If you want to learn to view hidden files and folders in windows, you have come to the right place. We have put together a guide, step by step, that you can follow to achieve your goal. Yes, although it may not seem like it, Windows does not show you all the files on your system. This can be for multiple reasons, these being mostly security and protection reasons for the system.
To prevent possible damage to essential files, Windows decides to block the visibility of these files to its users. Nevertheless, you can skip this impositionand it is that on many occasions you will need access to these hidden folders to make changes to your computer or access files from other programs.
Today, we are going to show you a method that works “universally” across Windows. Although there is a short way you can fall back on, it varies a lot depending on what version of Windows you are on. The one we bring you today, on the other hand, you can do it on any computer. In addition, you only have to do it once and you will be able to permanently see these types of hidden documents.
This method should work at least until Microsoft decides to remove Windows Control Panel. At the moment, that has not happened, although there have been several rumors about it. However, as long as this essential Windows tool is around, you can follow the steps below.
- Open the Control Panel on your computer. If you don’t know how, simply type in the Windows search bar the words Control Panel and you can run it.
- In the upper right corner, select Large Icons.
- now search Folder options (in Windows 8 or lower) or File Explorer Options (on Windows 10 and later). Do it as appropriate to your system version.
Now a window will open. Here are the options we are interested in.
- Go to the tab Watchat the bottom of the window that just opened.
- In the section Hidden folders and filesChoose “Show hidden files, folders and drives“.
- Afterwards, tap on Applyand then in To accept to finish the setup.
Clever. It’s all done. From now on, all hidden files and folders in Windows now they will be available to you. In case you come across a document of this type, you will see that its appearance is somewhat different, with a lower opacity than the rest. However, its operation will be entirely at your disposal.