How to hide a Windows folder on a computer or laptop. Three simple and convenient ways to hide a folder in Windows How to hide files and folders

This method is effective, but raises questions and mistrust. Today we’ll look at the easiest way to hide a folder in Windows. Less effective, but no one sees it and doesn’t ask stupid questions “what’s in it.”

If you have top secret information on which the safety of humanity depends, use 2 methods at once. This is of course a joke, let's get started.

A quick way to hide a folder

Move porn and nude photos the desired folder with secret documents to any other folder on your hard drive, then right-click on it and select “properties”.

In the top menu you need to select “General”. Check the box at the very bottom where the attributes and the word “hidden” are. Click ok and you can check. Most likely the folder is already hidden, but not always. There is a possibility that after such a procedure it will become a little grayer and that’s it.

To completely hide the “gray folder”, do the following: Open the Start menu, go to the Control Panel, then find “Folder Options” and you need to switch to the “View” tab.

Scroll the slider all the way down to the Hidden Files and Folders section. As shown in the screenshot above, you need to switch the lever to “do not show hidden files, folders and drives”. Congratulations, you did it. No one will find hidden “documents” in your Windows anymore).

How to make a hidden folder visible

Well done, you decided not to suffer by doing all the above in order to see the hidden folder again. You would be enough for a couple of times, no more, and you wouldn’t want to eat anything else. Of course, if you like perversions, you can open it in the same way as you hid it, but for the rest I offer another interesting way.

Download Total Commander and open it. Next, you need to open the “view” tab in the menu, then “advanced settings” and turn on “Show hidden files and folders”. That's all! Now, when you need to see a hidden folder, open it through the Total Commander program.

Oh yes, I completely forgot when I wrote this article, you can hide a folder in any Windows through the properties in the program mentioned above. Well, this is so, it might come in handy.

How to hide a folder: video

According to the old tradition, for those who do not understand something, I am attaching video instructions from YouTube.

How to make a hidden folder or file on your computer? Surely, many users have encountered the need to make a hidden folder or hide some file on their computer.

You may need to hide a folder or file for various reasons. In order not to accidentally delete an important folder or file, especially if other users have access to the computer. Also, a file or folder may be hidden due to sensitive data that is not intended for public viewing.

A situation may just happen when a folder or file needs to be urgently and quickly hidden from strangers, and you won’t have time to run special programs.

You can make a hidden folder using the operating system itself. You can also use programs specially designed for this; in addition, you can put a password on a folder or file, for example, using an archiver or.

Using Windows operating system tools, you can hide a folder or hide a file, and you can also create an invisible folder. Both methods work equally well in the operating systems Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP.

How to hide a folder on your computer in Windows

In order to make a hidden folder, you first need to right-click on the folder or file, and then select “Properties” in the context menu. In the “Properties: folder name” window, in the “General” tab, in the “Attributes” section, you will need to check the box next to the “Hidden” item, and then click on the “OK” button.

In order to hide a file, you need to do the same.

Next, the “Confirm attribute changes” window opens. In this window, you will need to select one of the options: “Apply changes only to this folder”, or “To this folder and all subfolders and files”, and then click on the “OK” button.

• “Confirm changes to this folder only” - only this folder will be hidden.
• “To this folder and to all subfolders and files” - not only this folder will be hidden, but its subfolders and files will also be hidden.

By default, the item “To this folder and to all subfolders and files” is activated. In any case, this folder will be hidden and the folders and files in it will not be visible.

After this, the folder or file will become hidden and disappear from view.

How to see hidden folders in Windows

In order to show hidden folders or files in Windows, you need to enable the display of hidden folders and files in the operating system. This can be done from the Control Panel or from any folder. In the folder, you will need to click on the menu button “Arrange” => “Folder and Search Options”.

After this, the “Folder Options” window will open, in which you will need to open the “View” tab, and in the “Advanced options” field, activate the “Show hidden files, folders and drives” item. Then click on the “OK” or “Apply” => “OK” button.

After this, you can see the hidden folders again.

How to make hidden folders visible

After showing hidden folders and files has been enabled on your computer, you can open hidden folders and files to make them visible again.

