Where is the hidden folder? How to open hidden folders in Windows XP
Today I will tell you how to hide a folder in Windows 7. There are several hiding methods to accomplish this task and all of them are simple. After reading this article, you will know at least 2 ways how to do this.
Hiding a folder using standard Windows 7 tools
If you are not familiar with any method to hide a folder, then I recommend this method to you, because it differs from others in its simplicity and speed, as well as the absence of the need to install any additional programs.
First you need to set the “Hidden” property for the folder itself that you want to make invisible to others. Right-click on the folder icon and click on “Properties”. A window will open in which, in the “General” tab, at the bottom, check the box next to “Hidden”, as in the picture below.
When you click OK, you will see that the folder icon has become paler than usual. But this is what you see now. But if you don't have the settings specified to see hidden folders, then the folder you made hidden will disappear completely.
How to permanently hide a folder? You need to go to the “Control Panel” menu and select “Folder Options”. If this option is not there, select “View: Small Icons” at the top right. Next, look in the “View” tab, check the “Do not show hidden files, folders and drives” checkbox and click “OK”.
When this is done, your folder with the Hidden attribute will become invisible, and now I will tell you how to find the hidden folder in this case. All you need is to go back to the “Control Panel” menu and the “Folder Options” item and in the “View” tab, select “Show hidden files, folders and drives”. In the screenshot above, this item is below. Now you will be able to see the folder again in the same place where it was before. If you want to make the folder visible again, then go to “Properties” again and uncheck “Hidden”, that’s all you need to know about how to view hidden folders.
Hiding folders using the command line
Contrary to the name, this option to hide a folder is no less simple. To learn how to do this using the Command Prompt, you must first launch a Command Prompt, which allows you to issue Windows commands using special sets of commands and parameters. Windows will decipher the commands and perform the desired action. Click on the “Start” menu and enter cmd in the search bar and click on the program that appears with the same name.
Now you need to enter the command in the window that opens.
attrib +h “Folder address”
The folder address must be replaced with your path to the folder; to find it out, you need to go to the folder and click once on the empty space top line conductor. The path that appears needs to be selected and copied, then you can paste it into command line path without typing on the keyboard, click right click mouse on the command line and select "Paste". The Ctrl+V combination does not work here, so you can only paste the address using the mouse.
Press “Enter” and now you need to select “Do not show hidden files and folders”, as in the previous case, so that the folder is completely invisible. And you can also make it visible, as in the previous case. Now you know how you can hide folders and files, but to make it visible you can type the command:
attrib -h “Folder address” and press "Enter".
Here we have looked at another way to make hidden folders visible.
Making an invisible folder on the desktop
Now I will tell you how to hide a folder on the desktop without changing its properties. Although you can hide a folder on your desktop using the method described above. To do this, you need to place the folder on your desktop, right-click on it and select “Properties”. In the window that opens, in the “Settings” tab, select “Change icon”.
From all the icons, select transparent, click “OK” and “OK” again.
If this does not happen, copy the folder with the changed icon to another drive, delete it on the desktop, and then move it back and the icon will disappear. Now we need to remove the name. To do this, right-click on the folder icon and click “Rename”. Erase the name and type 255 while pressing ALT. This will allow you to set the folder name to a space, which means the name will no longer be visible.
Finding this folder will be easy only if you know that it exists, and others will only see empty place screen!
For a variety of purposes, but the user should be interested in how to find a hidden folder. Function to remove files from prying eyes available in each operating system. Hidden, as a rule, are various important files. These are, for example, elements of the system that the creators tried to make invisible for the benefit of the users themselves. At times, computer owners themselves make sure that outsiders cannot look at certain information. Be that as it may, such files are available on any computer, regardless of their purpose.
So how to find a hidden folder? The most common option is to make it visible. To do this, just open an explorer window, look in the “Tools” menu, and then select folder properties. In the next section, you will need to go to the "View" tab. Next - “additional materials”, and there check the box - “show hidden files and folders”. Then you need to confirm. That's it, after this, in most cases you will be able to see previously hidden documents and programs.
