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In order to ensure the security of the operating system, its correct operation, important system folders and Windows files are hidden by default. Also, for various reasons, users often hide other, regular folders and files.

An unauthorized user, not finding them in the explorer, will not be able to view your personal information.

Sometimes you need to access hidden folders, see, open and view properties. There is nothing complicated about it. There are many ways.

The first one. Go to Windows 10 Explorer.

Open the "View" tab.

Select "Options", click on this item.

In the window that appeared, click on "View", go to the tab.

In the additional parameters (green rectangle), uncheck the hiding protected system files (top red arrow in the figure).

The box in the square next to this item should be empty, as in the screenshot above. In the circle next to the item (“Show hidden files, folders and drives), check the box (arrow below). Be sure to click "Apply" and "Ok", confirming the changes. These actions enabled the display of system and normal hidden folders.

If necessary, in this way, you can separately enable the display of user folders without opening access to system files. And vice versa.

Another very simple way to make files and folders visible in Windows 10. System folders remain hidden when using this method.

Enter the "View" tab of the explorer.

Check the box "Hidden items" as in the picture. All folders are now visible (except system folders).
When using the third method, it is possible to show hidden folders selectively by selecting only the required one folder.

To do this, hover the cursor over the selected folder and right-click to open the folder properties.

Remove the check mark from the hide attribute at the bottom of the window, the "Hidden" square field should be empty, look like this in the picture above. The folder becomes visible in this case. Apply the action by clicking on "Apply" and click "Ok".

The task is completed.

How to open hidden files on Windows 7?

Press Win + R, write control folders and press Enter.
Open the "View" tab, scroll down the slider and check the box next to "Show ...".
Click Apply to save your changes.

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

Second way:

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

And the third way:

Open any folder you like.
Click the Alt key and a menu will appear.
Click on Tools - Folder Options.
A familiar window will open: to enable the display of hidden files, go to the "View" tab and check the "Show ..." item.

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

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

We have dealt with 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 here. The first two are described above in the instructions for Windows 7. That is, you can enable hidden files in Windows 8 by typing 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:

Open any folder you like.
Select the "View" section.
Click on the item "Show or hide", and then check the box in the item "Hidden items".

Done. And not only in the current folder, but also in the rest. The same methods will help to display hidden files on a USB flash drive or external HDD - 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:

Open any folder.
Select the "View" section.
Check the box for "Hidden items".

After that you can see hidden folders and documents in any section hard drive or on a USB flash drive (it must be connected to a PC).

If you want to hide folders again, uncheck this box.
There is also another way to enable the display of hidden files in Windows 10:

Click Win + Q and write "Explorer Options" in the search box.
Press Enter - a familiar window will open.
Go to the "View" section and check the box next to "Show ...".

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

You can view hidden files in XP like this

Go to Start - Control Panel and select the "Folder Options" shortcut.
The same window will appear: go to the "View" section and check the "Show ..." item.
Don't forget to click Apply to save your changes.

All - 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, do the following:

Open the program and select Configuration - Settings from the menu.
Click on the Panel Content tab.
Place the birds at the top 2 points.
Click "Apply" and exit the settings.

Now all folders and documents in Total Commander will be visible. And for this you don't even have to go into Windows settings and change the settings for displaying folders.
Need to see hidden documents? Launch Total Commander and go to the desired partition on your hard drive. Or plug in a USB flash drive and then open it through this file manager.

In order for hidden folders to become visible, you need to start the explorer. In the upper left corner of the explorer, click on sort and in the drop-down menu, click on the folder and search options. In the options menu that opens, press the "View" button and scroll down to the bottom of the "additional options" option, enable the item - show hidden files and folders. Finally, press the "apply" button.

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 number of drop-down menus will appear under the address bar: File, Edit, View, Service and Help. Here we need to open the drop-down menu "Tools" and select "Folder Options".

After that, you will see a small window called "Folder Options". In this window, you can configure all the basic settings related 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 the Start menu. To do this, open the start menu and type "Folder options". After that, the Windows 7 operating system will find the desired program and 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 - you need to disable it;
"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 that, you will be able to see hidden folders and files. Now, if there is such a need, you can uncheck the "Hidden" attribute and the folder will become normal. To do this, right-click on the folder and select "Properties". Then turn off the "Hidden" function and close the window.

After you have removed the "Hidden" attribute, you can turn off the display of hidden folders. Further, this folder will be displayed in any case.

The simplest method that I always use is with Total Commander. Open the program, select the drive you want and just click the "Hidden Items" button, and you will see everything that was hidden (marked with a red exclamation mark).

