show/hide hidden files from menu or icon?

I made the jump to Win 7 and finally I am leaving Vista behind (so to speak, since it is still vista).

I like the new OS much better and my old vista got very clunky with age. I am a web developer and I run multiple power applications so I have several rigs, all of them maxed out on RAM and available disk space.

Now that I have a shiny new OS I'd like to know if there is a shortcut I could create for one of the things that has been bugging me about all versions of Windows:

In the course of my day, I often need to visit the "Hidden" files in my computer. Normally, I have to go to Win Expl. and choose "display hidden files".
It's not a strenuous task, but I would much rather have a single button or menu item to do the same task. Can it be that hard to do?

The reason is that I often have to customize system files (mostly program files) and usually I keep the hidden files visible by default. If I could have an accessible switch to turn it on and off at will that did not require 4 steps to accomplish it would be certainly nicer. Otherwise I forget and I have to look at all the ugly files on my system.

Where should I look for such a functionality?

Thanks.

its in the control panels now look for "folder options". I'm not sure which category its under, but right next to the "folder options" link, there'll be a "show / hide hidden" link you can click on to toggle it.

Maybe this...
Show Hidden Files with a Keyboard Shortcut - Windows - Lifehacker

Thank you for the responses. Busy forum isn't it?

Incidentally, I did find the link in the control panel, but it's almost as cumbersome as using the folder options. What I would like is to have shortcut somewhere that toggles the view easily. A 1 click operation, 2 at the most.

I'll download the file another poster offered (Thanks) and I'll read the otehr posts carefully. Hopefully I'll find a good solution and I'll post back.

Thanks.

Mmmm... I tried all of them, hiddenfilestoggle 3.0 and the togglehiddenfiles but neither worked. The former did not create a Contextual menu entry I could find, the latter simply did not do a thing.

But I'll keep on working on it. It would be nice if the geniuses at MS would just give us the option of a graphical toggle in the windows UI.

In fact, while I am dreaming, how about making it folder specific or global? Am I asking too much?

Well, since I am dreaming, please Microsoft, place a toggle in the UI, buy me a new sports' car and a Ducati motorcycle, take care of that Darfur mess and tell Iran to stop messing around with nukes. Thanks.

Is there a specific reason you need it toggled? I just have mine set to showing my hidden folders/files always.

It is odd, but then again there is something odd about my computer. Since I installed Win 7 every night I find the computer turned off (I usually leave it on overnight). Each morning there is a crash report. Yet, during the day it works well and it's not prone to crashing.

I uninstalled a sound card driver that may be the culprit for that, but if it it's not I may have to redo the installation.

I'll try again to install the script today to see how it goes. Thanks anyway.