Anyone with the tiniest bit of know-how can easily find them. Remember: this won’t secure your files at all, it will just hide them from view. If you ever need to access it later, you can show hidden files by clicking the View menu in File Explorer and checking the “Hidden Items” box. (in Windows 7, you’ll have to go to Organize > Folder and Search Options and select “Show Hidden Files, Folders, and Drives” on the View tab instead.) You can read more about showing hidden files and folders here. RELATED: How to Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows

Click “OK” and the folder will disappear from view.Ĭheck out our guide to hidden files for more detailed information on hidden files in Windows. Right-click on it, select “Properties”, and check the “Hidden” box in the menu that appears. Open Windows’ File Explorer and navigate to the folder or file you want to hide. If that sounds like what you want, the process is really easy. RELATED: How to Hide Files and Folders on Every Operating System I only want to see my documents, I don’t need to see my Witcher 3 save files. I have, however, found this setting useful for folders I don’t want to see-like the folders my PC games add to my Documents folder. So, we’ve rewritten the article with instructions on how to hide and/or password protect files, with information on how secure each method really is. It causes loads of problems for many users who don’t know what they’re doing, and the password does nothing to protect you from snoopers-you might as well just hide the file. You can still find this trick all over the internet, but we do not recommend using it. It involved hiding a folder on your system and using a “password” to unhide it-even though any user could still unhide it without the password. But that trick, while mildly clever, did not actually protect anything behind a password. Got some files you don’t want other people to see? Or maybe they’re just cluttering up your Documents folder, and you want to hide them? Here are a few different ways to obscure your files, and when you might want to use each.Įditor’s Note: This article, originally published in 2014, used to contain instructions that claimed to password protect folders without extra software.

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