If you don't have the program installed, use also pretty simple waysdescribed below.

Show hidden files and folders in Windows 8.x or 10

Use the View tab and click the Options button.

On the View tab, check the "Show hidden files, folders and drives" option at the very bottom. If you want to get to hidden Windows system files, uncheck the option "Hide protected system files"

Hidden files will appear semi-transparent. If you want to completely remove the "hidden" attribute from a file or folder, right-click on it and select properties. On the General tab, clear the Hidden check box.

Hidden folder or file attribute

In most cases this helps, but sometimes it happens that the checkbox cannot be removed from the option, because the hidden attribute is inactive. If so, scroll down a bit and follow the instructions given.

Windows 7 or Vista

Open any folder and choose "Folder and Search Options" from the Organize menu.

Just like in the previous example, check or uncheck the boxes of the required options and click OK.

What to do if a folder has a hidden attribute inactive

In case you cannot remove the attribute hidden from the folder with the above method, the code below can help you in this situation. Just copy it, paste it into notepad and save it as folder with the extension .vbs instead of txt to get folder.vbs. Then copy and paste the file into the drive you need (USB flash drive, SD card or HDD), where you want to display the hidden files and run it with a standard, double-click.

Remember to change "d:" to your drive letter.

'Reset file attributes for all folders within a specific drive
'Change d: to the letter of the drive where the script will be applied
cDrive \u003d "d:"
Set FSO \u003d CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
ShowSubfolders FSO.GetFolder (cDrive)
WScript.Echo "Done with fix."

Sub ShowSubFolders (Folder)
str \u003d ""
For Each Subfolder in Folder.SubFolders
str \u003d str & "" & Subfolder.Path
subFolder.Attributes \u003d 0
ShowSubFolders Subfolder
Next
End Sub

After running the file, you should see all hidden folders, but not files (note), since this method is applicable only to folders. And for files use the following method:

Open the Run dialog box, type cmd and press Enter.
Enter your drive letter, for example d: and press Enter.
Then enter the following command:
attrib d: *. * / d / s -h -r -s

Now, all hidden files should be displayed.

How to hide the folder with personal files

And now we will look at how to hide the folder with personal files. First, let's create a folder, put some files in it and open the Folder Options.

Check the Hidden checkbox and click Apply.

Apply changes to this folder only
To this folder and to all subfolders and files.

We select the option of concealment of your choice, you can select the second one and click OK.

How to show hidden folders in Windows 10 via File Explorer

The shortest way to get to what you want is to use a small setting in the standard and everyone's favorite Windows Explorer. Find the "View" tab and make sure you have the "Hidden Items" checked. That's all - the system will show you hidden files and folders.

Here is also a useful parameter "File name extensions" if you suddenly want to see the document type (exe, jpg, bak and others)

Hidden files and folders in Windows 10 through "Folder and search options"

If the method above appeared only with Windows 8 ... then the second option probably lives from the very first versions (at least in Windows 98 it was, and earlier I didn't even have a computer).

Click on the "File" tab and select "Change folder and search parameters" in the drop-down menu.

In the window that opens, go to the "View" tab and mark the item "Show hidden files, folders and drives", click "Apply"

By this we have enabled the display of hidden folders in Windows 10 - as you can see, everything is simple to disgrace.

How to open hidden folders on Windows 10? - Control Panel

If the two previous methods seemed too simple to you, then meet the longest and most inconvenient option with the display of hidden files in Windows 10 (for those who like to complicate things).

You can enable the display of hidden files through the Control Panel. In fact, we use the second method with setting the explorer, only we do it not from the program interface, but from the global system settings.

Go to the Control Panel and for easy search, change the view to "Small icons" and find the item "Explorer Options".

On the "View" tab, check the "Show hidden files, folders and drives" item and click the "Apply" button. From now on you will be able to see hidden files.

You will most likely be warned that showing hidden files is not entirely safe - edit them wisely and knowing what you are doing ... (if you want to show system files, then uncheck "Hide protected system files")

Now, having familiarized yourself with the existing basic methods, you can use the most suitable option for you to enable the display of hidden folders in Windows.

Detailed instructions on how to enable the display of hidden folders in windows 7, windows 10, windows 8.1. In any of the listed systems, hidden files and folders can be detected in an almost identical way, you just need to tick one box. Let's start with the tenth Windows, as this is a new product and it will gain popularity.

windows 10 two ways to enable folder display

To display hidden folders and files in Win10, you need to go to the explorer, click "view", then "options", "change the options for folders and search." We look further, there is another picture.

