How to find hidden files. Find hidden folders on your computer. Hidden folders on a flash drive

operating room Windows system supports the function of hiding objects on the computer. Thanks to this feature, developers hide system files, thereby protecting them from accidental deletion. In addition, hiding elements from prying eyes is also possible to the average user. Next, we will take a detailed look at the process of searching for hidden folders on your computer.

There are two ways to search for hidden folders on your computer - manually or using a special program. The first is suitable for those users who know exactly which folder they need to find, and the second - when they need to view absolutely all hidden libraries. Let's look at each of them in detail.

Method 1: Find Hidden

Find Hidden's functionality focuses specifically on finding hidden files, folders, and drives. It has a simple interface and even an inexperienced user can understand the controls. To find the information you need, you only need to perform a few steps:

Now you can go to the location where the folder is located, edit it, delete it and perform other manipulations.

It is worth noting that deleting hidden system files or folders can lead to system crashes or a complete stop of Windows.

Method 2: Hidden File Finder

Hidden File Finder not only allows you to find hidden folders and files on your entire computer, but also, when turned on, constantly searches scanning hard disk for threats disguised as hidden documents. Searching for hidden folders in this program is carried out as follows:

Method 3: Everything

When you need to perform an advanced search for hidden folders using certain filters, then the Everything program is best suited. Its functionality is focused specifically on this process, and setting up a scan and launching it is done in just a few steps:

Method 4: Manual Search

Windows OS allows the administrator to access all hidden folders, but he will have to search for them himself. This process is not difficult to perform; you only need to perform a few steps:

All that remains is to search necessary information on the computer. It is not necessary to view all sections to do this. hard drive. The easiest way is to use the built-in search function:

Unfortunately, this method only suitable if the user knows the name, size, or modification date of the hidden folder. If this information is not available, manually reviewing each location on the computer will take a lot of time; it will be much easier to search through a special program.

There is nothing complicated in searching for hidden folders on a computer; the user only needs to perform a few steps to get the information he needs. Special programs further simplify this process and allow it to be completed much faster.

Let's look at how to hide a folder in Windows 7 and 10, as well as find hidden materials and view their contents.

Hiding files and folders in the operating system is reliable way conceal important information or protect it from accidental damage or removal.

The function is useful in the following cases:

Several users use the same computer at once;
You need to temporarily hide information on your PC;
You don't want to clutter your desktop with shortcuts.

Hiding a folder on a Windows computer

Developers from Microsoft have provided the ability to hide . This function is primarily necessary to prevent users from deleting important system files and libraries.

Can configure the display of hidden folders and files. There are also third-party applications to work with this function.

Method 1 – Standard Explorer

The essence of the first method is to use the standard Windows Explorer. Its settings provide the ability to manually select what information can be displayed in the system and what information should be hidden from the eyes of other users.

Follow the instructions for Windows 7, 10:

Go to the Computer Control Panel;
Select the view type “Large icons”;
In the list, find the “Explorer Options” field and open it;

In the new window, go to the “View” tab;
The Advanced Options area displays all the options for displaying File Explorer menus and folders and files in the operating system. Scroll down the list to the option " Hidden folders and files";
Check "Do not show..." and save the settings.

After setting up Explorer, you can mark the desired folders as hidden. To do this, follow these steps:

Create a folder on your desktop or in another directory and fill it the necessary files, which will be the hidden contents of the folder;
Right-click on the object and select “Properties” from the action options;
In the “General” tab, check the “Hidden” attribute and save the settings.

If the system does not prohibit showing hidden elements, users will see important system files and temporary documents open source software and files that have been manually identified as hidden. The icons for these folders and shortcuts will be dimmer than usual, so they can be easily identified among other data.

The method described above will help hide hidden folders in Windows 10. The instructions for Windows 7 will be similar, since the Explorer settings interface is identical in both versions of the OS.

Method 2 – Free Hide Folder Utility

For more convenient interaction with hidden elements, it is better to use special programs. Free Hide Folder is one such utility. It is free and compatible with all versions of Windows.

Let's take a closer look at how to work with hidden files and folders in Windows using Hide Folder. The program interface is very simple, but is presented only in English.

Follow the instructions to hide the directory:

Open the program window and click on the “Add” button;
An explorer window will appear in which you need to select a folder to hide;
After this, the path to the directory will be displayed in the main application window. In the list form you will see all the folders that are currently hidden;
To remove a folder, find its name in the program, right-click on this field and select “Unhide Folder” in the list of actions.

Other features:

Creating a backup of the contents of hidden folders;
Ability to set a password for a directory;
Using strong encryption algorithms that make it as difficult as possible for content hidden on your computer to be hacked.

Method 3 – Transparent folder

Hidden folders in Windows 7, 10 can be created not only by changing the properties of files and directories. One of the most simple methods- this is a setting appearance folder, causing it to become invisible.

