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

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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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How to view Hidden Files and Folders in Windows 10, 7

How to View Hidden Files and Folders

Windows XP, Windows vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, 10

How to show hidden files & folders on windows 7, Vista , Windows 10

This is a very simple process, just follow the instructions below.

Windows 8 covers specific files so that you can’t view them while browsing the files and folders on your pc. Windows has two kinds of files that Windows will identify as hidden and hide through the user. The initial kind are in reality hidden files, which can be ones which are because of the + H attribute or particular as Hidden inside a file or folder’s properties. The 2nd kind of file are System files, that are files that are necessary for the proper operation of Windows 8 as hence are hidden so they aren’t changed or deleted accidentally.

Steps

There are different steps for different operating systems. Check out the steps for your operating system below:

For Windows Vista / Windows 7

1. Click on “Start”
2. Click on “Control Panel”
3. Click on the “Folder option”
4. A “Folder option” popup will appear, Click on the “View” tab
5. Tick mark the option “Show hidden files, folders, and drives”
6. Click on Apply and it’s OK to complete.

For Windows 10, 8

How to find hidden files in Windows 10, 8

1. From the Windows 8 Start Screen, click on the Control Panel app.
2. Click on “Control Panel“
3. Click on the “Folder option”
4. A “Folder option” popup will appear, click on the “View” tab
5. Tick mark the option “Show hidden files, folders, and drives“
6. Click on Apply and it’s OK to complete.

Another Method

You can open the explorer (my computer) drive area, then click on View Menu2. Find the options Hidden Items and tickmarks to view the hidden Items (as per screenshot).

To see hidden files in Microsoft Windows, do the steps below. If you want to enable it, you will be able to view a hidden file using files by exploring the icon. Hidden files will look just as if they’re grayed out. Additionally, you can consider the file attributes to find out whether it’s a hidden file.

If you’d like use of files beneath a hidden folder, you need to be competent to view that hidden folder. You may even have to view a hidden file so it’s possible to delete it, when it comes to a specific problem you may be getting.

Automatically Windows hides specific files from getting seen with Windows Explorer or My Computer. This can be done to guard these files, that are normally system files, from unintentionally getting changed or deleted through the user. However viruses, spyware, and hijackers usually hide their files by doing this which makes it difficult to find them and after that remove all of them.

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How to view all hidden files and folders in Windows 10

By default, Windows 10 hides many files and folders from your view. First of all, it hides the items that you have set as hidden, as well as those set as hidden by other user accounts, the apps that you use, and Windows 10 itself. Second, the operating system also hides from view the files and folders that are critical to its operation, so that users do not delete them or change them in ways that lead to malfunctions. If you want to view all the files and folders that are hidden in Windows 10, read this guide and learn how:

NOTE: In Windows 10, there are two categories of hidden files. To view them both, read all the sections in this guide, not just the first. At the end, we also give you examples of the difference between the settings that you can change.

How to enable the viewing of hidden files in Windows 10

Open File Explorer and then click or tap the View tab and then, in the Show/hide section, check the box for “Hidden items.”

You immediately start seeing the files that were hidden by you, other user accounts, Windows 10, and the apps that you are using.

How to enable the viewing of hidden system protected files in Windows 10

Open File Explorer, click or tap the View tab and then the Options button. This opens the Folder Options window, where you configure how File Explorer works.

In the Folder Options window, click or tap the View tab. In the list of Advanced settings, uncheck the box that says: “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).”

You are warned that you have chosen to display protected operating system files (files labeled System and Hidden), in File Explorer. To go ahead with this change, click or tap Yes.

Then, in the Folder Options window, click or tap OK to save your settings. From now on, Windows 10 and File Explorer are going to make visible all the files of the operating system that used to be hidden from view.

What is the difference between seeing hidden files and protected operating system files?

By default, Windows 10 does not show you any hidden files. Therefore, your desktop is going to include only the files and shortcuts that you or your apps have added to it.

When you disable the “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” setting, on your desktop, you are going to see two desktop.ini files that store information about how the desktop is displayed by Windows. Not only that, but you are going to see desktop.ini files everywhere, in all the folders on your computer.

IMPORTANT: By default, the protected operating system files are hidden by Windows, because they are critical to how the operating system works. You should not delete them or edit their content, unless you know what you are doing.

To get a better perspective on how many hidden files and folders you might start seeing, after you enable the two settings discussed earlier, open File Explorer and go to: C:\Users and then double click or double tap on your username. By default, in this location you see only your user’s folders like Documents, Music, Pictures, and so on.

When you check the first setting from this guide (Hidden items) you start seeing a few new folders, like AppData, where all your Windows apps store data and settings for your user account.

When you uncheck the second setting from this guide – “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” – you now see a lot more folders and files, like Local Settings, SendTo, Start Menu, and so on. All these additional folders are used by Windows to interact with your user account, and remember your settings.

Did you enable the display of all hidden files and folders?

To view everything that is hidden on your Windows 10 PC or device, you need to go through both settings covered in this guide. However, we advise against the display of operating system protected files and folders, because most users do not know how to manage them, and they may end up messing up their computers and Windows 10 devices. Before you close this guide, tell us which of the two changes in settings you performed, and why. Comment below and let’s discuss.