A few days back, a client came to me and told me that he was having trouble with his Windows XP. The show hidden files and folders was not working at all. If he selected the radio button “Show hidden files and folders”, and then press Ok .. the changes would just disappear upon opening the dialog again. It was probably some virus attack after which the Windows registry was not being updated properly. So here is what I did to restore it back. There are so many methods to restore back the registry. If one method is not working, please try another one.
Method 1:
Go to registry editor by running regedit in the run box.
Go to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoft
WindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
In the right hand area, double click hidden and change the value to 1.
Now you’re all set to go. Check it in your tools menu if the changes have taken effect.
Method 2: (By Random Hajile)
1. Click “Start” -> “Run…” (or press Windows key + R)
2. Type “regedit” and click “Ok”.
3. Find the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorer
AdvancedFolderHiddenSHOWALL
4. Look at the “CheckedValue” key… This should be a DWORD key. If it isn’t, delete the key.
5. Create a new key called “CheckedValue” as a DWORD (hexadecimal) with a value of 1.
6. The “Show hidden files & folders” check box should now work normally. Enjoy! 
Method 3: (By Denny)
1- Click Start –> Run –> regsvr32 /i browseui.dll –> enter
A confirmation message will appear like given below
2- Click Start –> Run –> regsvr32 /i shell32.dll
Wait for the confirmation and click OK.
Method 4:
If none of the above methods work, please download our Smart Virus Remover from here:
[download id=”6″]
Using this Virus Remover please restore your Windows settings and your show hidden files and folders will be set to default.
Please spare a few moments from your precious time and tell us about your experiences.
Comments
1,097 responses to “Show Hidden Files and Folders not working?”
thank u very much dear. it really worked by changing the registry key.
regards,
imran hashmi
jeddah – saudi arabia
Booss it was really fentastic, would not even required to restart my machine. Thanks a lot. God bless
Greetings. This tip has helped me really a lot, i was facing this issue for a couple days, i think the problem was due to a virus infection. I got rid of it with AVG free.
Thanks a lot for your time and kindness.
Thanks man ….. thanks
in folder option dialog box cannot find “hide operating system files
in folder option dialog box cannot find “hide protected operating system files”
This work great, i really appreciate it. thank you for hard work that made life easy for everyone..
hidden files option not working..i tried searching for the “hidden” key in the registry but i couldn’t find it..the virus must have deleted it..please help..
i still have the same problem … and it seems the same virus is back …. or its not deleted using your solution … so please help .. help …. thanks
My computer is attacked by virus. I manually removed them use autoruns. But I could not delete the hidden files. Your solution let me find the hidden files and deleted them. Now the virus seems to be removed. Thanks
Bingo!!
Great work Sanix
Bravo!
hello
i really appricated work done by you in regarding to show the hidden files. but i am sorry to say that i does not make any effect on my system. still problem is same, hidden files are not showing again. i would appriciate your feedback if you can provide me the option so i can fix my problem.
thanking you
Didn’t work for me.
i have problem with my hard drive when i open my computer and right click in drive letter they show unknown text format and i dont understand what can i do
abdul rauf, you can download ravmon virus killer to remove the unknown text format.
http://technize.com/2007/06/06/ravmon-virus-killer/
thancccx a lot…….had problems with hidden folders…..not anymore…………the software cleared all the problems…
thanccc a lot for the software
‘ll be looking up to this site a lot from now onwards……..
so keep up the good work
Thanx Sanix & Random Hajile. It Worked in my PC. Now i can see my hidden files. Thnx a Lot. And keep doing such posts. 🙂
iam very much greatfull to you.
your logic is working fine.
thanx a lot dear.
Thanks Random Hajile
I already ad dword, but it had a value of “0”, so I changed it to “1” and voile!
Its really work i solved my problem to change reg vaule
Thank You
my PC is affected by virus.
Its very Good. Can be remove All Program icon form start menu? if yes then how we can do it?
Comments number 24… your the man!!!! thank you for your very helpful comments…God Bless
Giovanni Candelaria
Philippines
Hy itz faheem here from pakistan, karachi I would definetily like to say some thing about the unhide scripts.
itz really bigg chutyapa just like you guys.