Now in the window that opens, you need to click "View", move the slider down and put a check mark, as in the picture. Optionally, you can remove the prohibition on displaying system files. I used this method when I first encountered this problem, but there are simpler ones!

Second way. Open "Start", then the search bar. In the search bar, enter "folder", in the search results, click "Show hidden files and folders." In the menu that opens, go to "Advanced options", then select "Show hidden files and folders", click "OK".

windows 7 enable display of hidden files and folders

"Start", "Control Panel", "OK", then "Folder Options". Open the "view" tab, then drag the slider down, click "show hidden files, folders and drives"

windows 8.1

Swipe left from the right edge of the screen and select Search (if you are using a mouse, move the pointer to the upper-right corner of the screen, move it down, and then select Search).
Enter folder in the search box, and then select Folder Options in the search results.
Click the View tab.
Under Advanced options, select Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and then click OK.

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How to enable the display of hidden files

If you need to enter the AppData or ProgramData folder and you cannot find them on your computer, then this is because these are hidden folders. You need to enable the display of hidden files and folders to see them.

1. Enable display of hidden files and folders on windows XP.

We go into the computer, click Service and click on Folder Options.

Go to the View tab.

And put a full stop on the item Show hidden files and folders and click OK.

Done. Now hidden files and folders have appeared, they are displayed as semi-transparent folders and files.

2. Enable display of hidden files and folders on windows 7.

Go to your computer, click Arrange, select View, and click on Menu Bar to display the Menu Bar.

Now in the menu bar that appears, click on Tools and select Folder Options.

After entering the folder options, go to the View tab.

Scroll the slider to the very bottom.

We put a point on the item Show hidden files, folders and drives and click OK.

Done. Now hidden files and folders appeared in windows 7.

3. Enable display of hidden files and folders on windows 8.

We go into the computer.

Click on View.

We select Show or hide and put a tick on the Hidden items item to display hidden files and folders in windows 8.

Done. A hidden ProgramData folder has appeared on the C drive, and hidden files and folders that can be entered will now be displayed everywhere. For example ApplicationData and so on.

Opening hidden folders and files in the windows operating system

There are so-called hidden files and folders in windows OS. They can be hidden both on the hard drive and on a USB flash drive. Sometimes, to perform any operations, these files need to be opened by the user, but how can this be done? First, let's figure out why the system hides them. She hides them from prying eyes to protect them from the user himself, so that he does not inadvertently remove them. So to speak, a kind of protection "from fools."

Hidden files are basically system files, the deletion of which may cause the OS to malfunction.

Some users themselves hide certain files and folders from other users on purpose.

Hidden files are not displayed at all by standard. If you turn them on, hidden folders appear semi-transparent, unlike regular, non-transparent folders.

Turn on the display of hidden folders in windows 7

In windows 7, enabling the display of hidden folders is quite simple: go to "My Computer" and press the "ALT" key. A window with a menu will pop up at the top, there we select the "Service" item and there we look for the item "Folder Options". There we go to the "View" section and drag the list to the bottom. At the very bottom of the list, you will see items that enable and disable the display of hidden files and folders.

That's all. No more wisdom is needed. You can also view hidden files and folders using Total Commander, WinRar. The main thing is to remember that changing or deleting hidden files can lead to unstable system operation, so be careful.

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If the folder is not visible, and it is not displayed, it means that the "hidden" attribute is set for it. As a rule, hidden folders are not visible in Explorer, aka “my computer”. Do not worry so that hidden folders become visible, you need to tweak windows 7 a little and everything will be fine.

As usual, knowing our modern people, so as not to torment, I suggest watching the video:

If this video did not help you, I suggest watching another one.

How to show hidden files

If for some reason you are not satisfied with the videos, or you just do not want to watch them, I suggest using this step-by-step instruction:

Open any folder on your hard drive and press the Alt key. After that, you will have an additional menu, in which you should click on "Service" and then select "folder options ..."

Before you opened the folder management, in which you can customize whatever your heart desires.

If you couldn't open this window using the Alt key, do the following. Open the start menu à in the search enter “folder options”. Everything, sorted it out.

To display hidden files and folders, open the "view" tab and check the boxes as in the screenshot:

After you have done everything, you need to click "OK".
Now, if necessary, on any folder, click "properties" and remove the "hidden" checkbox.

As you can see, nothing complicated. To solve this problem, it took us only 3 minutes and for this, you did not install any additional programs.

