Those who care about the privacy of their computer, those who work with their laptop or USB stick or their external hard disk with work or personal documents inside, those who have a home PC shared with the whole family, may wish to keep some personal files hidden so they are hidden. To make some files invisible or protect them so as not to allow those who are not authorized to access them there are different ways on a Windows 10, 7 and 8 PC and in this article we summarize all the ways to hide and folders .
READ ALSO: Exclude folders from Windows search if private and secret
1) First of all you can hide files and folders on PC using the options included with Windows .
It involves changing one of the attributes of file folders
To make a file or folder hidden, you can then right-click on it, go to Properties and put a flag on the Hidden option.
In the case of a folder, you can then ask to hide all the included files.
However, this type of protection is easily overcome by anyone.
Just open the folder options from the control panel and, in the view section, change the option to show hidden files and folders.
Here is the trick to not make these files appear visible even by putting this option.
To do this, we need to open the dos prompt (on the Start menu, search for the dos prompt with the word cmd ) and run the following command:
attrib + s + h "C: \ Users \ pomhey \ Desktop \ Top Secret"
The command obviously changes on every pc replacing pomhey and putting the name of the user used.
The Top Secret folder that we have on the desktop now becomes completely hidden.
To discover this folder, instead, you need to run this command on the dos prompt:
attrib -s -h "C: \ Users \ pomhey \ Desktop \ Top Secret"
The only possible way, in Windows, to discover this folder without a dos prompt is to activate, in the folder> View options, the option that shows the protected system files, even if hardly anyone will think of changing it to find files. hidden from us.
2) You can protect a file in Windows using the encryption function .
This standard mode allows you to make files or folders inaccessible only to other Windows users, those registered in the use of the computer.
Then right-click on a file or folder, go to Properties, then press the "Advanced" button and activate the " encrypt content for data protection " option.
A padlock indicating active encryption is added to the icon of files and folders protected in this way.
These files are now accessible only by the user who put the encryption and not by others.
3) A very powerful and almost unassailable way by a hacker is the use of a real encryption program like VeraCrypt, which creates a password protected partition on your computer.
It is a very effective method especially to protect files inside USB sticks and external hard drives.
4) As seen in another article, without using programs and with a very clever special trick, it is possible to create an invisible folder on Windows PC of which only we know the existence, while for others it remains hidden and not accessible unless, by pure chance, do not double click right where this folder is located.
It is a purely graphic trick, without therefore changing permissions or attributes.
5) The free program that allows you to protect files or folders by hiding them so that they no longer appear, is called WinMend Folder Hidden (folder means folder in English).
This tool is not a pure portable, because it must be installed on the computer, but it is also possible to install it using the path of the USB stick as a path, so that it can then be used on any other PC, without installing it at other times.
The program is simple to use, but you have to be careful with passwords.
The first time it is started from a PC1 Hide Folder asks to enter the password which will then be used to restore the folders or files that you want to hide.
If you bring the USB stick to a PC2, the program again asks you to enter a new password which can be the same as before or a different one.
If you insert the same, you will see the hidden objects, while, who inserts the pen drive in the second pc, apart from who does not see the hidden folder or file, then, if he wanted to, to see them he should know the password.
If the owner of the pen instead wants to discover the files on a different computer, he must start the WinMend program and write his password.
If the PC2 owner had downloaded the WinMend program for himself, he would not see the protected files unless he used the exact same password.
File and Folder Hidden works not only for removable media such as external hard drives or USB sticks, but also for all files on a computer so it can be useful to hide dangerous photographs or important documents on PCs shared with other people and on laptops .
6) Another alternative program to hide folders on your computer even from searches is Absolute Folder Hider .
Operation is very easy, just add them on the program interface and the folders will be hidden and viewable only by Absolute Folder Hider.
7) SecretFolder is a free program to hide and password protect a folder on Windows.
The first time you start SecretFolder you must create a strong password but remember it otherwise there will be no way to recover the folder.
To lock a folder, simply open the application, press the 'Add' button and select the folder to be protected.
SecretFolder supports NTFS, FAT32, exFAT and FAT volumes.
The program is very simple to use and you can access hidden and protected folders by unlocking them.
Locked folders are not displayed under any circumstances.
8) Another small tool is LockBox, which allows you to make secret folders disappear from Windows in a simple and immediate way.
9) Other programs to protect files and folders with passwords are described in another article.
10) Shorthand is the technical one that allows you to hide one file inside another and, therefore, protect it if you don't know how to open it.
In another article we have therefore seen an effective way to hide files inside an image .
