Hide Files and Folders on Every Operating System

 

Hide a File or Folder on Windows

To hide a file or folder on Windows, open a Windows Explorer or File Explorer window and locate the file or folder you want to hide. Right-click it and select Properties.

Enable the Hidden checkbox on the General pane of the Properties window. Click OK or Apply and your file or folder will be hidden.

Windows also has a second type of hidden file or folder, known as a “system file.” There’s a separate option to enable viewing system files and folders. You can make an extra-hidden file by marking it as a system file — people will have to go out of their way to disable the “Hide protected operating system files (recommended)” option to find it. You can’t do this from the graphical interface, so follow our guide to marking files and folders as system files on Windows if you want to do this.

View Hidden Files and Folders on Windows

To view a hidden file or folder on Windows 8 or 10, click the View tab on the ribbon at the top of the File Explorer window and enable the Hidden items checkbox under Show/hide. Hidden files and folders will have partially transparent icons, so you can easily tell which are hidden and which are normally visible.

On Windows 7, click the Organize button on the toolbar and select Folder and search options.

Click over to the View tab and select the Show hidden files, folders, and drives option. Click OK or Apply to save your changes.

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