The problem of confidentiality of personal data is becoming more and more acute - sometimes, you want to hide certain information from prying eyes, fortunately, Windows has all the possibilities for this. Almost any file can be made invisible, and it will not be displayed in Explorer when viewing the contents of certain directories. But what if you find yourself on the other side of the barricades and you need to make the folder visible? We will tell you about this today.

You will need:

If we are dealing with the WindowsXP operating system, the sequence of actions will be as follows: open the "Control Panel", "Folder Options", in the "View" tab, select the line "Show hidden files and folders".

We confirm the changes. To perform such actions, your account in the system must have Administrator rights - otherwise Windows will simply not let you save changes when you try to make invisible files visible.

In addition, a similar menu can be called from any explorer window. It will be enough just to select the "Folder Options" item from the "Tools" menu, and, according to the same principle, make the files visible.

After that, we find the folder itself, select it, right-click it, and remove the “Hidden” attribute in its properties (the “General” tab). Click OK to save the changes. Only then will you be able to delete invisible folder, after which you can turn off the invisible files display mode again. Remember that it is difficult to recover files deleted from the Trash, so sometimes it is better to leave the folder hidden.

In this case, the procedure will be very similar - only the names of the sections and their placement will differ. If you know how to adjust the monitor screen, then there will be no problem. Also, as in the previous case, we can open the “Folder Options” menu of the same name (in this case, in order to remove the “Hidden” attribute from the folder, you will need to do the same as in the case of WindowsXP).
But, also, you can take the path of less resistance. We open the "Start" menu, and in the search bar we write the word "folders". In the issue, we will also have the menu "Show hidden files and folders" - here we also look for the item "Show hidden files and folders", confirm the changes. After that, by opening the properties desired folder, enable or disable the hidden attribute for it, and click "OK".

Hello dear readers! What are these files and why hide them, how to make hidden folders visible in windows 7? I will tell you more in the article and show you several ways to see hidden, invisible windows folders 7. Hidden file, folder is no different from others, except that they are not visible. They can be divided into two groups:

1. Hidden by the Windows system.
2. By the user of the PC - specially makes it closed from prying eyes.

The first way how to display invisible folders

We will use a method that is available to everyone. Open "Start" - located in the lower left corner, then go to the control panel. As shown in the picture, select "small icons" or large, it does not matter, and click on "folder options".

A window will pop up, in it we click on the "View" tab. Scroll the slider to the bottom, and depending on what you need to see, uncheck the menu or put on the desired positions. When the checkboxes are in the desired order, do not forget to click "Apply" and then Ok.

The second method of displaying "invisible"

If you have the Total commander program installed, you can also view hidden files through it.

Launch the program, select "configuration" in the top menu and click on "settings".

On the left in the menu, select "panel contents", set the checkbox "show hidden files" and if you need to see what the system has hidden, mark "show system files", then click "Apply" and Ok.

Both options have been tested and work, so feel free to use it. Which one is more convenient - everyone will decide for himself. This is where I end. Go to other sections as well, see articles, you may find something useful for yourself or your computer).

Are you running Windows XP or perhaps you prefer the 2007 version? Be that as it may, many are interested in the question of how to make an invisible folder in your work profile. To learn more about this, let's first look at the concept of a work profile, what it is all about.

User profile

User profile is the term for multi-user systems. For Windows, it was introduced starting with XP (system for professionals) and Home Edition (home edition). Both operating systems already used the concept of "user" and, accordingly, the simplest privacy functions. Therefore, the developers put in these environments the ability to create an invisible folder.

As for the profile, it is simply a series of settings, such as the design of the desktop, the visual design of programs, sound schemes, security settings and rights of use. All this is stored in the system for a so-called user account in a common system-software database - windows registry... Each user registered in the system under any account has such a profile.

WindowsXP. Making a folder invisible is easy

To do this, the My Computer icon is usually visible on the desktop. Open it by double-clicking the left mouse button. Before us will be displayed with four tabs: "General", "View", "File types", "Offline files". Of these, we need a second tab, which is responsible for the type of displayed data. In it we scroll through the field “ Extra options". And we focus on the item "Hidden files and folders". How to do it is shown below.

