Search for hidden files and folders in Windows 7

Anonymous
2010-01-26T18:40:43+00:00

How for an individual search do I tell the search process to examine hidden files and folders.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2010-01-27T17:56:36+00:00

Hi,

There is only one way to do it, Select the option Show hidden files from folder options and then search for the files using the start search box.

  1. Click Start.
  2. Type "search" in start search box.
  3. click "Change search options for files and folders".
  4. Now, Click on View tab .
  5. Under View,

       a)Select the radio button labeled Show hidden files, folders, and drives 

       b)Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide extensions for known file types.

       c)Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.

  1. Click on Apply and Ok.

For more information on search, click on the following link:

 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Advanced-tips-for-searching-in-Windows

 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Searching-in-Windows-frequently-asked-questions

 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Find-a-file-or-folder

Thanks and Regards:

Swati K- Microsoft Support Engineer

Was this answer helpful?

20+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

55 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2012-10-05T13:40:39+00:00

    Good. Only one answer was valid here. Type attributes:34 in the search field to find hidden files.

    This leaves only two questions:

    A. Where in God's name is the complete list of all these attributes that I can choose from?

    B. Which less nice person(s) made up this incredibly user-unfriendly system?

    I so want to be able to find folders with a certain name, but not all the millions of files with the same name. I tried the attribute folder: but that STILL spits out all the files with the same name too! I have movies which are chopped inseperate frames with a certain name. All these files contaminate my hunt for certain folders.

    What can I do, to find folders with a certain name, and avoid finding matching files too?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2012-09-27T10:43:02+00:00

    There are a lot of ways some of are already mentioned by others. if you want to find them manually, but if you will google it you'll get only basic tips:(

    you can use commant promt/ dos to reveal hidden files, refer following post:

    How to find hidden files in Windows?

                                                                                              •  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- 

    source: Http://himanshunegi.in/find-hidden-files/

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2012-05-24T15:13:06+00:00

    Hi ristianKolb,

    You are welcome.

    If you have any more Windows related queries, you can always post here at Microsoft Answers.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2012-05-21T20:30:59+00:00

    I can only thank you for this post which saved me lots of time and completely solved my problem on Windows 7. I had a problem where an important file for MS Flight Simulator X became hidden during an addon where I lost a file and tried to find it resulting in an accidental hiding of a file. I followed your steps and i found my file sure enough! I then unticked it as being hidden.

    Thank you so much

    Kristian Kolb.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments