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 show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows 10

In this post, we will see how to show Hidden Files, Folders & Drives along with Protected operating system files in Windows 10/8/7, via File Explorer Options in the Control Panel.

Show Hidden Files & Folders

To do this, you will have to open the Control Panel and then select the File Explorer Options. File Explorer Options is referred to as Folder Options in Windows 8.1/7.

To show Hidden Files, Folders & Drives on your Windows 10 computer:

1. Open File Explorer Options
2. Click on the View tab
3. Under Hidden Files & Folders, select the Show Hidden Files, Folders and Drives option
4. Click on Apply and Exit.

Unhide Protected operating system files

If you wish to unhide and show the Protected operating system files, you need to uncheck the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) setting, and click Apply.

Alternatively, you can also open Explorer, select the View tab and toggle the Hidden items checkbox to short or hide files and folders.

For your information, you can also access the Change folder and search options box from here.

There is another way! You can use attrib.exe to change File Attributes, and/or show the hidden files.

This post will show you how to make a File or Folder Hidden or Read Only. If you wish to, you can also list all the hidden files & folders on your Windows computer.

BONUS TIP: If you find that the Show Hidden Files, Folders and Drives option is missing, then this registry tweak is sure to help you. Alternatively, you could use our freeware FixWin to fix this problem. You will find the fix under its Explorer section.

How to Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows 10

To show the files and folders automatically hidden in your Windows 10 computer, you can use one of the two methods introduced in this text.

Video guide on how to show hidden files and folders in Windows 10:

2 ways to show hidden files and folders in Windows 10:

Way 1: Show hidden files and folders in the View menu.

Step 1: Open This PC.

Double-click This PC on the desktop to open it.

Tips:

1. If you have no idea how to add This PC to the desktop, please refer to How to Add Desktop Icons on Windows 10.

2. You can also open another folder such as Network, File Explorer, Recycle Bin, etc.

Step 2: Show the hidden files and folders in the View menu.

Click View, tap Show/hide in the menu, and check the small box before Hidden items in the sub-list.

Way 2: Show hidden files and folders in the Folder Options.

Open This PC, click View and select Options.

Step 2: Show the hidden files and folders in the View settings.

In the Folder Options window, choose View, select Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and then click OK.

Now, go ahead to put them into practice, and you can show the hidden files and folders on your PC.

Windows show hidden files and folder

• 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 3,680,266 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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