How to Show Hidden Files in Windows 10

By Mitch Bartlett 10 Comments

By default, Microsoft Windows 10 hides certain files from view when you explore them on your hard drive. This protects important files from being deleted so that the system isn’t damaged. If you’re the geeky type, you’ll want to be able to view all files all the time. Follow these steps to show hidden files.

Option 1 – From File Explorer

1. Select the “Start” button, then choose “File Explorer“.
   
2. Make sure the menu bar is expanded. You can toggle the menu bar by selecting the ^ at the upper right portion of the window.
3. Select the “View” tab.
4. Check the “Hidden items” check box to view hidden items.
   
5. If you need more file viewing options, select “Options” > “View“.

Option 2 – From Control Panel

1. Right-click the “Start” button, then select “Control Panel“.
2. Go to “Appearance and Personalization“, then select “File Explorer Options“.
3. Click the “View” tab.
4. Scroll down a bit and change the “Hidden files and folders” setting to “Show hidden files, folders, and drives“. Optionally, you may wish to uncheck the “Hide protected operating system files” box as well.

Option 3 – Via Registry

1. Hold the Windows Key and press “R” to bring up the Run dialog box.
2. Type “regedit“, then press “Enter“.
3. Navigate to the following location:
   • HKEY_CURRENT_USER
   • Software
   • Microsoft
   • Windows
   • CurrentVersion
   • Explorer
   • Advanced
4. Set the value for “Hidden” to “1” to show hidden files, folders, and drives. Set the value to “2” to not show hidden files, folders, and drives.
5. Set the value for “ShowSuperHidden” to “1” to show protected operating system files. Set the value to “2” to not show protected operating system files.

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Filed Under: Windows Tagged With: Windows 10

Reader Interactions

Comments

Kartik singh says

I have nokia lumia 520.
I want to convert it into android.I want to know that after installing the android. Will my sim card work and data connection.

Jan de Vos says

I have reinstalled the USB driver successfully. Though, Samsung dex did not recognize my device.

Neha Singh says

This one worked. Thanks for the guidance. It really helped me alot.

Ok, I just checked this out… here’s an example where the attrib method (below) will show files when the author’s method will not. To illustrate, configure Explorer to show all files as outlined in this article. Then,

1) Open a 2nd Windows Explore and navigate to C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent Items

2) Shift select and delete these files (or move them to a temp location; I think advanced “Disk Cleanup” tool will delete as well).

Also, note that all the advanced “show file” setting made earlier are still intact.
Next open a command prompt in the …\Recent Items folder. To do this:

1) Open a 3rd explorer window and navigate *in the left panel* to C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows

2) With your mouse over the “Windows” folder *still in the left panel*, hold down Left-Shift + Right Mouse Click to get the advanced context menu, click on “Open command window here”

3) In the …\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows> command prompt, key in: “cd recent”

4) Key in …\recent\> attrib *.*

You should see a bunch of files not shown in explorer.

Charles Davis says

The current version of Win 10 looks and works differently, so this just confused me.

I don`t have CurrentVersion in Windows from HKEY_CURRENT_USER, please help me!

No. Unable to change entry. Received notice “Cannot edit Hidden. Error writing the value’s new contents”.

This saved me so much time! Thank you!

This saved me so much time! Thank you!

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My name is Mitch Bartlett. I’ve been working in technology for over 20 years in a wide range of tech jobs from Tech Support to Software Testing. I started this site as a technical guide for myself and it has grown into what I hope is a useful reference for all.

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Windows explorer hidden files and folders

• Home
• Tutorials & Tech Support Guides
• Windows 7 Tutorials
• How to show hidden files in Windows 7

How to show hidden files in Windows 7

Lawrence Abrams

• February 1, 2009
• Read 3,680,248 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 see hidden files in Windows 8

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How To Show Hidden Files In Windows 10

Plus how to hide them again

If you don’t already know, your computer has many more files than what you normally see in the File Explorer. Many of these files are hidden by your system for certain reasons. However, if you wish to access them, you can get your machine to show hidden files in Windows 10.

