Well this is going to be a common question, so let’s take a quick look at how to unhide and show files that are hidden on your Windows machine, intentionally (system files) or not.
| Unhide Files Properly |
|---|
| On Windows 8 Or 10 Using The View Tab |
| On Windows 7 Using The Control Panel |
| Using The Command Prompt For Serious Cases (Virus/Trojan) |
Show Files On Windows 8 or 10 (Final)
Windows 8 and 10 both share the same Windows explorer design. If you want to show hidden files, open the Windows Explorer and open the folder where the hidden files reside. Now at the top you see fours tabs called File, Home, Share and View:
Click on View
On the right side (2nd column) you will find the option Hidden files, tick it to unhide all files and folders that were hidden:
9 Steps To Unhide Files in Windows 7: The Simple Way
1. StepStart Button
2. Step Control Panel
4. Step Click on Appearance and Personalization
5. Step Click on Folder Options
6. StepGo to the tab View
7. Step Check “Hidden files and folders: Show all files and folders”
8. Step Uncheck “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)”
9. Step Click “Apply” and then “OK”
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Steps To Unhide Files in Windows 8
If you are on Windows 8 or 8.1, then follow the steps below
1. Step Open the Windows Explorer using the key combination Windows key + E (same time!)
2. Step Ok? Then double-click on your C: drive
3. Step At the top you will now see this:
4. Step Alright, now on the right you will see a checkbox, tick the option Hidden Items to view those invisible files.
Steps To Unhide Files Hidden By A Virus Using The Command Prompt
Aside from the regular hidden files, there are super hidden files. This usually works by modifying the file attributes using the command prompt. It’s actually very easy to do and you only need to know a few commands to unhide files hidden by a virus
CAREFUL: The next steps could break your entire system
1. Step In order to avoid system problems, we are going to test the commands to unhide files first.
2. Step Open a command prompt
3. Step Enter the command cd D:, followed by mkdir test (what it does is create a test folder on the D drive)
4. Step Now enter cd D:/test
5. Step Open the Windows Explorer in the background and copy a simple file into D:/test
6. Step Enter attrib +s +h *.*
7. Step Now you should see that the file is either greyed out (on Windows 8) or completely hidden (on Windows 7, using default settings)
8. Step To remove those file attributes replace the + with a – sign e.g. attrib -s -h *.*
9. Step Now you should know how to unhide files hidden by virus as well – please post any questions below if you still need help. Be as precise as possible or you will most likely not receive an answer