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Windows hides many files and folders by default, preventing users from deleting or modifying files they shouldn’t touch. But you can make Windows show these hidden files by changing a single setting.
RELATED:How to Hide Files and Folders on Every Operating System
It’s easy to make any file hidden, too. Just right-click it, select “Properties”, and toggle the “Hidden” attribute on or off. On the ribbon on Windows 8 and 10, click the “Hide selected items” button to quickly make files and folders hidden or visible.
This option is a little more hidden on Windows 7, where it’s buried in the Folder Options window. Click the “Organize” button on Windows Explorer’s toolbar and select “Folder and search options” to open it. Click the “View” tab at the top of the Folder Options window. Select “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” under Hidden files and folders. To search for the files you want, first launch Command Prompt. There are several ways to do this. Type cmd in the Windows search box, then click on the icon to open the window. Press the Win + X keys on your keyboard, and choose command prompt. You can also do it with a right-click on the Windows.
This option is easily accessible in File Explorer on Windows 8 and 10.
Click the “View” tab on File Explorer’s ribbon and click the “Hidden items” checkbox in the Show/hide section. File Explorer will immediately show hidden files and will remember this setting until you change it.
This option is a little more hidden on Windows 7, where it’s buried in the Folder Options window.
Click the “Organize” button on Windows Explorer’s toolbar and select “Folder and search options” to open it.
Click the “View” tab at the top of the Folder Options window. Select “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” under Hidden files and folders. Click “OK” to save the new setting.
This options window is also accessible on Windows 8 and 10—just click the “Options” button on the View toolbar in File Explorer. But it’s quicker to easily toggle hidden items on or off using the ribbon.
This window is also accessible via the Control Panel on any version of Windows. Head to Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Folder Options. On Windows 8 and 10, it’s named “File Explorer Options” instead.
RELATED:Make a Super Hidden Folder in Windows Without any Extra Software
Windows has two different types of hidden files: Normal hidden items, and protected operating system files. When you show hidden files and folders, Windows will continue to hide protected operating system files. These are hidden files with the “system” attribute.
These files are “protected” for a reason. They’re important system files and deleting or modifying them could damage your operating system, potentially even making Windows unbootable. But, if you know what you’re doing and you need to view these protected operating system files, there’s a setting you can change. We don’t recommend doing this unless you know you need to access one of these files or folders for some reason.
First, open the Folder Options window. On Windows 8 and 10, click the “Options” button on the View toolbar. On Windows 7, click Organize > Folder and search options.
Click the “View” tab. Uncheck the “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” box.
Windows will warn you that deleting or editing protected operating system files could break your operating system. If you know what you’re doing, click “Yes” to continue.
Click “OK” to save your settings. Windows will show you protected operating system files as well as normal hidden files.
Return to the Folder Options window and re-enable the “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” checkbox if you ever want to hide these files once again. Castle crashers free mac.
READ NEXTHidden files are usually hidden for good reason - they're often very important files and being hidden from view makes them harder to change or delete.
But what if you want to see those hidden files?
There are many good reasons you might want to show hidden files and folders in your searches and folder views, but most of the time it's because you're dealing with a Windows problem and you need access to one of these important files to edit or delete.
On the other hand, if hidden files are, in fact, showing but you instead want to hide them, it's just a matter of reversing the toggle.
Fortunately, it's really easy to show or hide hidden files and folders in Windows. This change is made in Control Panel.
The specific steps involved in configuring Windows to show or hide hidden files depends on which operating system you happen to be using:
See What Version of Windows Do I Have? if you're not sure which of those several versions of Windows is installed on your computer.
If you're comfortable with the command line, there's a faster way to get this done. See the More Help.. section at the bottom of the page and then skip down to Step 4.
Click or tap on the Appearance and Personalization link.
If you're viewing Control Panel in a way where you see all the links and icons but none of them are categorized, you won't see this link - skip down to Step 3.
Click or tap on the File Explorer Options (Windows 10) or Folder Options (Windows 8/7) link.
Click or tap on the View tab in the File Explorer Options or Folder Options window.
In the Advanced settings: section, locate the Hidden files and folders category.
You should be able to see the Hidden files and folders category at the bottom of the Advanced settings: text area without scrolling down. You should see two options under the folder.
Choose which option you want to apply. Don't show hidden files, folders, or drives will hide the files, folders, and drives that have the hidden attribute toggled on. Show hidden files, folders, and drives lets you see the hidden data.
Click or tap OK at the bottom of the File Explorer Options or Folder Options window.
You can test to see if hidden files are actually being hidden in Windows 10/8/7 by browsing to the C: drive. If you do not see a folder named ProgramData, then hidden files and folders are being hidden from view.
Click or tap on the Start button and then on Control Panel.
Click or tap on the Appearance and Personalization link. Note: If you're viewing the Classic View of Control Panel, you won't see this link. Simply open the Folder Options icon and proceed to Step 4.
Click or tap on the Folder Options link.
Click or tap on the View tab in the Folder Options window.
In the Advanced settings: section, locate the Hidden files and folders category.
You should be able to see the Hidden files and folders category at the bottom of the Advanced settings: text area without scrolling down. You should see two options under the folder.
Pick the option you want to apply to Windows Vista. Do not show hidden files and folders will hide the files and folders with the hidden attribute turned on. Show hidden files and folders will let you see the hidden files and folders.
Click or tap OK at the bottom of the Folder Options window.
You can test to see if hidden files are being shown in Windows Vista by navigating to the C: drive. If you see a folder named ProgramData, then you are able to view hidden files and folders. Note: The icons for hidden files and folders are slightly grayed out. This is an easy way to separate hidden files and folders from your normal unhidden ones.
Open My Computer from the Start menu.
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From the Tools menu, choose Folder Options...
See the first tip at the bottom of this page for a quick way to open Folder Options in Windows XP.
Click or tap on the View tab in the Folder Options window.
In the Advanced settings: text area, locate the Hidden files and folders category.
The Hidden files and folders category should be viewable at the bottom of the Advanced settings: text area without scrolling down. You'll see two options under the folder.
Under the Hidden files and folders category, choose the radio button that applies to what you want to do. Do not show hidden files and folders will hide the files and folders with the hidden attribute turned on. Show hidden files and folders will let you see the hidden files and folders.
Click or tap OK at the bottom of the Folder Options window.
You can test to see if hidden files are being displayed by navigating to the C:Windows folder. If you see a number of folders beginning with $NtUninstallKB, then you are able to view hidden files and folders, else they're successfully hidden.
These $NtUninstallKB folders contain information needed to uninstall updates you've received from Microsoft. While unlikely, it's possible you might not see these folders but may still be configured correctly to view hidden folders and files. This might be the case if you've never installed any updates to your operating system.
A faster way to open File Explorer Options (Windows 10) or Folder Options (Windows 8/7/Vista/XP) is to enter the commandcontrol folders into the Run dialog box. You can open the Run dialog box the same in every version of Windows - with the Windows Key + R key combination.
The same command can be run from Command Prompt.
Also, please know that hiding hidden files and folders are not the same as deleting them. Files and folders that are marked as hidden are simply no longer visible - they're not gone.