How to Show Hidden Files/Folders on Windows

Windows allows you to keep certain items hidden and can’t be discovered from a normal File Explorer. This originally intended to prevent you from accidentally deleting important files. But it may also be used to hide your personal documents so, in a way, it could lower the possibility of them being found by unauthorized parties.

In either case, hidden files will remain hidden unless you change the visibility to normal. Surprisingly, you can keep these files under the hidden mode while using them like normal items.

Here’s how to show hidden files or folders on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

#1 How to show hidden items in a specific directory

1. Go to the directory where the hidden items are stored.

2. Click File > Change folder and search options.

3. Go to the View tab menu.

4. Enable the Show hidden files, folders, and drives option, then hit Apply and OK.

5. Now the hidden items will appear on a slightly faded look.

Alternatively, you can show or hide hidden items quickly right on the File Explorer. Just go to the ‘View’ menu, then check/uncheck the ‘Hidden items’ box.

#2 Show hidden items to all directories

1. Go to Start, search for Control Panel and open it.

2. Click on Appearance and Personalization.

3. Select File Explorer Options.

4. Click View.

5. Check on Show hidden files, folders, and drives. Click Apply and OK.

#3 How to unhide hidden items

1. First, select files and/or folders you want to unhide.

2. Right-click on one of which, then select Properties.

3. Untick the Hidden box, click Apply and OK.

4. The hidden files are back to normal.

You can also unhide them from View > Hide selected items for a quicker access.

If you want to hide some files into another level, consider excluding them from Windows Start Search and if possible, archive the files with a password.

How to Show or Hide Hidden Files and Folders

Hide or show hidden files & folders in Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, & XP

Hidden 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.

Instructions in this article apply to Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7.

How to Show or Hide Hidden Files and Folders in Windows

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.

Select 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.

Select the File Explorer Options (Windows 10) or Folder Options (Windows 8/7) link.

Select the View tab.

In the Advanced settings section, locate the Hidden files and folders category.​

You should be able to see it at the bottom without scrolling. There are two options within it.

Choose what you want to do:

• 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.

Select OK at the bottom.

You can test to see if hidden files are actually being hidden 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.

$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.

More Help With Hidden File Settings

A faster way to open File Explorer Options (Windows 10) or Folder Options (Windows 8/7/Vista/XP) is to enter the command control 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 isn’t the same as deleting them. Items that are marked as hidden are simply no longer visible—they’re not gone.

Show hide folders windows

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How to show hidden files in Windows 7

Lawrence Abrams

• February 1, 2009
• Read 3,680,046 times

Windows 7 hides certain files so that they are not able to be seen when you exploring the files on your computer. The files it hides are typically Windows 7 System files that if tampered with could cause problems with the proper operation of the computer. It is possible, though, for a user or piece of software to set make a file hidden by enabling the hidden attribute in a particular file or folder’s properties. Due to this it can be beneficial at times to be able to see any hidden files that may be on your computer. This tutorial will explain how to show all hidden files in Windows 7.

To enable the viewing of hidden and protected system files in Windows 7 please follow these steps:

1. Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
2. Click on the Start button. This is the small round button ( ) in the lower left corner of your screen that has a Windows flag on it.
3. Click on the Control Panel menu option.
4. When the control panel opens you will see a screen similar to Figure 1 below.

Click on the Appearance and Personalization link.

You will now be in the Appearance and Personalization control panel as shown in Figure 2 below.

Now click on the Show hidden files and folders option as shown by the red arrow in Figure 2 above.

Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files, folders, and drives.

Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.

Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).

Once this is done, your Folder Options screen should look similar to the following image.

Figure 3. Folder Options screen

Press the Apply button and then the OK button.

You will now be at your desktop and Windows 7 will be configured to show all hidden files.

If you have any questions about this tutorial please feel free to post them in our Windows 7 forums.

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How to Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows 10

To show the files and folders automatically hidden in your Windows 10 computer, you can use one of the two methods introduced in this text.

Video guide on how to show hidden files and folders in Windows 10:

2 ways to show hidden files and folders in Windows 10:

Way 1: Show hidden files and folders in the View menu.

Step 1: Open This PC.

Double-click This PC on the desktop to open it.

Tips:

1. If you have no idea how to add This PC to the desktop, please refer to How to Add Desktop Icons on Windows 10.

2. You can also open another folder such as Network, File Explorer, Recycle Bin, etc.

Step 2: Show the hidden files and folders in the View menu.

Click View, tap Show/hide in the menu, and check the small box before Hidden items in the sub-list.

Way 2: Show hidden files and folders in the Folder Options.

Open This PC, click View and select Options.

Step 2: Show the hidden files and folders in the View settings.

In the Folder Options window, choose View, select Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and then click OK.

Now, go ahead to put them into practice, and you can show the hidden files and folders on your PC.