Solved How do I hide/unhide specific files of my choosing?

[MarkC0]

Hello,
I am looking for a way to hide and unhide specific files/folders of my choosing. I imagine this can be done via a method or third party program that creates two options in the right-click context menu:
1) Hide selected files/folders
2) Unhide all files/folders

I am open to other suggestions or ways in which this can be done, of course.

Thanks!

 

[Brink]

Hello Mark,

You could use the tutorial below to actually hide or unhide a specific file or folder.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/56005-file-folder-hide-unhide.html
​

However, when you choose to show hidden files, it shows all hidden files and not just select specific ones. If you like, you could use the tutorial below to be able to toggle showing or not showing hidden files in the context menu.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/156518-show-hide-hidden-files-add-context-menu.html
​

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[search53]

Just right click on whatever you want to hide, and choose Properties. In that dialog is a box labelled "Hidden". Put a checkmark in it. It's that simple.

Keep in mind that once it's hidden, you have to go into Tools | Folder options | View in order to see the hidden files and folders if you should want to Unhide them.

Also keep in mind that if this option has already been selected, you'll still see the files and folders even after setting the "Hidden" attribute.

 

[MarkC0]

Thanks for the quick replies guys.

Not exactly the solutions I am looking for though . What you guys have explained has two main issues for me:
1) It involves crawling around in multiple menus. This feature loses it's value to me as it loses it's ease of use. To be honest, that's a bit of a "bitch" to just hide/show a couple of files when they will be constantly changed between hidden/shown.
2) I am looking to hide/show specific files/folders. The methods explained only allows me to set specific files as "hidden". The actual process of showing/hiding them affects ALL files on my computer, not the specific ones.

I am looking for a tool that hides specific files/folders of my choosing. I am looking for the "unhide" feature to ONLY show specific files/folder... be it all hidden files/folder within the folder I am in, through organizing the hidden entities into categories, or other methods. It also can't involve running around to multiple menus like that.

Am I sounding impossible? Probably if I'm asking for it by default in Windows.... that would actually be intuitive of them, so no I don't expect it . Third party software will do if that's my only option!

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Orbital Shark]

The way Windows works is...

If you hide a file it's hidden. You wil not be able to view/change it unless you allow explorer to be able to view all hidden files.

Sounds like your looking for something that will add a "show me the current hidden files within this folder so I can select to unhide 1" context menu and Windows can't be configured that way.

 

[MarkC0]

The way Windows works is...

If you hide a file it's hidden. You wil not be able to view/change it unless you allow explorer to be able to view all hidden files.

Sounds like your looking for something that will add a "show me the current hidden files within this folder so I can select to unhide 1" context menu and Windows can't be configured that way.

Explained better below.

 

[MarkC0]

- I am looking to hide those selected folders and files so they disappear from my view, not just dim out.
- At some point I would like to come back to this directory, right-click in the free space, and select "Show all hidden files/folders", at which point they will return.
- I would like this whole process to have 0 affect on other files/folders outside these directories and sub-directories.

When I say words like "hide" or "show", I am NOT referencing Microsoft's definition for these words as it pertains to their OS. I am using them in their basic definition. Hide means I cannot see them. Show/unhide means I can see them. These are not meant as technical terms . As you can see in the image above, 3 of these files/folders are already set as "hidden" (technical term this time).

 

[Orbital Shark]

If you're working within the confines of 1 window at a time then the solution below should be fine. As it seems you wish to "Hide" files then at some point "Unnhide them". As you will be doing this from within the same window it should make no difference as to whether all files are shown as you're only going to see the ones in the active window.

Hello Mark,

You could use the tutorial below to actually hide or unhide a specific file or folder.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/56005-file-folder-hide-unhide.html
​

However, when you choose to show hidden files, it shows all hidden files and not just select specific ones. If you like, you could use the tutorial below to be able to toggle showing or not showing hidden files in the context menu.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/156518-show-hide-hidden-files-add-context-menu.html
​

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[fseal]

Those files you highlighted are hidden already.

You may be seeing them because you have "Hide protected operating system files" disabled. So turn that back on and they will go away. (Explorer->Organize->Folder/Search options->View)

The .tmp at the bottom is not hidden, right click and hide as explained above and it too will be gone.

 

[MarkC0]

Those files you highlighted are hidden already.