Follow the instructions:

Determine which folder you want to hide and right-click on it;
Select "Properties";

In a new window, open the “Settings” tab;
Click on “Change icon”;

Next, a list will appear with a preview of all the icons that are available in the system. Among them there are also invisible ones. Find one of them and set it as the folder image;
Save your changes.

For the directory name you need to enter special invisible characters. They appear when you simultaneously press the Alt key combination of numbers 255. The final view of the folder is shown in the figure below. As you can see, it can be selected, but during normal interaction with the desktop it is not visible.

The disadvantages of this method are that Explorer still displays the directory, even though it does not have an icon or name. Also, another user may discover the folder if they decide to select all the items on the desktop or in another directory at the same time.

Method 4 – How to hide a folder in a picture

Another method of hiding folders is radically different from all those described above. It involves the use of basic steganography techniques - the science of classifying the very fact that secret data exists.

If you have a folder with secret files and you don't want anyone else to see it, you can follow these steps:

Archive the directory - ZIP or RAR formats are suitable;
Next, select any image and place it along with the created archive in a new folder;

Next, open a command prompt. This can be done by simultaneously pressing the WinR buttons and entering the CMD command;

In the command prompt window that opens, run the folder using the command cd c:\MySecrets\;
Next, enter the command COPY /B image.jpg + MySecrets.rar SecImage.jpg, where IMAGE is the initial image you selected, MySecrets is the archive, SecImage is the new final image in which the information will be hidden;
To execute the command, press Enter.

After repeating the above steps, you can test the result of the work. Open the final file SecImage.jpg - you will see the first image you selected. At the same time, if you open this document using an archiver or changing the resolution from JPEG to RAR, you will still have access to the archive and be able to view the contents.

The advantage of this method is that a potential attacker is unlikely to realize that the system uses this method of hiding information. In addition, it is very difficult to identify which particular picture the archive is hidden in, while all other methods are quite easy to deactivate.

Finding hidden elements

If you want to check if there are hidden objects on your computer that other users have created, you can use the built-in functions of the OS to find a hidden folder or file.

Activating showing hidden folders

The easiest way to show hidden folders in Windows is to use the Explorer settings window already mentioned above. Open File Explorer Options and additional settings check the “Show hidden folders” box:

How to find an invisible folder

To find an invisible folder on the desktop, press the CtrlA key combination. This will allow you to select all the elements and find out if there are invisible objects in the system. You can search for folders in Explorer in the same way.

Hidden folders on a flash drive

After connecting the flash drive to the computer, it becomes part of the operating system Explorer, so its contents will be affected by everything installed in Windows settings. To open hidden folders in Windows on a flash drive, just change the advanced settings of Explorer to “Show hidden files", as already described above.

You can only secure the contents of a flash drive using programs that set a password on a USB drive:

TrueCrypt - free program to encrypt the entire contents of a flash drive, the volume of which is more than 2GB;
Rohos Mini Drive – the ability to encrypt not the entire flash drive, but only individual directories or files;
MyFolder – protects content on flash drives and OS root folders.

Bottom line

Now you know about everyone possible ways, how to hide a folder in Windows or how to find and open it. If you have not previously encountered setting up invisible folders, we recommend that you first use the standard Explorer settings.

For users who need to constantly hide information, we recommend working with Free utility Hide Folder or hide a directory in a picture. This increases the chances that the information will remain confidential, even if someone deliberately tries to find the folder.

The Windows operating system allows for a huge variety of actions related to technical processes. Today we will talk about hiding folders and files on your computer. About why this is done and how to find them.

Let's start with the fact that in some cases, the concealment of certain documents is provided for by the developers of this system. Default some important elements are hidden so that the user cannot accidentally find them delete And damage normal functioning systems. Sometimes users hide them in order to hide personal data or simply important information from prying eyes. In any case, sometimes there is a need to find them, let's look at how to do this.

Displaying folders in Windows 7

First you need to find the shortcut " My computer", in the window that opens, select the menu item " Arrange", opening this menu, click in the section “ Folder and search options» and left-click.

After which a new window ““ will open. You need to go to the section " View", scroll the menu to the very bottom, where you will find the item " Hidden files and folders". Next, just switch to the point where hidden files will be shown, apply and click “ OK«.

All documents that are not displayed will be shown after this operation. They will stand out in a slightly duller color.

Hidden folders in Windows 8

A similar operation needs to be repeated in Windows 8. First, open the same shortcut “ My computer“, and then find the checkmark at the top and open additional section if it is not open by default.

In the menu that opens, select “ View" and click on the icon " Options«

In the window that appears, we repeat the same steps as in the previous algorithm, and you can also uncheck the “ Hide protected system files“if you need it for a specific purpose. After this, all non-displayed folders will become visible, but different in color.

Display in Windows 10

The actions are absolutely the same as in Windows 8, all sections and items are saved in their places, so there is no need to describe them.

