How to reliably hide a folder or file from prying eyes. Three ways to hide personal files from strangers on your computer

Sometimes there is a need to protect personal files or folders. This is especially true if more than one person is working with the computer. One solution is hiding. Of course, it will not help in the case of an experienced user. But it will hide information from unsuspecting eyes.

How to hide/show files and folders on a Windows 7 computer

Standard method

To hide a file or folder, you need to go through two steps:

Disable visibility of hidden folders

If the “Do not show...” option is set in the settings, then hidden files and folders will still be displayed, with the only difference being that the label for such objects is dimmer compared to a regular element.

Changing folder/file settings

After these steps, the folder or files will become hidden and will not be displayed.

Enable visibility and view

To show hidden items, you need to go to the folder settings and check the box next to “Show hidden files, folders and drives.” And for a specific object to stop being invisible, you need to uncheck the “Hidden” option.

How to make a folder invisible - video

Via Total Commander

This method is related to the previous one in that in the “Folder Options” there should also be a checkmark next to the “Do not show hidden files, folders and drives” item.

How to view files and make them open

To show hidden files and folders, press Ctrl + H.

To make documents visible again, you need to use the Alt + A combination and uncheck the “Hidden” checkbox.

Via Free Hide Folder

If you want to be sure that no one can see hidden information, you can use the Free Hide Folder program, which requires setting a password.

Free Hide Folder does not hide individual files. Available for free download on the Internet.

When you launch the program for the first time, a window will appear in which you need to enter and confirm a password. By the way, you will also need it when uninstalling the program.
The next window will ask you to enter a registration code, but this is not a requirement. To continue working, you need to select Skip.
Then click on the Add icon and select the folder that you want to hide.
After the folder is selected, a message will appear indicating that it is advisable to make a Backup. It is advisable to follow the advice.
Backup saves information about the program. If the latter is deleted, then after re-installation, access to hidden folders will be restored.

In addition to Add, the general window has buttons for:

How to find hidden information and transfer it to a flash drive

Free Hide Folder hides folders so that they cannot be found using search. The only way is to open the program and select the Unhide tool. Another special feature is that it does not hide documents located on removable disks.

Since Windows search cannot detect documents hidden using Free Hide Folder, copying cannot be used. Thus, invisible folders cannot be transferred to removable drives.

Using an image and an archiver

For this method you will need a folder with files, any image and the WinRAR archiver. The program is available for free download on the official website. In this case, the processor bit capacity must be taken into account. To find out, you need:

You can take any image, there are no restrictions.

Add the desired folder to the archive.
Place the archive and the image in one folder, preferably located in the root of the disk.
Using the Win + R combination, launch the Run tool, enter cmd in the line and click OK.
In the command line, go to the folder where the archive and image are located. To do this, enter the cd command and the address. In this case it is cd c:\.
Then press Enter.
Now in the line you need to write the names of the image, archive and new file. Also, extensions must be specified in all three positions. In this case it turns out: COPY /B Image.jpg + FolderWithFiles.rar ImageWithArchive.jpg.
Press Enter. If everything was written correctly, a message will appear on the command line indicating that the files were copied.

If you now open the created file, only the image that was taken as a basis will open.

The original files can be deleted.

How to view hidden files

To be able to view files hidden in the image, you need to open the illustration itself using WinRAR.

But the archiver must first be added to the list of programs that can open images:

In the “Open with” menu, click on “Select program”.
Click on “Browse” and in the window that opens, find the folder with the archiver.
Open the folder and select the program launch shortcut.
Next, WinRAR will appear in the list of programs that can open the image. You also need to uncheck the “Use the selected program for all files of this type” checkbox. Otherwise, all images will be opened using the archiver.

When the user opens the image using the archiver, it will be visible that there is a folder inside.

But don't hide too much information in one file. If it takes up tens of megabytes, even an inexperienced user will become suspicious.

Possible mistakes

How to enable the “Show hidden files and folders” option

Sometimes a situation occurs that the user activates the “Show hidden files and folders” option, but the switch automatically switches to the “Do not show hidden files and folders” position. In this case you need:

Otherwise, the parameter must be created. To do this, right-click on a free area of the window, select “New”, then “DWORD Value”. Call it CheckedValue and give the value 1.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
Find the Hidden parameter (with value 0), type REG_SZ, in the list and delete it.
If the list contains a Hidden parameter, type REG_DWORD, then change its value to 1. Otherwise, the parameter must be created.
Find the SuperHidden parameter, type REG_DWORD, in the list and change its value to 1.
Press "F5" to refresh the editor window and close it.

What to do if Folder Options is missing

This usually means that viruses have entered the system. Perhaps the antivirus simply failed to identify and remove malware. And so that the user cannot visually detect them, the authors of such applications use the “Hidden” or “System” attributes. In addition, the “Folder Options” menu item is removed.

