Simple file/folder hacks - 02

Continue from simplest

  

      Though we consider about simple hidden attribute for files/folders, there are some situations that we have to face problems regarding visually seeing our files/folders even when set to show hidden files. It may happen like this,

•     We may have a drive that shows some memory is used, but nothing inside.
•     Some files can't be deleted and shows error messages like this,

•     There are some viruses which hides our files and creates shortcuts using same names of our files. If we just clearly check, we can find that used disc space is more than shown and our files may be there somewhere, we just don't see them.

   

     So having some knowledge about this may help to solve some day to day situations like these OR you may use it other way round to make use of it.

    But the matter discussed here is not a simple visually hidden or shown setting. It relates to another reason that why it happens.

System file Attribute

    You will get some idea with the title. Yes. This is not about just hiding files. It's about files which are marked as important for some system. Mainly, there are lots of files/folders with this attribute created and used by our windows OS to run various system functions. Sometimes software applications also makes these attributes. So we must be very careful when making any change to these files. Let's see how this relates to hidden attribute.

    

    When some file is given this attribute, we can't just change the hidden attribute like explained in previous post. And there is another setting to keep these system files hidden other than basic hide setting in folder options.

    

    To make the system files visible again, 

            Go to folder options and under "View" tab ->  "Advanced Settings", remove tick from "Hide protected operating system files(Recommended)".

           When applying, a warning will appear to confirm,

    Above steps sets system files to display again, but if they are also with the hidden attribute, we have to make them to be visible too as in previous post. Then all system files will be shown. So now we have some idea on how these two attributes works and relates.

How to change System Attribute

    We can do that easily using "Command Prompt".

    You can find "Command Prompt" by

• searching in start menu

• Using "Run"

                Open "Run" by searching in start menu or use keyboard shortcut "Windows key"+"R". Type "cmd" and click OK.

    

    Now use a simple command like this get the work done. If you are familiar with "cmd", you can change some parts to get different results and according to situation, here i'll show a common and simple way.

    Just type 

                    attrib -s "path to your file\file name"

           press Enter.  That will remove system file attribute from specified file. Same way we can change hidden attribute also. Here "-s" means to remove system attribute, so in other way we can use "+s" to add it. Same way we can add hidden attribute together with this like below

                    attrib +s +h "path to your file\file name" - This will add hidden and system file attribute to your file/folder.

                    attrib -s -h "path to your file\file name"   - This will remove both.

    Here "path to your file" means the windows directory path to your file/folder.You can type or copy from windows explorer address bar.

    **You may need administrator access to make the changes.

    Keep exploring...😊