Thanks and regards
Note:- please send me your commnets about ma comment.
Thank you
Its working but again reverting back to old condition
My problem is defferent, SHOWALL\CheckedValue in registry is set to 1, but still it show no hidden file option as checked.
can any one help me.
Gaurav, please download ravmon virus killer and reset your Windows default settings by running it.
http://technodigits.wordpress.com/2007/06/06/ravmon-virus-killer/
thank u boss…………!
even its not working please help me!!
thx man !!!!! it works for me
thanks ravmon removal tool helped me a lot
Many Many Thank to all of you! I had so many problems with my PC… It was infected by fun.xls.exe and this show hidden files problem came up! So i changed the registry… Now it’s working! Thx again guys…!
i have the same problem, i had this event, i insert a flash memory then
to open the default option is one called “auto” if i do doble click it
makes the svohost.exe reapear, maybe its linked to the showing hidden
files problem, i have tried everything to fix it, the svohost.exe its
gone but still no show hidden files
I am unable to set “show hidden files and folders”.
I am running XP Professional SP 2. Dell 1GHz Pentium system.
When I go to file option, click view, then click the button:
[x] show hidden files and folders, click apply, click OK.
Than, when I click file option, view, again,
the same button has been remove and enable the button – “Do not show hidden
files and options”.
What did I do wrong? Is there something else I did not do?
Thank you.
thank you very much!! im going to try it.. i hope it will work…
sir,
actually my problem was solved by using ramvon antivirus………but now it’s showing a different kind of error………just after running the ramvon tool ……..the hidden value again changes to 2(hexadecimal)……….if i click on the radio button of “show hidden folders” and then apply………….nothing happens……..just after closing the folder option window the ” do not show hidden folder is auto matically selected……..i am not able to see my any of the hidden folder…….
PLZ HELP ME!!!!!!!
Random Hajile you are a legend
Hi Techs,
Thanksindeed, it worked…. i unfortunately used some crap software to lock the folder….. need to uninstall it
thanks onceagain….
Hi All,
I have very worst problem of “JUNK MAIL”. I have unsubscribed many times from their mailing lists but they keep on sending me that mails. I want to override this all. From this page i have learned that E-mail account can be terminated. and now i need ur help on this.
Would any body (Especially Sanix) please advise
1) Is it possible to re-create the e-mail account with your old ID you terminated.
2) and if I terminate my account for a month of 2, will the “Junk Mail” stop to come my account.
I mean if i terminate my account, would it b possibel for me to re-create my account with the same old ID and would my e-mail account be deleted from all “junk mail” lists.
If there is any other solution please advise.
Many thnx for your kind help.
Regards,
Rizwan
Hey, this worked beautifully…thanks a lot!
Thanks Random Hajile, I’ve been looking for this for too long.
Quote by Random:
>>If anyone’s still having trouble, here’s a fix that worked for me after I got the RavMon virus:
>>1. Click “Start” -> “Run…” (or press Windows key + R)
>>2. Type “regedit” and click “Ok”.
>>3. Find the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL
>>4. Look at the “CheckedValue” key… This should be a DWORD key. If it isn’t, delete the key.
>>5. Create a new key called “CheckedValue” as a DWORD (hexadecimal) with a value of 1.
>>6. The “Show hidden files & folders” check box should now work normally. Enjoy!
when i run regedit in run box its showing popup as registry editig has been disabled by administrator.
and even i cont see the folder options in my system
HI there,
I worked teh same way you told it is working quite well but now teh problem is when i again select do not show hidden files the problem again arises I again have to do it in the same way you told… Can you tell me why this happens, thanks again
Have a great day..
Thanks a lot.. i helped me in recovering files..
ii
the problem is hide folder not working
Thanks man
the registry modification worked
Great ! It solved My problem. TNX
Excellent posts. Adding those 3 registry entries solved my problem. Now am able to see my hidden files. Thank you.
Whenever opening the c drive, d drive it is asking for the program to open, even not able to browse any partition, I have unhide the OS files not able to find any ini file>>>>>>>>>>Please help musta be a virus.