Let's start with the fact that hidden files and folders in windows 7 became such without the malicious intent of the Windows developers. On the contrary. This is done in order 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 a hidden flag to regular folders, the user makes them invisible for viewing.

Display in built-in win 7

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

By changing the "Folder Options" settings.
Via Explorer, Organize tab.
Through Explorer, the "Service" menu.

All methods lead to one menu with folder attributes settings.

Another way is related to the use of third-party programs, for example, Total Commander. This is discussed below.

Let's start with the first method

Go to the Control Panel, open the "Folder Options".

Click on the tab to open the folder management menu. Open the "View" tab, scroll to the end, to configure the display of hidden folders. We indicate "Display ...". Click OK to close.

Folders opened this way will appear semi-transparent in Explorer.

Let's move on to the second method

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

We make 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" -\u003e "Folder Options".

In the window we find "View", mark 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, 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 Content" menu, checking the option to display hidden and system files, "Apply", OK.

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

The Commander provides such a useful feature as changing the folder attribute. That is, we even turn the system directory into a regular one. Open the "Files" menu, select "Change Attributes".

A window will appear where you need to select the item "Load from file under the cursor", then uncheck the attributes "System", "Hidden". Next, we mark, as shown in the screenshot, the processing of the contents of the directories. After this, the changes will affect folders, subfolders, files. 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. We 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 corresponding box.

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

How to make a folder visible via command line

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

Win + R call the line, enter the cmd command to call the console.
Next, enter the command attrib -s -h with: * / s / d, where instead of c: indicate the path to the folder or disk. The rest of the command parameters remove the hidden, system attribute, start file processing, enable the display of processed folders.

The command is executed for some time. When it finishes, the system and previously hidden folders can be seen in Explorer.

How to open hidden files on a USB flash drive

Working with a USB flash drive is no different in Windows 7 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 the flash drive, do not forget to scan the flash drive for viruses

How to show hidden folders through the registry

It is necessary to warn right away that the built-in Windows tools are enough for manipulating folder attributes. Intervention in the registry can end in disaster for an inexperienced user. If the risks are taken into account and the actions are thought out, let's proceed.

We do as shown in the screenshot:

It is best to restart your computer one last time.

What to do if File Explorer doesn't have a Folder Options menu

This is a clear sign that your computer is infected with viruses. Viruses are often masked with the attributes of Windows system files. If they penetrated the hard drive, then, most likely, the antivirus did not cope with them, so disabling folder properties is a direct effect of the malicious code.

How to restore access? It is sad that even after the computer is cleaned of viruses, folder settings remain hidden.

We carry out the restoration as shown in the screenshot:

This parameter is forcibly registered by a virus, which hides the properties of folders and becomes inaccessible.

Ways are considered how to enable the display of system hidden folders and files, how to return the hidden attribute, 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 you once again against interfering with the registry if you are not sure of your abilities. In case of erroneous entries, this can lead to reinstalling the OS

In Windows 8, as in all previous versions of the OS from Microsoft, some files in folders are not displayed in the explorer window. These files and folders are hidden. In most cases, a user (especially a beginner) does not need to see and open such files (and even harmful). However, in some cases (modifying system parameters, cleaning garbage, etc.) the user may need to make hidden files visible.

There are two types of hidden files in Windows 8:

Actually hidden files (Hidden Files). These are files with the attribute set in their properties + H, Hiden - Hidden). This attribute can be set both by the user himself and by a certain program (it happens that viruses also sin, which is described in more detail in the article "")
System files (attribute + S,System), These are files that are needed for the operating system to work and are hidden so that the user does not accidentally delete or change them.

Therefore, the developers of Windows 8 have somewhat divided the ways in which a regular user can display hidden and system files.

How to show hidden files in Windows 8

It has become much easier to show hidden files in Windows 8, and if in the previous windows versions it was necessary to climb into a deeply hidden menu, in the new OS you can make hidden files and folders visible directly from the explorer interface. So, to show hidden files in Windows 8 you need:

How to show system files in Windows 8

In the event that in Win 8 you also need to display system files, you need to use the old and well-known method.

To do this, in the same explorer window, click the button Options (Options) and select an option Change folder and search options... (Change folder and search options).

Then go to the tab View and in the window that appears, find and enable the option Show hidden files, folders, and drives (Show hidden files, folders and drives) and clear Hide protected operating system files (Hide protected system files).

The same window can be opened from the control panel: Control Panel-\u003e Appearance and Personalization-\u003e Folder Options-\u003e Show hidden files and folders.

Here are some ways to make hidden files visible in Windows 8.