[permalink]2006-12-21 14:18
i1032
[permalink]
A few Windows versions ago, something was introduced called 'SuperHidden'.
In Explorer, Folder Options, View, you can select to see hidden files, hidden files are then shown with a faded icon. Optionally you can also choose to hide system files (which is recommended). This will not show hidden files that have the 'system attribute' set also. This last option maps to this registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AdvancedOn the properties dialog of a file, you can set some of the attributes of the file: Read-Only, Hidden (Compressed on NTFS), but not System. If you know your way around a prompt, you can use these commands to show all hidden and system files:
ShowSuperHidden=1
dir /ahs
and these commands to set or reset the hidden and system attributes:
attrib +s +h somefile.txt
attrib -s -h somefile.txt
I actually like this because I actually don't want to see some files and directories when I'm at work. For example the ".svn" or "_svn" directories TortoiseSVN creates in each directory that has been checked out of a repository. To hide them when I've checked out a branch, I use this command on the root of the branch or even on the root of my local harddisk:
attrib +s +h /s /d _svnRegretfully this option has proven quite useful for rootkits, spyware and virusses. If you want to see strange files popup when browsing your harddisk, you might want to enable the ShowSuperHidden setting (and check from time to time it's still on, you never know some malicious code disables it without you knowing), but if you do you'll see a lot of files that the system does depend on e.g. C:\ntldr and C:\RECYCLED. Be sure to let those be just where they are.
