How to Hide Files and Folders on Every Operating System
How to Hide Files and Folders on Every Operating System
A hidden file or folder is simply a normal file or folder that has the “hidden” option enabled on the file or folder. Because operating systems by default conceal these files, you can use this approach to conceal some data if you share a computer with another person.
This is a trick that is far from being failsafe. It's a piece of cake to enable the "display hidden files" option and locate a concealed file. Many system files are hidden by default in operating systems, mostly to keep them out of the way of the user.
Hide a File or Folder on Windows
The first step in hiding files and folders in Windows is to launch the Windows Explorer or the File Manager and navigate to the file or folder you want to conceal from view. Properties may be accessed by selecting it with the right-click menu.
Hidden checkbox on the General pane of the Properties window is enabled by default. After you click OK or Apply, your file or folder will be hidden from view.
A second form of hidden file or folder exists in Windows, and it is referred to as a "system file." The ability to examine system files and folders can be enabled via a separate setting. By designating a file as a system file, you can make it even more difficult to locate, as people will have to go out of their way to disable the “Hide protected operating system files (recommended)” option in order to find it. You won't be able to do this using the graphical user interface, so go to our article on how to mark files and directories as system files on Windows instead.
View Hidden Files and Folders on Windows
To view a hidden file or folder on Windows 8 or 10, select the View tab from the ribbon at the top of the File Explorer window and then select the Hidden items checkbox under Show/hide from the drop-down menu that appears. Hidden files and folders will have icons that are partially transparent, allowing you to distinguish between those that are hidden and those that are normally visible.
Then pick Folder and search options from the drop-down menu on the Organize button in the toolbar on Windows 7.
Select the Show hidden files, folders, and drives option from the View tab of the window that appears. To save your changes, select OK or Apply from the menu bar.
Hide a File or Folder on Linux
A period at the beginning of a file or folder's name causes Linux to hide the file or folder. To make a file or folder invisible, simply rename it with a period at the beginning of its name and save the changes. Consider the following scenario: you had a folder named Secrets that you wanted to keep hidden. You'd change the name to.Secrets, with a period in front of it. By default, file managers and other utilities will hide it from view, and vice versa.
View Hidden Files and Folders on Linux
To view hidden files and folders on Linux, select the “Show hidden” option in the file manager of your choice and click OK. For example, in the Nautilus file manager, which is used on Ubuntu and other GNOME-based Linux distributions, go to the View menu and select Show Hidden Files from the drop-down menu.
When enabled, the option will only display files and folders that have a period at the beginning of their names.
You can also see hidden files when you are in an Open or Save dialog box. On Ubuntu and other GNOME-based Linux distributions, all you have to do is right-click in the list of files and select the Show Hidden Files option from the contextual menu.
Hide a File or Folder on Mac OS X
Files and folders that begin with the letter. are also hidden on Mac computers. In addition, there is a special "hidden" attribute that the Finder will obey. Hide a file or folder on a Mac is a little more difficult to accomplish. In the Finder, if you attempt to rename a file or folder so that it begins with a period, you will be informed that "these names are reserved for the system." The Finder's graphical interface also doesn't provide a quick way to toggle the hidden attribute on and off quickly.
With the chflags command in the terminal, you can quickly mark a file or folder as hidden without having to navigate to it. Initialize a Terminal window by pressing Command + Space, typing Terminal into the Spotlight search dialog box, and pressing Enter to launch it.
Enter the following command into the terminal, but do not press Enter until the command is complete: chflags hidden
In the Finder, locate the file or folder you wish to conceal and select it. Drag and drop the file into the terminal window. The exact path to the file or folder will be displayed in the terminal.
To execute the command, press the Enter key. The file will be marked as hidden as a result of this action.
In the future, you can use the same command to unhide a file or folder by substituting “chflags nohidden” for “chflags hidden” in the output.
View Hidden Files and Folders on Mac OS X
To view hidden folders and files in any program's Open or Save dialog, Mac OS X provides a secret keyboard shortcut that you can use. Simply press the keys Command + Shift + Period. Please keep in mind that this only works in the Open and Save dialog boxes, not in the Finder itself. However, it is possible that this is the most convenient method of immediately accessing your hidden files when you require them.
In the Finder, there is currently no graphical interface for seeing hidden files and folders. As a result, you'll have to make use of a command. To begin, open a Terminal window in the same manner as described before. Run the commands below on your Mac running OS X 10.9 Mavericks. These commands will configure the Finder to always display hidden files and then restart the Finder to ensure that your modifications are effective. Each command should be entered into the terminal and followed by the Enter key.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
(On Mac OS X versions prior to Mavericks — 10.8 Mountain Lion and earlier.) If you're using OS X 10.7 Lion or Snow Leopard, use the same commands as above, but replace "com.apple.finder" to "com.apple.Finder" (the F in this case must be capitalized on these operating systems.)
The Finder will display files that have been hidden. They will be slightly transparent, allowing you to distinguish between files that are hidden and those that are ordinarily visible.
Run the following commands in a terminal window to make files invisible once more:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder
(If you're using an older version of Mac OS X, make sure you use the “com.apple.Finder” package instead.)
Instead of encrypting your private files and folders, you'll want to encrypt them in order to truly prevent others from viewing them. All of the files and folders that are hidden in the ways described above are easily accessible with a few clicks – they are hidden from view, but they are easy to find if someone goes looking. Encryption ensures that your files and folders cannot be accessed unless the owner of the encryption key has access to them.
