In the Windows 10 operating system, all folders have properties and they can be changed. To do this, you can use the classic Control Panel or Explorer options.
Where can I find folder properties in Windows 10?
In order to open folder properties, you should do the following:
- Open Explorer and go to the “View” tab, select “Options”.
- From the list, select “Change folder and search settings.” A new window will open in which three tabs will be available: “General”, “View”, “Search”. Each tab is responsible for certain folder properties.
- In the “General” tab, you can set folders to open in a new window or in the same window.
- Here you can also specify how to open the folder: with one or double click.
- Depending on the build of Windows 10, in the “General” tab there is also a “Privacy” item, which is responsible for quick access to frequently used folders and files. You can also clear Explorer history here.
- The View tab has changed little. Here you can set the display of hidden folders and files, menu thumbnails, and restore the initial view of the window. This tab gives greater access to folder properties.
- In the “Search” tab, you can specify how Windows 10 should respond to requests when searching for system files and folders, including non-indexed ones. Here you can also add archives and application folders to the search list.
Also, the settings of any folder in Windows 10 can be configured in the classic way. To do this, right-click on the folder and select “Properties”.
In this case, the available options will be in the following five tabs: “General”, “Access”, “Settings”, “Security”, “Previous Versions”.
The General folder will contain folder parameters such as size, location, creation date, attributes (hidden or read).
In the “Access” tab, you can specify access to the folder for an individual user or several.
In the “Settings” tab, you can optimize the folder for storing documents, music or other files. Or choose a general type.
The “Security” tab is responsible for security, and in “Previous Versions” you can see the presence or absence of previous identical folders (relevant if the folder has been renamed).
In the Windows operating system, hidden folders are used to store important system files and personal user data that are hidden from the user. Since after deleting any hidden folder on the system local drive, the user may have problems with the operation of the operating system itself.
In this article we will talk about how to enable hidden folders in Windows 10. We will figure out how to hide folders on the new operating system. Let's look at the differences between enabling the process of showing hidden folders on Windows 7 and Windows 10.
With the arrival of Windows 10 on the market, hiding and enabling the display of hidden files and folders has become much more convenient and faster, unlike Windows 7. In principle, doing this on both early operating systems and Windows 10 is not difficult, but I will still show you several ways how show hidden folders in Windows 10.
How to enable hidden folders in Windows 10
First, let's look at a method that is suitable for users of previous operating systems.
This method works on both Windows 10 and Windows 7. But I’ll still show you what’s new in Windows 10.
Open File Explorer and click on Ctrl+F1 to enable the display of the ribbon in expanded form even after selecting a command. Go to the View tab and check the box Hidden elements .
After these steps, you will be able to see hidden folders and files on the system local disk.
Now let’s figure out how to hide files and folders ourselves; to do this, select the folder or file that you want to hide. Right-click on a file or folder to call up a context menu in which we select properties
. In the window that opens, we just need to check the attribute Hidden
. And apply the changes. 
In this article, we figured out how to enable hidden folders in Windows 10, and how you can easily hide files yourself. We also saw changes in the process of how to hide folders in Windows 7 from Windows 10. If you want to cancel the change, you will need to uncheck the boxes and apply the changes. The article turned out to be not long. I hope it will still be useful to someone.
Let's consider ways how to show hidden folders windows, of which there are only two. Both are not much different from how it was done in previous versions of the operating system. Are you curious about how the operating system works? Then go straight to the “Short instructions for experienced” section.
Why hide
Hiding folders was invented to protect against random or deliberate deleted by the user. There is a possibility of disrupting the operation of the computer even when changing the files inside.
When designing the file system, the developers took into account the ability to hide files and folders. To do this, use the "Hidden" attribute. When the folder display mode with this attribute is enabled, hidden directories will appear transparent.
As you can see in the screenshot above, the icon of a regular “Saved” directory is several times brighter than with the “Hidden” attribute.
You may need to hide a directory for:
Protect system files;
Hide personal information from other users;
A virus can hide your data and plant fakes instead.
The third option most often gives rise to desire show hidden folders in windows 10. After removing viruses, for example from a flash drive, useful information remains invisible. Although it is clear from the space it takes up on the flash drive that it has been preserved. And although modern antiviruses are quite advanced, they still have not learned to distinguish user directories from system directories.
Short instructions for experienced
For experienced computer users, it will not be difficult to show hidden folders in Windows 10. It may seem very easy. But no one is immune from forgetfulness. Just slipped my mind, then you don't need to read the whole article. The next line will be clear without explanations and screenshots.
To do this, follow the following instructions:
Explorer → View → Options → View → Show hidden files, folders and drives
Continue to the next section if the previous advice did not help.
Settings with the mouse
In all Microsoft operating systems, including Windows 10, default settings do not show hidden folders, files and drives. We have already figured out the reasons for this behavior.
Let's take a step-by-step look at how to show hidden folders in Windows 10:
Step #1
Launch the Explorer program. You can find it in the Start menu or on the taskbar.