In order to display hidden folders, you will need to right-click on the hidden file or hidden folder. Such hidden folders or hidden files will appear semi-transparent.

In the “Properties” window, in the “General” tab, you will need to uncheck the box next to “Hidden”, and then click on the “OK” button.

If it was a hidden folder, then in the next window you will need to click on the “OK” button.

Attention! After you finish operations with hidden folders or files, do not forget to re-enable the “Do not show hidden folders, files and drives” option.

How to create an invisible folder

First you will need to create a new folder, or use an existing one. Move the folder that you will make invisible from the center to the edge of the monitor screen so that it is not in the working part of the monitor.

In order to make a folder invisible, you need to right-click on it, and then click on the “Rename” context menu item. On the keyboard, press and hold the “Alt” key, and on the number pad, enter the numbers “255” one by one. After this, on the “Desktop” you will see a folder without a name. This folder is not hidden yet.

Then the Properties window opens. In this window, in the “Settings” tab, you need to click on the “Change icon...” button.

In the “Change folder icon” window that opens, in the “Select an icon from the following list” field, you will need to find free space with transparent icons, and then click on such a transparent icon. After that, click on the “OK” button in both windows.

The folder disappears from the “Desktop”, this folder has become invisible.

This method has disadvantages. Such an invisible folder will be noticeable when you drag another folder or file over this location, or when highlighting this part of the monitor screen.

The invisible folder can also be seen using Explorer. Open the Desktop folder in Explorer. In this folder, you will see a folder with a transparent icon, which you can open to view the contents of the invisible folder.

How to make an invisible folder a hidden folder

To ensure that an invisible folder is not visible when you hover the mouse over an area of ​​the screen, or in a folder in Explorer, an invisible folder can be made hidden. As a result, the hidden folder will have additional protection from detection.

1. Move your mouse cursor to the location of the invisible folder and right-click.
2. Select "Properties" from the context menu.
3. In the “Properties: folder name” window, in the “General” tab, in the “Attributes” section, check the box next to “Hidden”, and then click on the “OK” button.

An invisible folder will become hidden and will not be highlighted when you hover your mouse over the folder's location on the Desktop.

How to make an invisible folder visible

In the place where the invisible folder is located, right-click on the invisible folder. After this, a context menu will open. In the context menu, click on the “Properties” item.

In the "Properties" window, open the "Settings" tab, and then click on the "Change icon..." button. In the “Change Folder Icon” window, select the folder icon, and then click the “OK” button in both windows.

After this, the invisible folder becomes visible, only it does not yet have a name.

To give a name to a folder, right-click on the folder and select “Rename” from the context menu. Then give this folder a new name.

Conclusions of the article

In the Windows operating system, you can quickly make a hidden folder, as well as create an invisible folder that will disappear from view. Using a hidden or invisible folder, the user can hide data that is not intended for public viewing.

How to make a hidden folder in Windows (video)

Any PC user should definitely know this. For what? There are a lot of reasons.

First, these are the basic basics. Secondly, perhaps you share a PC or laptop with relatives and do not want them to see some documents. In this case, you can make a hidden folder in Windows and copy documents there. The same goes for your work PC. If there are some “secret” files that you don’t want others to see, you can hide the folder on your desktop or somewhere else.

How to hide a directory on PC?

Let's start with the classic method. All actions are performed in the same way.

By the way, you don’t need to do almost anything.

If there are files in it, then Windows will ask you what exactly to hide - one folder or the documents nested in it too. It is recommended to select the latter option.

This is how you can hide a folder on your computer. If everything was done correctly, it will immediately disappear. If the folder has become transparent but is still visible, this means that the display of hidden documents is enabled on the PC. The fix is ​​very easy:

There is an alternative option: click Start – Control Panel and select the “Folder Options” line.

A familiar window will appear: go to the “View” section and enable or disable the display of hidden documents.

How can I remove the hidden attribute from a folder and make it visible again? In the same way: select it, right-click – Properties, but now uncheck the “Hidden” box. Just before doing this, configure Windows to show hidden documents.

Advantages of this method:

• simple, fast and accessible to any user;
• works on all versions of Windows;
• there is no need to install a special program.