It happens that viruses are blocked this opportunity, and people wondering how to find the folder become desperate. Don't panic, this is done by changing certain values in the registry. Just find lines in the vastness that return everything to normal, change it - and that’s it.
There is an alternative to this process. Any file manager, For example, Total Commander. With it, the question of how to find a hidden folder will completely and quickly disappear.
You just need to press a special star-shaped button, which will show you everything that was hidden.
There are other methods. For example, you need to understand that hidden folders are those that really exist, that is, if you know what they are called, getting into them is not difficult at all. Of course, you still need to have an idea of where they are located. If you know all this, then just type the text in the address bar of Explorer manually - and you will instantly get where you need to go. IN in this case Whether the folder is hidden or not does not matter.
How can I find a hidden folder in another way? Can be connected HDD with them to a computer on which a different type of operating system is installed - not Windows. It doesn't matter what the properties of the folder are, because it still remains on the hard drive. That is why, after connecting it to another PC, you will be able to see all the contents. And not only - it will be possible to delete or change it.
You can resort to another technique to see hidden folders. Often, in order to recover this or that information, people resort to using a variety of LiveCDs. From these drives a specific operating system is loaded, which provides the user with access to certain devices connected to this computer. Thus, you can easily go to any hard drive and view in detail all the files and folders located there, regardless of what attributes are set in the properties.
Actually, as you can see, there are quite a lot of options for seeing hidden documents. The question is whether you really need it. If you are planning to gain access to system files for the purpose of making any changes or deleting them, think twice beforehand. Careless removal is vital necessary for the system folders can lead to irreversible consequences. Do not forget about this before any manipulations. Perhaps everything will end with a reinstallation. Be that as it may, if you are confident in your actions, then go for it. Maybe you can find something interesting on your friend's computer or change your Windows files for the better. Moreover, it is a good experience.
operating room Windows system supports the function of hiding objects on the computer. Thanks to this feature, developers hide system files, thereby protecting them from accidental deletion. In addition, hiding elements from prying eyes is also possible to the average user. Next, we will take a detailed look at the process of searching for hidden folders on your computer.
There are two ways to search for hidden folders on your computer - manually or using special program. The first is suitable for those users who know exactly which folder they need to find, and the second - when they need to view absolutely all hidden libraries. Let's look at each of them in detail.
Method 1: Find Hidden
Find Hidden's functionality focuses specifically on finding hidden files, folders, and drives. It has a simple interface and even the controls can be understood inexperienced user. To find the information you need, you only need to perform a few steps:
Now you can go to the location where the folder is located, edit it, delete it and perform other manipulations.
It is worth noting that deleting hidden system files or folders can lead to system crashes or a complete stop of Windows.
Method 2: Hidden File Finder
Hidden File Finder not only allows you to find hidden folders and files on the entire computer, but also, while in the on state, constantly scans hard drive for threats disguised as hidden documents. Searching for hidden folders in this program is carried out as follows:
Method 3: Everything
When you need to perform an advanced search for hidden folders using certain filters, then the Everything program is best suited. Its functionality is focused specifically on this process, and setting up a scan and launching it is done in just a few steps:
Method 4: Manual Search
Windows OS allows the administrator to access all hidden folders, but he will have to search for them himself. Performed this process It’s not difficult, you just need to do a few steps:
All that remains is to search necessary information on the computer. You don't have to view everything to do this. sections of hard disk. The easiest way is to use the built-in search function:
Unfortunately, this method only suitable if the user knows the name, size, or modification date of the hidden folder. If this information is not available, manually reviewing each location on the computer will take a lot of time; it will be much easier to search through a special program.
There is nothing complicated in searching for hidden folders on a computer; the user only needs to perform a few steps to get necessary information. Special programs further simplify this process and allow it to be completed much faster.
These are folders that have the Hidden attribute set. Typically, folders with this attribute are not displayed in Explorer. In order for hidden folders to begin to appear, you need to make changes to the settings operating system. In this material you will learn how to show hidden folders in Windows 7.