Once you’ve made the hidden files visible using any of the methods, you’ll find them available ready to use in your folders with File Explorer.

Use File Explorer To Show Hidden Files In Windows 10

The easiest way to show hidden files in Windows 10 is to enable an option in the File Explorer utility. It’ll then make all of the hidden files visible to you on your screen and it only takes turning on a single option in the tool.

• Open any folder on your PC and it’ll launch the File Explorer utility. Then click on the View tab at the top to manage how the tool shows your files.

• Once you’re there, look towards the section that says Show/hide. There’s an option here that says Hidden items. It’ll be deselected by default and you need to select it to enable it.

• Once it’s enabled, you’ll be able to see the hidden files available on your computer. You might want to move to the folder where there are hidden files if you don’t see anything in the current folder.

Use Control Panel To Show Hidden Files In Windows 10

If you’re someone who likes to use the traditional Control Panel utility to change your settings, you’ll be glad to know you can use it as well to show hidden files on your Windows 10 computer. Once again, it only requires enabling a single option.

• Launch Control Panel by searching for and clicking on it in the Cortana search box.

• When it opens, select Large icons from the View by option at the top. Then find and click on the option that says File Explorer Options.

• Click on the View tab at the top to change your File Explorer view settings.
• You’ll find an option that says Show hidden files, folders, and drives on your screen. Enable this option to show hidden files and then click on Apply followed by OK.

Edit a Registry Key To Enable Hidden Files In Windows 10

You’ll probably not want to use a registry method for a task like showing hidden files but if that’s what you prefer for your tasks, you can use it and make all of your hidden files visible in your file manager.

• Press the Windows + R keys at the same time, type regedit in the box on your screen, and press Enter.

• When it opens, navigate to the following path.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

On the right-hand side, you’ll find several options you can change. You want to find the one that says Hidden and double-click on it to open it.

• By default, the entry should have a value of 2 which keeps your hidden files hidden. You need to change this value to 1 to show hidden files on your Windows 10 computer. Make the change and click on OK.

Recognizing Hidden Files In Windows 10

If this is your first time enabling and accessing hidden files on your machine, you’ll probably have no idea what these files look like. Even though these files are exactly the same as any other files on your computer, these look a bit different than the regular files when you view them in the Explorer.

After enabling the option to show hidden files, you’ll see these files with a more light color to their icons. If you’re looking at a hidden folder, you’ll see that its icon doesn’t look as solid as that of a regular folder.

Recognizing hidden files and folders amidst all the regular ones shouldn’t be too difficult as their appearance makes it really easy for you to find them.

Hiding Files In Windows 10

If you’re done with what you wanted to do with your hidden files, you might want to disable them again on your computer. This way, they won’t come in your way when you’re working with the regular files on your computer.

Hiding back the hidden files is pretty easy actually in Windows 10. All you need to do is disable an option in the method that you used to enable these files and you’ll be all set.

• If you used the File Explorer method to show hidden files, open a File Explorer window, click on the View tab at the top, and untick the box that says Hidden items.

• If you went for the Control Panel method, go up to the File Explorer Options box and then select the option that says Don’t show hidden files, folders, or drives. Then click on Apply followed by OK.

• Windows Registry method users need to simply change the value of the Hidden entry to 2 and you should be all set. It’ll disable the option that shows hidden files on your PC.

Why Certain Files Are Always Hidden

If you’re anything like us, you’ll probably be curious to find out exactly why your computer hides certain files on your system. While those of you hiding their own files will have their own reasons for doing so, Microsoft actually only has a single reason for it: to prevent any accidental damage to your computer.

Most files that are hidden by default are actually your core system files. They’re hidden to ensure they don’t get deleted or modified. Since these are core files, even a bit of a modification to them may lead to the malfunction of the overall system.

Wrap Up

If you used any of these methods to unhide your files, we’d like to know what those files were and why you chose to unhide them. We await your response in the comments below.

Mahesh has been obsessed with technology since he got his first gadget a decade or so ago. Over the last few years, he’s written a number of tech articles on various online publications including but not limited to MakeTechEasier and Android AppStorm. Read Mahesh’s Full Bio