True, it will not be possible to hide a folder on a computer from experienced users in this way. Although if you create it not on the desktop, but somewhere else, then you still need to try to find it. That is, if no one will look for your hidden files, then this method can be considered effective.

How to hide a folder in the program?

A more reliable method would be to use special software. What program can I use to hide a folder? There are a lot of them today, but the free Free Hide Folder will also suit you (do not confuse it with the similar Hide Folders software - it is paid).

Hiding folders in Windows using this program is very simple:

1. Launch it and enter a new password so that no one can open it.
2. Next, the program will ask for a registration code - skip this step by clicking the “Skip” button.
3. To hide a folder on a laptop or flash drive, click the “Add” button and indicate where it is located.

After this, a warning will pop up about the need to make a backup (backup copy), in case someone accidentally deletes the program. Agree - and the folder will become invisible.

The main advantage of the software is that no user will find hidden documents. To access them you need:

• turn on the program;
• enter the previously specified password;
• find a specific folder and select “Unhide”.

Then it will become visible again. But since no one knows the password, they will not be able to see the hidden files. The only disadvantage of this method is the need to install software, but this is nonsense.

How to hide a folder: an advanced method

And the last way to hide a folder in Windows 7, 8, 10 and XP is for real gurus. In this case, it is not hidden, but disguised as an image. So, to hide a folder on your hard drive, you need to prepare files and find any picture. For example, I’ll take this little bastard.

Now is the time to hide important documents:

Ready. After this, a new picture named kartinka will appear in the itdoc folder.

If you simply click on it, an image of a piglet will open. But if you open it through WinRAR, your archive with files will launch.

Place the picture anywhere: on your desktop, on a flash drive or anywhere on your hard drive. All the same, for ordinary users it will be a simple image that does not arouse suspicion. And if necessary, you can extract “secret” files from it.

Hello friends! Do you know how to hide a folder so that no one but you can get to it? Do not know? So, now in this short article I will describe to you in detail how you can hide your personal folders and protect them from unnecessary attention.

As you know, by default any folder is created in normal form, and it can be made hidden only later, asking her certain attributes. Over the course of the article, I will look at how this can be done using several methods:

• Using file properties;
• Via Total Commander;
• Using the command line;

First, I recommend creating a new folder and trying to hide it, in order to understand how it works, and only then proceed to the folder with your files. Well, come on, I’ll finally show you how to hide a folder in Windows 7 and other operating systems.

Hiding a folder using file properties

Hiding a folder using its properties is the simplest method that exists in Windows operating systems, although after seeing it, you will now see for yourself.

By right-clicking on the folder, select “ Properties».

The folder options will open, where, going a little lower to the attributes section, check the box next to the “ Hidden" and don't forget to press the save buttons first " Apply».

If you have any files stored in the hidden folder that you also want to hide, then when the “ Attribute Change Confirmations"You should check the box " To this folder and to all attached files" If, on the contrary, you need to hide only the folder and leave the files unchanged, then mark the first option and click “ OK" After this, the folder will receive the hidden attribute, and all attached files will remain unchanged.

How to hide a folder using Total Commander

In the second method, we will turn to the downloaded Total Commander program for help, thanks to which we can also hide any folder by setting the corresponding attribute to it.

Surely many of you already use this file manager, so I won’t explain much about its installation. The rest, who hear about it for the first time, should download it and install it on their personal computer.

So, we launch Total Commander and use navigation to go to the folder we need.

Now, having selected the folder with the right button, go to the menu where we click “ Files» – «».

A settings window will appear where we will be offered four types of attributes to choose from “ Archived, read-only, hidden and system" Since you and I have the same goal to hide the folder, we tick the “ Hidden", and confirm our choice by clicking on " OK" That's all, as you can see, nothing complicated.

Now I want to say a few words about the attribute " System" This attribute can also be classified as hidden. In general, look what happens if you mark hidden and system attributes together.

If you only select " Hidden", then the user will be able to see all folders by turning on simple display of files, but if you additionally check the box " systemic", then in this case, when simply displaying hidden files, it will not be visible.

