Almost all Windows computers and Mac computers have the feature to hide private data and system files to prevent them from being displayed or modified without authorization. For example, you can hide or show files on Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and the latest Windows 10. The hidden files and folders feature is a good way to protect important files from deleting or modifying unintentionally, thus keep the Windows system stable and your sensitive data safe and private. In this article, we will discuss how to show hidden files and folders in Windows 10 File Explorer or Windows Explorer of Windows 10 PC so you can view hidden files and folder, copy, move, edit or delete the hidden files and folders on Windows 10 computer. If you are on earlier Windows OS, like Windows 7, Windows 8 or Vista. The steps to display hidden files on Windows computer is quite similar. This option has remained the same or almost the same across various Windows system versions.
How to Show hidden files and folders in Windows 10?
There are two methods you can display hidden files and folders in Windows 10.
Method1. View hidden files, folders on Windows PC
From your Windows 10 desktop, double click on ThisPC to open the Window Explorer, or you can just open any hard drive or folders on them on your PC which is running on Windows 10. Then click to switch to the View tab from the window top. After that browse to the Show/hide section at the upper section of Windows Explorer in Windows 10, you can find and click to enable ‘Hidden items‘ to show hidden files and folders in Windows 10. If the File Explorer window or screen is stretched very small, you can’t find the ‘Hidden items’ directly, it will be in the nested menu ‘Show/hide‘ along with other items.
Method 2. Display hidden files and folders on Windows computer
From the above screenshot, you can find the classic Options button which you can access to the Folder Options in Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista. You can also manually open Windows Explorer or File Explorer in Windows, then switch to View tab, and choose Options from there. The Folder Options pops up with several tabs of which the General tab opens by default. You need to click View to view folder options. At the lower section, you can see Advanced settings. There is a section for hidden files and folders with tow items beneath: Don’t show hidden files, folder, or drives and Show hidden files, folder, and drives. Click to enable the second option, click OK button to save and quit the change.
Now you know the quick steps and ways to unhide or view hidden files and folder in Window 10. The ability to display or hide files and folders is a core feature can be found in all Windows OS, Mac OS X. You can find similar options on web servers as well. See this guide to show hidden files in cPanel for Apache server hosting. Now you can choose to hide files in Windows 10, Windows 8 or Windows 7 to prevent accidental deletion, or unauthorized access; you can also show hidden files, view hidden folders in Windows to manage them.