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 clicking on ALT key, under address bar A series of drop-down menus will appear: File, Edit, View, Tools and Help. Here we need to open the “Tools” drop-down menu and select “Folder Options”.
After this, a small window called “Folder Options” will open in front of you. In this window you can configure all the basic parameters that relate 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. To do this, open the Start menu and type “Folder Options.” After this, the Windows 7 operating system will find the desired program and will 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 this, you will be able to see hidden folders and files. Now, if there is such a need, you can remove the “Hidden” attribute and the folder will become normal. To do this, right-click on the folder and select “Properties”. After that, disable the “Hidden” function and close the window.
Once you have cleared the “Hidden” attribute, you can disable the display of hidden folders. Further this folder will be displayed anyway.
Everything hidden sooner or later becomes clear. If you have a suspicion that someone is hiding something from you on your computer, then you can try to find the hiding place. Most often, users hide folders or files containing various types of information from prying eyes. How to find a hidden folder on your computer? For example, the authors were once given a prohibited video under the guise of work files in one of the distant folders. And then they also tried to accuse him of recording there. Military “father commanders” indulge in similar pranks.
First, we should consider what a hidden folder is. A hidden folder (or directory or container) is a folder that, like any explicit one, is present on a hard drive (or other storage device), but at the same time has the “Hidden” attribute. When simply viewing files this catalog is not visible to the user, which means that its contents are “inaccessible” to an outside observer, and he cannot see its presence in the catalog.
There are several ways to see a hidden folder with its contents, let's look at the most common of them in order from simple to complex.
Method one
A simple hidden folder. In order to see hidden folders and files on your computer's hard drive, you need to follow several steps.
Hidden files and folders will now appear in the directory, but will have a transparent icon, making it easy to distinguish from the rest. The disadvantage of this method, perhaps, is the need to know exactly the location of the hidden files, which is not always possible; the user can hide his data quite deeply, otherwise he will have to spend a lot of time to find the data of interest.
Method two
We use search. By Windows default does not search for hidden folders and files, however, you can find a way out here too. In order for hidden files and folders to be displayed during search, you must enable display hidden files and directories, following the instructions described in the first method, and then search. Compared with simple viewing, searching for folders and files has a number of advantages; it is enough to know at least a little what we will be looking for.
If you know the names of the hidden files, or at least part of them, you can enter this in the search bar. If you know the type of files you are looking for, this will also help, just indicate the type of files in the search. Hidden directories in this case, the results will be displayed as a transparent icon. The main disadvantage of this method is the need to know something about hidden files, their contents or format, or name.
Method three
For the advanced. In order to make all directories and files on a disk visible (for example, on a flash drive), you can use this method. To do this, open the “Start” menu and write “Run”, launch the found application (Windows + R). Next, write “cmd” in the line and click “OK”. The console opens in front of us. Next, we write “cd” with the d key and the path to the folder where all hidden files should be opened (in our example, let it be “C:\MyDocuments”). The first command will look like this: “cd /d C:\MyDocuments”, using it we will go to the desired directory where we will execute the second command.
The second command looks like this: “attrib –s –h *.* /S /D”. In this case, the “hidden” attribute will change to normal for all files and folders in the desired directory. This method should be used with caution and, as written above, only knowledgeable users, since changes made to the system may become irreversible. The method is not simple and if you want the user hiding the data not to suspect anything, then you will need to do the reverse procedure for hiding the folder.
The methods described above will allow you to find hidden files or directories if the user has not restricted access to them, otherwise viewing their contents is unlikely to be easy. The most important thing to remember when performing operations with files is not to touch those files whose purpose you are not sure of. Changing system files can lead to the operating system as a whole not working.
And finally, if you use one login to log in to the system, you don’t have to bother searching for hidden files and folders, just look recent documents with whom I worked previous user. To do this, enter “Recent Places” in the Start menu (Windows + F) and you will be able to see the directories that the user has recently visited. Under Windows 10, you need to go into Explorer and search throughout the entire computer. There will be two shortcuts:
- Recent documents.
- Recently used folders.
But there are no hidden objects here. Therefore, you need to change the attributes first and then search.
