Trick to Enable Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows

Some viruses or Trojans is smart enough to hide themselves into a corner of the computer system, and then effectively force disable the “Show all hidden files and folders” or “Show all hidden files, folders and drives” option under “Folder Options”. When it happens, hidden files, folders and drives on the PC do not been shown or displayed even though user has attempted to apply the settings to show the hidden files. The virus implements a policy such as “Shockwave.dll” that’s forcing system to keep hidden files forever not visible or hidden.

If your anti-virus or anti-malware solution is unable to get rid of the malware, and you’re desperately need to view the hidden files, here’s the workaround to enable system to show hidden files and folders again. There are many viruses that may cause the hidden files cannot be visible error, thus the following solution may not work on some system.

  • Go to Start Menu and click on Run (Windows Vista and Windows 7 uses Start Search instead).
  • Type RegEdit and press Enter to run Registry Editor.
  • Navigate to the following registry key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
    CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL

  • In the right pane, verify that the CheckedValue value data is REG_DWORD type. If it’s not (such as belongs to REG_SZ), then delete the CheckedValue value data.
  • If CheckedValue has been delete, create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it as CheckedValue.
  • Double click on CheckedValue and change its value data to 1 (virus may change it to 0 or 2).
  • Within the same registry key, verify that the Type value data is of REG_SZ type, and has the value data radio. If not, set it to radio. Virus may change it to blank.
  • Set the system to reveal or show all hidden files, folders and drives, and then check if hidden files and folders are show.

Tip: Some virus may also disable the Registry Editor. Here’s the trick to re-enable Registry Editor.


10 Responses to “Trick to Enable Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows”

  1. alucard
    September 17th, 2009 09:32
    10

    i already tried it. what happen next is, it won’t allow me to create a new CheckedValue.
    everytime a delete CheckedValue and create a new one as instructed above. after i close the regedit and open it again it will changed back to it’s current value CheckedValue 0.

    how to solve this problem?

    -thanks

  2. nag
    September 9th, 2009 23:46
    9

    graet work. its working. thanks a lot?

  3. Hosting Murah
    August 16th, 2009 14:48
    8

    many thanks for the tips, now i can show my hidden files, before is always failed

  4. mannu
    August 15th, 2009 17:31
    7

    These fields are correct as should be.Yet i have no folder optio in tools

  5. Joseph Porta
    August 2nd, 2009 22:37
    6

    Thanks MAN It Works

  6. XPUser
    May 15th, 2009 13:48
    5

    Thanks,
    The tip is so to the point that it is almost foolproof. And above all, it works! Thanks a lot.

  7. Mark
    May 13th, 2009 18:09
    4

    Doesn’t anyone proof-read this stuff? The grammar is appalling and this makes the article confusing and difficult to read.

  8. IceMan-
    March 19th, 2009 06:07
    3

    Thanks, you just saved me a few hours of frustration to the point where I want to format my pc.

    @”r bower”: it works so try it and it’s not that hard btw

  9. r bower
    March 1st, 2009 21:06
    2

    Someone or perhaps an editor/proof-reader at mydigitallife should re-read this article, especially the first paragraph as to “been”. Either there is bad grammar or a line or two is missing. I have not tried this workaround as it seems too complicated to me as a novice.

  10. Deyaa Addeen Fahmy Shedeed
    March 1st, 2009 08:15
    1

    Great, thanks.

Leave a Reply

You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Subscribe to comments feature has been disabled. To receive notification of latest comments posted, subscribe to My Digital Life Comments RSS feed or register to receive new comments in daily email digest.
Custom Search

New Articles

Incoming Search Terms for the Article

show hidden files and folders - show hidden files - cannot show hidden files and folders - how to enable hidden files from registry - show hidden files registry - show hidden folders - HOW to show hidden files - hidden files and folders - how to view hidden files - show hidden files and folders virus - enable show hidden files and folders in registry - view hidden files - show hidden files and folder - force show hidden files - enable hidden files - cannot view hidden files and folders - show hidden files virus - how to enable hidden files - unable to show hidden files and folders - how to make show hidden files in regedit - show hidden files, virus - show hidden files and folders - how to show hidden folders - regedit hidden files and folders - delete hidden files - do not show hidden files and folders - how to show hidden files from registry - hidden files and folders virus - cant show hidden files and folders - cannot show hidden files - windows cannot show hidden files - show hidden file and folder can not use+registry - all - cannot enable show hidden files - "Show hidden files and folders" - registry show hidden files and folders - show hidden files and folders doesn't work - "Can not change Show hidden files and folder" - how to enable show hidden files and folders - cannot enable show hidden files and folders - my folders are hidden - show hidden files and folders registry - virus doesn't allow me to see hidden files - cant view hidden files and folders - cannot change show hidden files folders - view hidden files registry - hidden files folders - enable hidden file - windows not showing hidden files and folders - show hidden folder -