Explorer in Windows 10 is an analogue of My Computer in the previous version of the Windows system. A window will open as in the picture
Step #2
Here you need to go to the View tab and click the Options button.
Step #3
Now we have reached the end of setting up folder parameters. Here again, select the View tab and scroll through the list of options, looking for the prominent item Show hidden files, folders and drives.
All you have to do is click OK and the selected Windows 10 will show such directories.
ATTENTION! To avoid problems, it is better not to leave the system configured in this way. One of the other users may disrupt the performance of Windows.
Remove or set the attribute to the desired directory. And immediately stop showing them. This way you will protect yourself from accidents. Or you can hide your data from prying eyes.
Setting an attribute via the command line
Setting or removing the hidden attribute via the command line is useful in several cases:
- Do you want to surprise your friends with a spectacular catalog disappearance?
- Automatically hide a directory using a script
To manage attributes, the standard ATTRIB program is used:
It has many parameters, but we need the Hidden and Path to file or directory keys.
An example of correctly hiding and showing the Secret directory, which is located on drive E:
Hide directory:
ATTRIB+H E:\Secret
Show (remove hidden attribute):
ATTRIB-H E:\Secret
If you save the first line in the file hide.cmd, and the second line in show.cmd. Then when you run the file, the directory will appear or hide accordingly!
You can create such a file using regular Notepad. A program that is available in all versions of Windows.
How to hide any folder in Windows 10
Do you want to make your catalog invisible to prying eyes? Or hide several files at once? It is not necessary to use the command line method to enable the stealth option. A file or directory will disappear if you go to its properties and check the Hidden box.
After the manipulations done, no one will know your secrets
In conclusion
You may need this to troubleshoot problems with your computer, for example, when removing a virus, traces of malware, or junk from a disk. Most often, when following our instructions, the user needs to see directories such as AppData,ProgramData And GroupPolicy, where malware particles most often settle.
After completing the manipulations for which you needed to show invisible files and directories, it is recommended to hide them out of sight again. Remember that inept or careless handling of the contents of the system directories mentioned in the article may result in Windows failure or cause the computer to not operate correctly.
Enable showing hidden folders and files in Windows 10
- open Explorer (any directory on your computer);
- click View in the main menu at the top of the window;
- Check the box Hidden elements:
If the window size is smaller, you should look for this checkbox in the group Show or hide:
Enabling showing hidden directories and files in Windows 7
Here's a slightly different procedure:
Don’t forget to return everything the way it was later! Do not leave the conductor like this.
Hidden folders in Windows 10 are no different from hidden directories in XP, other than having an extra path to quickly show them. In view of the only difference in the function, we will not look for other differences in its implementation in the “ten” and XP.
Which directories can be hidden?
A hidden directory is a generic directory that has been assigned the Hidden attribute. Typically, hidden folders are found on the system drive and contain important system files, the deletion or modification of which leads to Windows not working, which often happened with XP (in the “top ten” the system file protection mechanism has been improved). The user can also independently assign the “hidden” attribute to any directory, for example, to hide personal data from curious users who have access to the computer.
Viruses can also hide files and directories on removable media and replace these documents so that when the user double-clicks on them, they activate malicious code.
How to hide something
In Ten, like XP, even a beginner who is just learning the basics of working in Windows 10 can hide a folder or file. This is done as follows.
- Open the directory in which the target folder is located and call its “Properties” dialog.
- In the first tab of the dialog box, go down to the “Attributes” section and check the box of the same name.
- Click “Apply”.
In the dialog box, we agree to assign the attribute to all objects located in the directory.
How to enable hide or show option
As they said earlier, in the “ten” there is a faster way to hide from view or, on the contrary, display hidden objects.
- Launch an explorer window (open “My Computer” or any directory).
- Go to the “View” tab.
- Click on the “Show or Hide” button.
- Check the “Hidden files” checkbox.
All hidden objects will be instantly displayed, but such directories and files will be painted in a less bright color (see the “ProgramData” directory icon in the screenshot).
The second method to display hidden directories is the classic way, as in XP.
- Go to the “Control Panel” and switch its view to the “Icons” mode.
- Click “Explorer Options”.
- In the “View” tab, scroll down the list and put the checkbox next to the “Hidden folders and files” option in the desired position.
- Click "Ok".
How to find hidden directories
You can detect folders that are assigned the “Hidden” attribute in XP and Windows 10 only by turning on the display of hidden objects, revealing their suspected location. But the user can hide personal data in the wilds of the system or in the game directory, which significantly reduces the chances of success.
Interestingly, the search in this case reveals file system components that are invisible to the user; you just need to know the name of the documents that are supposedly hidden on the computer.
Developers from the SecurityXploded team decided to correct this flaw and created the freely distributed program Hidden File Finder. By multi-threaded scanning of the disk file system, it finds files and directories with the “Hidden” attribute and displays them in blue for ease of perception of information.