If we put the visible switch in the "Do not show folders" position, then all created folders and files with the hide attribute will not be shown to the current one. Windows user... This means that you can actually make the folder invisible to preserve the privacy of its contents.

To perform several simple steps:

1. On the displayed folder, right-click with the mouse or touchpad.
2. In the submenu that appears, select the last item "Properties".
3. And set the hide checkbox opposite the "Hidden" attribute, the same applies to a separate file.

If everything is done correctly, then you have learned how to make an invisible folder. In this case, in the program "My Computer" the folder that you hid should not be visible. To display it again, just change the direction of the switch to "Show hidden files and folders" on the "View" tab. Do not confuse this item with a similar one called "Hide protected system files".

Systemic flaws

In some cases, the following happens. Setting the switch to the "Show hidden files, folders" position may not work. And it will return to its original position. It all depends on the used software and versions Windows systems.

How to make an invisible folder in Windows 7

In addition to XP, most computers are increasingly switching to Windows 7. Naturally, its functionality also allows you to hide objects - to make them invisible. Therefore, we will consider how to do this using the means of this OS.

To hide the "folder" object, you need to:

1. Move the touchpad or mouse cursor over the folder you want to hide.
2. Right-click on the "Properties" item and switch to the "General" tab.
3. In the "Attributes" field, select the "Hidden" checkbox.

Now let's look at how to show an already hidden folder:

1. Open the "Control Panel" shortcut.
2. Select the sub-item "Design and Personalization", then "Folder Options".
3. Go to the "View" tab and set the switch to "Show hidden folders and drives". Save changes by clicking the "Apply" button, you can "OK".

Thus, we figured out how to make an invisible folder using the means. Also, we learned how to show hidden objects with the same means.

I had such a situation that when changing operating system, I did not know, how to show hidden folders in Windows 7... Previously there was XP, and there were no special problems with this.

The 7 has undergone colossal changes that set it apart from previous operating systems. I had to dig in to figure out the basic settings. Now I will show you several ways to open hidden folders as they are invisible by default in Windows 7. Before starting the procedure, you can, in order to verify the results after following the recommendations. In this article, we will go over the standard, programmatic methods and use the command line.

Windows 7 Standard Guidelines for Displaying Hidden Folders and Files

First, you need to find the window where this option is enabled, for this you need to do one of the following:

1. Start Explorer (my computer), in the window that opens, click "arrange". Next, select "Folder and Search Options".

2. Press "start" and in the search type the word "parameters". When the list is built, select the item shown in the screenshot below.

3. Click "start" -> "control panel". Next, make sure that "large icons" or "small icons" are enabled, after which you can look for the "folder options" setting.

4. In the explorer window, press the ALT key, you will see an additional menu between the path line and the main menu. Select "service" -> "".

After using one of the methods, a window with 3 tabs will open in front of you, go to the second one, which is called "view". Move down the scroll bar and check the box "show hidden files, folders and drives". Be sure to click on the APPLY button, then OK.

Note: If you need all the elements to be visible, make sure that there is no checkmark next to "hide protected system files".

As you can see, displaying hidden folders in Windows 7 is a snap. For the reliability of the result, go to system disk and try to find hidden folders that have appeared and have a pale tint.

There is another interesting method with. To do this, run cmd and enter the command:

In the current directory all hidden folders and files will be displayed... If you want to change the current local disk, use the command:

Cd / d local drive letter:

The example shows the transition from drive C to D. To change to a directory, enter the following expression:

Cd / folder name

Once chosen desired directory, enter the first command.

Using the total commander

As is known, total commander is a tool for working with files and folders. In my opinion, it is much more progressive than the standard conductor. Let's use his example to analyze the inclusion of hidden elements.

1. Start total commander.
2. In the menu at the top, select "configuration" -> "setting".
3. In the window that opens, click on the "content of the panels".
4. Check the boxes "show hidden files" and "show system files".

Click APPLY and OK.

After the performed algorithm of actions, hidden elements will be marked with a red exclamation mark.

All recommendations work, and help to display hidden folders and files in Windows 7... It is up to you to use this or that. I would like to highlight standard methods and the use of a total commander, as for cmd, is more of a cognitive information.