- The easiest way to hide files and folders in Windows 11 is with File Explorer.
- What are the steps to follow to protect ourselves from prying eyes and be able to sleep peacefully?
Privacy is becoming more and more important to users, and that means we must do everything we can to protect ourselves from prying eyes. There are several ways to do it, but we think that knowing how to hide files and folders in Windows 11 will allow you to keep things well away from the prying eyes of other people.
Of course this is an option that we also had in Windows 10, so it does not represent a revolution. However, it never hurts to review the steps to follow when a trick is so useful on a day-to-day basis.
Above all If you have to share your PC with someone else, it is an alternative that you will greatly appreciate.
And it is that no matter what you want to hide, we are sure that you would want some element to be hidden. That can change over time, so We are also going to teach you how to make both files and folders visible again if, at any timeyou want everyone to have access to it on your computer.
How to hide files and folders with File Explorer
Windows 11 provides different ways to hide files and folders, but let’s focus on the basic one. Consists in hide files and folders directly from Windows File Explorer. By doing so, you will prevent those items from appearing even in searches performed by other users.
If you are not experienced in the matter, you might think that hiding the files is somewhat complicated. Paradoxically, it is a simple procedure that will not take more than a few minutes.
Hide files and folders with File Explorer step by step
- Go to Properties in the menu and, in the General tab, check the Hidden box and click OK
- A confirmation message will appear. Select the option Apply changes to this folder, subfolders…
- Click OK to finish the procedure
Note that Windows will not show hidden items by default, but if you have the Show hidden files option enabled, both hidden files and folders will be grayed out on the screen.
To activate or deactivate the hidden element view, you have to follow these steps:
- Click the View button on the File Explorer toolbar
- Enter Show and there go to Hidden elements to make it visible or not
How to “unhide” files and folders with File Explorer
If you no longer need to hide a file or folder, you can set the element to make it visible again. But, when you show a file or a folder, it will be accessible like other files and folders in the system.
- In the File Explorer toolbar, go to View, Show, Hidden items in the bar…
- Right-click on the hidden file or folder, it will be grayed out, and go to Properties
- When the Element Properties window appears, in General uncheck Hidden and click OK
- The confirmation screen will appear. Be sure to click Apply changes to this folder, subfolder…
- Click OK to finish the procedure
Once you’re done, the file or folder it will be visible again, and you will be able to access it like the others.
conclusions
It does not matter if you want to hide files or folders in Windows in one way or another, what is relevant is the result. Unfortunately, in these times It is essential to know how to hide some content of others.
In fact, the Windows operating system itself hides a huge number of files, which we do not see when using it. We can give as an example those found within the system directories, which are not observed. Whenever you need to see them for something, you can reveal them by enabling the option to show hidden files.
Remember that at the time we wrote an article on how to show hidden items in Windows 11. Eventually, you can reveal hundreds of files that are not visible if you follow the steps indicated.