Even if the malware is removed, the antivirus will not be able to restore this item. This will need to be done manually:

The Registry Editor may not have been blocked after a virus attack. In this case, you can use it:

Using Win + R, launch the Run tool, enter regedit in the line and click OK.
Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.

In the right part of the window, find the NoFolderOptions parameter, type REG_DWORD. Double-click LMB to open it and set the value to 0.

Hiding files and folders is a quick and easy way to protect your personal information. Of course, the first two are less reliable, and sophisticated users can accidentally or intentionally discover the secret. But FHF and the archiver will hide personal data even from experienced eyes.

Hello, friends!
How to hide a folder in Windows 7? Why do I need this, you ask? I don't have any secrets.

Perhaps, but nevertheless, knowing how to do this may be useful to you in the future. In this instruction we will look at the simplest method without using additional software.

To hide a folder, we do not need to install additional programs; standard Windows operating system tools are sufficient.

In Windows 7, there is the concept of a “file and folder attribute”. A folder attribute is an additional property of a folder. To hide a folder, we will change its attribute.

By the way, you can not only hide a folder, but also put a password on it. I described how to do this in the article “Putting a password on the folder. Dirlock program. You can read this article. In addition, you can hide folders using personal information software.

How to change a folder attribute?

To change the attribute, you need to select this folder > right-click on it and select the item at the very bottom properties. The → “Folder Properties” window will appear.

On the “General” tab, change the attribute; Check the “hidden” box. The folder magically disappears!

Or it will not disappear, but will become transparent, if in the “Folder Option” on the “View” tab it is specified: “show hidden files and folders”. Now you should go to: Start > Control Panel > Folder Options > View Tab.

We are interested in the “Hidden files and folders” section. If the folder itself has the “hide” attribute, and the folder option > “do not show hidden folders”, then your folder will become invisible.

If you want to make the folder visible again, then select “show hidden files and folders” and return to your folder, which will become transparent. Right-click > select properties, and remove the “hide” attribute → the folder is visible again. That's all, don't forget to subscribe. See you in new articles!

Experienced PC users often use masking techniques for their folders with important information in order to hide it from prying eyes and thereby avoid accidental deletion or unwanted viewing by others. We will tell you about these simple methods that even beginners in working on a computer can easily master.

Windows stores a large number of different files, some of which we do not see, thanks to the functionality. This moment allows you to keep important system information intact and help in a situation when you urgently need to hide a necessary element or the entire folder with data.

Let's select the folder and rename it “Important”. Let's right-click on it and go down to the "Properties" command. In the window that opens, change the attribute parameter by activating hidden elements - “Important” will disappear. If the folder is not hidden, but has acquired some transparency, the “Show hidden files, folders...” command is activated in the Windows system settings and needs to be removed. Go to the control panel, select the small icons to view and open the “Folder Options” window. Next, go to the “View” tab and activate “Do not show hidden files...”. You will find the hidden folder later by returning to the original settings. Next, we will give a funny way to create an invisible daddy right under your nose - i.e. on the desktop. Open the Windows symbol table, it is usually hidden in utility programs. Find an empty window in the sign, select it and copy it. Drag your secret folder to the center of the table and rename it to the given blank symbol with the "Insert" command - the result is a folder with no name. Next, click on it, selecting “Properties” from the list, go to the “Settings” tab and the “Change Icon” button. Scroll the wheel and find the space between the icons. Click on it, then “Apply” and “Ok”. The folder has disappeared, but if you select an empty area in the place where our invisible is hidden, it will appear as a square. You can also use “Ctrl+A” while pressing simultaneously. Hiding information using Windows is an unreliable method that is used as an emergency short-term option. To be safe, it is better to pack “Important” into an archive and password-protect it. Download the WinRAR archiver program from the official website or via torrent - it is the best existing software for working with archives, run the installation file.

If an icon appears with three stacked books, the archiver is installed. Return to your top-secret folder, click the mouse and select from the list the command with the WinRAR icon “Add to archive”. If necessary, come up with a different name for the daddy, for example: patch - this name is present in almost all applications. Next, select the archive format and set a password. If you wish, you can encrypt the file names. To store your archiver, find a secluded place somewhere in the folder with installed program files on the main drive, then there is a chance that it will not be detected and deleted.

It should be noted that there is a lot of additional software for Windows on the Internet. This includes ransomware programs both for personal needs and for work purposes, but unless absolutely necessary, you should not expose your PC to malicious code, which tends to leak into the system from sites on this topic.

I want to show you one easy and safe way to hide files using a simple trick in Windows - hide a file inside a JPG file.

You can actually hide any type of file inside an image file, including TXT, EXE, MP3, AVI, or any other. Not only that, you can store a large number of files inside a single JPG file instead of just one. This can be very convenient when you want to hide files and don't want to bother with ransomware and other file hiding methods.
In order to complete this task, you must have either WinZip or WinRAR installed on your computer.

Here are the steps to create a hidden cache:

Create a folder on your hard drive, for example, C: Test and put all the files you want to hide there. In the same folder, upload the image file into which we will “shove” the hidden files.