Just in order to see system files in the folder view properties, you should uncheck the “ Hide system files and folders" Few ordinary users know about this, so this attribute can be regarded as an additional type of security.

Hiding a folder via the command line

I would probably consider this option to be the most difficult, because here you will have to execute commands in CMD, which many users really don’t like. But I will consider it, since it is also performed using Windows’ own utility, which is installed with the system.

Well, let's get started, as usual when working with CMD we call " Execute» having already pressed a familiar key combination Windows + R. A window will open in which you can enter three letters “ CMD» click « Enter».

A command line will appear in which, in order to hide the folder, we will need to specify the attribute “ h", which is responsible for performing this action.

So, in order to hide the folder, run this command: attrib +h “C:\Folder”

I’ll explain the command a little so you understand what’s what:

• attrib— execution command to change the attribute;
• +h – an attribute that will give a hidden appearance to our folder;
• “C:\Folder” – the location where the hidden folder is stored ( you must specify your path to the folder);

By executing this command, the folder will become accessible only with the settings for showing hidden files enabled.

Through the command line, as well as through Total Commander, you can also specify a system attribute (which was described just above) adding +s:

attrib +h +s “C:\Folder”

By the way, after setting the system attribute, it will no longer be possible to remove the hidden view from the folder using the file properties, as the attribute will simply not be available.

For those who have finally changed their mind about hiding their files, now I will show you how you can get it all back. In principle, you don’t need to do anything complicated, just change a few characters in the command and that’s it, our folder will look the same as if nothing was done to it.

attrib -h -s “C:\Folder”

Making a folder invisible by changing the appearance of the icon

For those who don’t want to bother with all these attributes, I have another simple and interesting piece of advice. Its simplicity is that we can hide our folder without hiding it completely, but by setting only a transparent icon and an invisible name. Do you know how this can be done? No? Then, let me show it to you.

So, having called the folder properties, go to the “ Settings" and click on the button " Change icon».

In the abundance of icons that appears, select any empty space and click “ Ok».

As a result, you should see something similar in front of you.

So, now all we have to do is hide the name; to do this, select the folder and click “ F2" to rename the file. Now, holding down " ALT", hold it and write a set of numbers like this: 255 , then release all the keys and press “ Enter" As a result, there will be nothing on the screen except a dotted line around the hidden folder.

As always, in conclusion, I advise you to try all the options and choose the one that suits you. I don’t tie you to any one, since they are all working and not very complicated.

These recommendations will help you hide your personal information from ordinary users who are not particularly versed in all the intricacies of working with a computer. So, more experienced users probably know about these ways to hide a folder, and will probably be able to find them. Therefore, if you really need to hide something, you hide the folder, but store it a little deeper, on drive D for example, and not on the desktop.

Three simple and convenient ways to hide a folder in Windows

Sometimes there is a need to protect personal files or folders. This is especially true if more than one person is working with the computer. One solution is hiding. Of course, it will not help in the case of an experienced user. But it will hide information from unsuspecting eyes.

How to hide/show files and folders on a Windows 7 computer

Standard method

To hide a file or folder, you need to go through two steps:

Disable visibility of hidden folders

If the “Do not show...” option is set in the settings, then hidden files and folders will still be displayed, with the only difference being that the label for such objects is dimmer compared to a regular element.

Changing folder/file settings

After these steps, the folder or files will become hidden and will not be displayed.

Enable visibility and view

To show hidden items, you need to go to the folder settings and check the box next to “Show hidden files, folders and drives.” And for a specific object to stop being invisible, you need to uncheck the “Hidden” option.

How to make a folder invisible - video

Via Total Commander

This method is related to the previous one in that in “Folder Options” there should also be a checkmark next to the item “Do not show hidden files, folders and drives”.

How to view files and make them open

To show hidden files and folders, press Ctrl + H.

To make documents visible again, you need to use the Alt + A combination and uncheck the “Hidden” checkbox.

Via Free Hide Folder

If you want to be sure that no one can see hidden information, you can use the Free Hide Folder program, which requires setting a password.

Free Hide Folder does not hide individual files. Available for free download on the Internet.