Show hidden folders in Total Commander

It is much easier, in my opinion, to display hidden documents using third party program, for example, Total Commander. In the program find in top panel chapter " Configuration". In it select the item “ Settings«.

In the menu that opens, select the subsection “ Panel Contents" and then just check the boxes " Show hidden files" and, if necessary, " Show system files«.

Apply and click " OK". All documents are displayed, which is what we wanted.

It’s worth mentioning that developers hide system elements for a reason. Their removal, alteration and damage may result in crash and errors in the system, so they should be treated with special care and caution. If you are trying to find hidden files on someone else's computer, a moral question arises. The user hid these files for a reason, which means viewing them is wrong - respect everyone’s privacy.

As you know, Windows is configured by default so that some folders are hidden from the user's eyes. As a rule, these are folders containing various service files. Since all users have different operating systems (hereinafter referred to as OS) installed on their computers, we will consider this process from the very beginning - from the search for information. Let's look at the process of finding such folders using Windows7 as an example. In the article, the pictures usually do not show the entire page, but only the necessary part of it - so that it is better visible.

First we'll need Windows Help. In all operating systems it is located in different places, but is always visible. It is usually located in the Start menu:

Click to open the Help page:

Fig.2
At the top there is a search window. Enter our request “Hidden folders” there and click the “Search in Help” button (magnifying glass icon, right arrow). The results page opens.

You can read the information presented there, or you can come back to it later. We need to make sure that the hidden folder is visible, and for this we need to change its properties. Click on the line “Change folder properties”, the page of the same name opens:

If we now click on the line “Click here...” (shown by the arrow), then we will see a dialog box:

We need the “View” tab (located at the top, shown with an arrow). Let's click on it:

We need to work in the window " Additional options" We lower the scroll bar slider down and see the settings elements that interest us:

We need to click on the radio button (circle) “Show hidden files, folders and drives” and the “Apply” button will immediately activate (it will become bright, compare with the following picture):

Fig.8

Click on the “Apply” button, it will again become inactive. Now you need to click on the OK button.

Fig.9

If you now look at the liver of folders located in the User folder, you will see that we have new folders, for example, AppData, which are shown more faintly than others - this shows that the folder was previously hidden. If you click on it, you will see all its contents, i.e. it behaves like a regular folder.

Now in this folder you can find the necessary folders and files and work with them.

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For a variety of purposes, but the user should be interested in how to find a hidden folder. The function of removing files from prying eyes is available in each of the operating systems. Hidden, as a rule, are various important files. These are, for example, elements of the system that the creators tried to make invisible for the benefit of the users themselves. At times, computer owners themselves make sure that outsiders cannot look at certain information. Be that as it may, such files are available on any computer, regardless of their purpose.

So how to find a hidden folder? The most common option is to make it visible. To do this, just open an explorer window, look in the “Tools” menu, and then select folder properties. In the next section, you will need to go to the "View" tab. Next - “additional materials”, and there check the box - “show hidden files and folders”. Then you need to confirm. That’s it, after this, in most cases you will be able to see previously hidden documents and programs.

It happens that viruses are blocked this opportunity, and people wondering how to find the folder become desperate. Don't panic, this is done through change certain values in the registry. Just find lines in the vastness that return everything to normal, change it - and that’s it.

There is an alternative to this process. Any file manager, for example, Total Commander. With it, the question of how to find a hidden folder will completely and quickly disappear.

You just need to press a special star-shaped button, which will show you everything that was hidden.

There are other methods. For example, you need to understand that hidden folders are those that really exist, that is, if you know what they are called, getting into them is not difficult at all. Of course, you still need to have an idea of where they are located. If you know all this, then just type the text in the address bar of Explorer manually - and you will instantly get where you need to go. IN in this case Whether the folder is hidden or not does not matter.

How can I find a hidden folder in another way? Can be connected hard drive with them to the computer on which it is installed operating system another type - not Windows. It doesn't matter what the properties of the folder are, because it still remains on the hard drive. That is why, after connecting it to another PC, you will be able to see all the contents. And not only - it will be possible to delete or change it.

You can resort to another technique to see hidden folders. Often, in order to recover this or that information, people resort to using a variety of LiveCDs. From these drives a specific operating system is loaded, which provides the user with access to certain devices connected to this computer. Thus, you can easily go to any hard drive and view in detail all the files and folders located there, regardless of what attributes are set in the properties.

Actually, as you can see, there are options to see hidden documents quite a lot. The question is whether you really need it. If you are planning to gain access to system files In order to make any changes or delete them, think several times in advance. Careless deletion of folders vital to the system can lead to irreversible consequences. Do not forget about this before any manipulations. Perhaps everything will end with a reinstallation. Be that as it may, if you are confident in your actions, then go for it. Maybe you can find something interesting on your friend's computer or change your Windows files for the better. Moreover, it is a good experience.