Now select all the files that you want to hide, right-click on them, and select the option to add files to archive. Just select the files you want to hide, not the map file. Name the created archive whatever you want, for example, “Hidden.rar”.

Now you have a folder containing the JPG file and the compressed archive:

Now here's the fun part! Click the Start button and select Run. Type “CMD” without quotes and press Enter. You should now see a command prompt window. Enter “CD” to get to the root directory. Then enter the command “CD Test” to get into the “Test” folder, which contains all our files.

Now enter the following line (without quotes): “ copy /b DSC06578.JPG + Hidden.rar DSC06578.jpg” and press Enter. If everything went well, you should receive a response as shown below:

The JPG file has been updated with a compressed archive inside! Look at the size of the resulting image, you will see that it has increased by the same amount as the size of the archive.

You can access files hidden inside a picture in two ways.
First, simply change the file extension to .RAR and open the file using WinRAR.
Secondly, you can simply right-click on the JPG image and select “Open with” and then select “WinRAR”.

That's all! This is an excellent and simple method simply because not many people know about this possibility and even those who know will not be able to suspect the files in your picture.

And those who don’t can close it right away.

Categories:

Here's another small program - SteganPEG. It allows you to select any image in the .jpg/.jpeg format and put a certain amount of various files into it, protecting them with a password. The program itself will show you how much volume can fit into a specific image.

In order to get files hidden in the picture you will need the same program and password. The interface, as you can see, is extremely clear:

Added eXe-ImagePacker (600 kb):

Here are some more programs for similar purposes:

Here's some more information

In cheap old spy movies, the most secret documents and unique jewelry were invariably located in a secret safe hidden behind the picture. I don’t know what caused the popularity of this disguise method, but you can do something similar on your computer. The Free File Camouflage utility allows you to hide any file, including text, a program or another picture, inside any JPG image.

is a tiny free utility that allows you to hide confidential information under the guise of harmless images. After downloading and launching the program, we just need to indicate the file that we want to hide, then the picture that will act as a “cover,” and the location where the result will be saved. If desired, you can set a password, without which it will be impossible to extract the file.

To retrieve hidden data, simply switch to the tab De-Camouflage a file, enter the path to the “secret picture” and the save folder. In addition, the program can integrate with Windows Explorer, adding its own item to the “ Send«.

Due to its freeness and ease of use, it may well come in handy in cases where you need to protect your files, but do not want to deal with complex security systems. With this utility, you can quickly and securely hide your data from prying eyes, without raising any unnecessary questions.

Answer
Of course, the program is free and does not require installation. But the archive has a password: http://beloe-bratstvo.ru/

Likewise, you can protect your files with a password, hide them in pictures, and post them publicly.

By the way, the program has one feature: when processing a picture, its original is not saved. That is, you will no longer have this picture without the archive - it will be overwritten. You will not be able to re-use this image to hide another file.

Therefore, it is better to do this: take the ZIP or RAR archive that you want to hide, copy it to the desktop, copy the picture there (only JPG format is suitable) in which you want to hide this archive, and in the program specify the paths to these copies, and not to the originals of the archive and pictures. This is more correct.

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This method is effective, but raises questions and mistrust. Today we’ll look at the easiest way to hide a folder in Windows. Less effective, but no one sees it and doesn’t ask stupid questions “what’s in it.”

If you have top secret information on which the safety of humanity depends, use 2 methods at once. This is of course a joke, let's get started.

A quick way to hide a folder

Move porn and nude photos the desired folder with secret documents to any other folder on your hard drive, then right-click on it and select “properties”.

In the top menu you need to select “General”. Check the box at the very bottom where the attributes and the word “hidden” are. Click ok and you can check. Most likely the folder is already hidden, but not always. There is a possibility that after such a procedure it will become a little grayer and that’s it.

To completely hide the “gray folder”, do the following: Open the Start menu, go to the Control Panel, then find “Folder Options” and you need to switch to the “View” tab.

Scroll the slider all the way down to the Hidden Files and Folders section. As shown in the screenshot above, you need to switch the lever to “do not show hidden files, folders and drives”. Congratulations, you did it. No one will find hidden “documents” in your Windows anymore).

How to make a hidden folder visible

Well done, you decided not to suffer by doing all the above in order to see the hidden folder again. You would be enough for a couple of times, no more, and you wouldn’t want to eat anything else. Of course, if you like perversions, you can open it in the same way as you hid it, but for the rest I offer another interesting way.

Download Total Commander and open it. Next, you need to open the “view” tab in the menu, then “advanced settings” and turn on “Show hidden files and folders”. That's all! Now, when you need to see a hidden folder, open it through the Total Commander program.

Oh yes, I completely forgot when I wrote this article, you can hide a folder in any Windows through the properties in the program mentioned above. Well, this is so, it might come in handy.

How to hide a folder: video

According to the old tradition, for those who do not understand something, I am attaching video instructions from YouTube.