You may be seeing them because you have "Hide protected operating system files" disabled. So turn that back on and they will go away. (Explorer->Organize->Folder/Search options->View)

The .tmp at the bottom is not hidden, right click and hide as explained above and it too will be gone.

Thanks for the reply.

Hiding all protected operating system files just so I can hide a specific 2-3 files is not a feasible solution IMO though. xD

 

[MarkC0]

If you're working within the confines of 1 window at a time then the solution below should be fine. As it seems you wish to "Hide" files then at some point "Unnhide them". As you will be doing this from within the same window it should make no difference as to whether all files are shown as you're only going to see the ones in the active window.

Hello Mark,

You could use the tutorial below to actually hide or unhide a specific file or folder.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/56005-file-folder-hide-unhide.html
​

However, when you choose to show hidden files, it shows all hidden files and not just select specific ones. If you like, you could use the tutorial below to be able to toggle showing or not showing hidden files in the context menu.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/156518-show-hide-hidden-files-add-context-menu.html
​

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Right, but I cannot have those files hidden (non-technical) without also hiding (non-technical) all other hidden (technical) files. I don't want other files that are set as hidden (technical) to be affected by these changes... however this might be impossible.

That leaves me with this question: Is there any difference between a hidden (technical) file and a non-hidden (technical) file when "show hidden files" is enabled in Folder Options? I was under the assumption that these files will not show up in searches, "recently opened documents section", etc, even when "showing hidden files". If this is not true -if a hidden/non-hidden file is the exact same when "showing hidden files"- the solutions presented indeed may work!

Lastly... what would be the quickest way to disable hidden (technical) on ALL files? This way I may start from scratch, and only files of my choosing become affected when changing the show hidden files/folders option. I attempted to highlight the contents of my drive and enable "hidden" via the R-Click properties menu but it would have nothing of it... greyed out.

 

[Brink]

Mark,

If you would give what I suggested above a try, it may work for what you wanted. You could use the context menu item in my post by clicking on it to toggle to hide or show all hidden files/folders at will.

You have two types of hidden files in Windows 7. One is system files, and the other protected OS system files. When hidden files are set to not show, they will not show up in search results.

 

[fseal]

I suppose there is some specific reason why you want to see the protected system files all the time in most places but not others. I find that I need that maybe once every few months and turning it on doing work then then turning them off again when not needed isn't that big of a deal... So 99% of the time the folders are hidden and uncluttered as they should be, but I can get at the contents with a couple of mouse clicks.

 

[search53]

Oh, so you want to be able to view SOME hidden files, but not all - right?

If so, can't be done. There's only one way to hide a file/folder. All files/folders use this method. If you see one, you see them all.

What you CAN do, though... is install a "safe" on the drive. These files will be invisible unless you know the password to the safe. The disadvantage to this is that the files/folders would need to be MOVED into the safe - anything outside the safe would be visible.

 

[search53]

You have two types of hidden files in Windows 7. One is system files, and the other protected OS system files. When hidden files are set to not show, they will not show up in search results.

I forgot about the "System" attribute - but that's a bear to set. I think the only way to do that is to use CMD to get to the C:\ prompt and ATTRIB to set the attribute.

edit: And I'm not convinced it will cause it to be hidden. Show Hidden seems to display files that have the System attribute set.

 

[MarkC0]

Alright, thanks for the help guys. I've found a "solution". Hopefully others reading this thread who are experiencing the same problem can also use this solution effectively:

- I had to separate protected OS files. I've set the few files I don't want to be "protected" to have different attributes using CMD, so they aren't considered in that group anymore. Now if I hide protected OS files, they will not become hidden.

- Now I did mention there are some files (normal, not protected OS) I wanted to stay hidden and not be affected when I change things around with other hidden files. Using CMD, I changed these files to be set as "protected OS files", so they now stay hidden independent of the changes I make to "hidden files/folders". I believe this can also be done through the Win7 GUI however.

- I set all the other hidden files/folders on my computer to non-hidden. Through Folder Options, I then set it to hide "protected OS files" and show "hidden files/folders". However, there are no files/folders set as hidden. The ones I want hidden are now included in protected OS files. As such, all things I add as "hidden" from this point on will be the only things included in that category, and only those items will be altered when changes to "hidden files/folders" are made.

- Finally, using the right-click context menu trick, I can easily turn these hidden files on/off.



It took awhile... it's not perfect... but it will do. I'd like to thank everyone in this thread for their help. seal, shark, brink, search. You will all be repped!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Mark. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted how you like.