Security•Tips and Tricks

How to Hide Your Files and Folders with Just a Few Clicks! (PC)

February 13, 2010 by Ian Brown 2 Comments

This is a little known, but very handy tip that you can use whenever you want to hide your files and folders for whatever reason (e.g. the files have valuable financial info, you don’t want anyone else who uses your computer to see them, etc.). It’s very easy to do, but I still felt the need to do a video about it. I also added the text below the video in case you prefer to read.

Here is the video!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVc-DiNjVTA[/youtube]

And here is the text version of how to do it:

How to Hide Your Files and Folders

1.  RIGHT-click on the folder that you want to hide, go to PROPERTIES, and check the box next to “Hidden” at the bottom of that window
2.  Click OK
3.  Select “Apply Changes to this folder, subfolders, and files” (this setting will hide everything inside that folder; “subfolders” are folders that are inside that folder)
4.  Click OK again
5.  The folder will disappear

How to See the Hidden Folder and its Contents, and Then
Hide Them Again

1.  To see the folder as well as its contents again, open Windows Explorer (Go to START>PROGRAMS>ACCESSORIES>WINDOWS EXPLORER)
2.  Go to the TOOLS menu at the top of the WINDOWS EXPLORER and select FOLDER OPTIONS
3.  Click on the VIEW tab
4.  Select SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS
5.  Click OK
6.  The hidden folder that you just hid will now appear, only it will be faded, which means that it’s a hidden folder
7.  You can now open it and view/work with the files
8.  To hide it again, just follow Steps 6 – 10, except in Step 9, select DO NOT SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS, but make sure you do not have any of the files that are in that folder open in any
program

How to No Longer Hide the Hidden Folder and Its Contents

If you no longer wish to hide that folder and its contents, and you have the folder options set to DO NOT SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS, (where you can’t see the hidden folder) then follow steps 1 –  5 under How to See the Hidden Folder and its Contents… above.

Once you see the hidden folder (again, it will be faded), then do the following:

1.  RIGHT-click on the folder
2.  Select PROPERTIES
3.  UNcheck the box next to HIDDEN
4.  Click OK

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Written by Ian Brown
Ian has been involved with computers since very young. He took his first computer class when he was just 8 years old. He always had an affinity for computers, but never really took it seriously. It was not until he graduated from college and experienced the real world for a while did he realize that computers may be where his talent and passion lie. He has since branched out into Internet marketing and LOVES it. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he services clients ranging from residential to small business to celebrities.