How to Find Protected Windows Files

Does you always know what files or folders stored in your hard disks and flash drives?

Most of our common file's and folder's [Documents, Music, Video, Pictures,Games, etc] attributes are NOT Hidden so we always find our known files and folders. Behind our eyes there are a lot of files and folders on our drives.

Hide a file or folder:

To hide a file or folder go to its properties by right click on it and then click on properties [Shortcut Key: Alt + Enter or Alt + Double Click].

Check the Hidden on after Attributes then click OK.

At this point you have to confirm attribute changes and you can chose either only your selected file/folder will be hidden or all files/folders in it including subfolders. Choose a option you like then click OK.


Now you selected file/folder is hidden.

You may hide several files or folders by selected them all.

Unhide files and folders follow as below:

Go to Control Panel [Start --> Control Panel]

Open Folder Options
You may find Folder Options in Tools Menu on Microsoft Explorer.


Go to the View Tab


Under the Hidden files and folders category select Show hidden files and folders

Click OK

Now you able to find the Hidden files and folders in your computer.

But there are more hidden files and folders which are not visible at this point. There are some files and folder called Protected Operating System Files those are not visible yet.

Unhide Protected Operating System Files do as below:

Open Folder Options again as describe above.

Now Select the Show hidden files and folders if not selected.

Scroll down little bit and uncheck the option "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"


You will got a Warning massage click Yes.

Click OK.

Now you will actually find all files and folders in your computer.

By doing this you may find some unnecessary files and folders which is wasting your Hard Drive space. But be careful DON'T DELETE ANY FILES OR FOLDER unless you sure they are unnecessary.

By these way you may find the RECYCLER folder in your every drive and there you may find some objects to delete to free up some space.

Some kind of Trojen, malware [Some kind of virus] make Autorun.ini file in your Drive. This kind of files are hidden as system file. As describe above you find this kind of files in your drive and able to delete it.

Thanks for visiting my Blog. Check other tips on my blog and come back often for more tips.

- Parvez Iqbal