1. When you launch the program for the first time, a window will appear in which you need to enter and confirm a password. By the way, you will also need it when uninstalling the program.
2. The next window will ask you to enter a registration code, but this is not a requirement. To continue working, you need to select Skip.
3. Then click on the Add icon and select the folder that you want to hide.
4. After the folder is selected, a message will appear indicating that it is advisable to make a Backup. It is advisable to follow the advice.
   

   Backup saves information about the program. If the latter is deleted, then after re-installation, access to hidden folders will be restored.

In addition to Add, the general window has buttons for:

How to find hidden information and transfer it to a flash drive

Free Hide Folder hides folders so that they cannot be found using search. The only way is to open the program and select the Unhide tool. Another special feature is that it does not hide documents located on removable disks.

Since Windows search cannot detect documents hidden using Free Hide Folder, copying cannot be used. Thus, invisible folders cannot be transferred to removable drives.

Using an image and an archiver

For this method you will need a folder with files, any image and the WinRAR archiver. The program is available for free download on the official website. In this case, the processor bit capacity must be taken into account. To find out, you need:

You can take any image, there are no restrictions.

1. Add the desired folder to the archive.
2. Place the archive and the image in one folder, preferably located in the root of the disk.
3. Using the Win + R combination, launch the Run tool, enter cmd in the line and click OK.
4. In the command line, go to the folder where the archive and image are located. To do this, enter the cd command and the address. In this case it is cd c:\.
5. Then press Enter.
6. Now in the line you need to write the names of the image, archive and new file. Also, extensions must be specified in all three positions. In this case it turns out: COPY /B Image.jpg + FolderWithFiles.rar ImageWithArchive.jpg.
7. Press Enter. If everything was written correctly, a message will appear on the command line indicating that the files were copied.

If you now open the created file, only the image that was taken as a basis will open.

The original files can be deleted.

How to view hidden files

To be able to view files hidden in the image, you need to open the illustration itself using WinRAR.

But the archiver must first be added to the list of programs that can open images:

1. In the “Open with” menu, click on “Select program”.
2. Click on “Browse” and in the window that opens, find the folder with the archiver.
3. Open the folder and select the program launch shortcut.
4. Next, WinRAR will appear in the list of programs that can open the image. You also need to uncheck the “Use the selected program for all files of this type” option. Otherwise, all images will be opened using the archiver.

When the user opens the image using the archiver, it will be visible that there is a folder inside.

But don't hide too much information in one file. If it takes up tens of megabytes, even an inexperienced user will become suspicious.

Possible mistakes

How to enable the “Show hidden files and folders” option

Sometimes a situation occurs that the user activates the “Show hidden files and folders” option, but the switch automatically switches to the “Do not show hidden files and folders” position. In this case you need:

Otherwise, the parameter must be created. To do this, right-click on a free area of ​​the window, select “New”, then “DWORD Value”. Call it CheckedValue and give the value 1.

1. Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
2. Find the Hidden parameter (with value 0), type REG_SZ, in the list and delete it.
3. If the list contains a Hidden parameter, type REG_DWORD, then change its value to 1. Otherwise, the parameter must be created.
4. Find the SuperHidden parameter, type REG_DWORD, in the list and change its value to 1.
5. Press "F5" to refresh the editor window and close it.

What to do if Folder Options is missing

This usually means that viruses have entered the system. Perhaps the antivirus simply failed to identify and remove malware. And so that the user cannot visually detect them, the authors of such applications use the “Hidden” or “System” attributes. In addition, the “Folder Options” menu item is removed.

Even if the malware is removed, the antivirus will not be able to restore this item. This will need to be done manually:

The Registry Editor may not have been blocked after a virus attack. In this case, you can use it:

1. Using Win + R, launch the Run tool, type regedit in the line and click OK.
2. Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.

In the right part of the window, find the NoFolderOptions parameter, type REG_DWORD. Double-click LMB to open it and set the value to 0.

Hiding files and folders is a quick and easy way to protect your personal information. Of course, the first two are less reliable, and sophisticated users may accidentally or intentionally discover the secret. But FHF and the archiver will hide personal data even from experienced eyes.