Comments on: 2 Ways to Hide “Important” Files and Folders in Windows

By: Question

Question — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:37:16 +0000

Nevermind! Found out I could use the “Open with 7zip” function to open it, thanks anyway!

By: Question

Question — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:28:40 +0000

Sorry for the stupid question, but after I use the second method, I get a succesful 1 file(s) copied from my command prompt, but I am unable to retrive the files from the JPG because the “Extract Here” icon doesn’t show up (I’m using 7 zip). All help appreciated!

By: Woody

Woody — Sun, 03 May 2009 02:59:42 +0000

Haha, just thought I’d be the one to mention it, but if anyone looks at the URL for this page, it happens to be slightly different than the title of the article. Nice Touch! LOL

-Woody

By: Aibek

Aibek — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:21:46 +0000

Neaaat!

By: chintan shah

chintan shah — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:38:41 +0000

There is one more technique which will not hide the folders, but it will convert them into control panel. any one who tries to access the folder is redirected to control panel.

1. Create a folder in a drive for easy access, e.g. C:. (Name it something related to the Control Panel, e.g. Users.)

2. Create a new file in Notepad and copy and paste the following into it:

ren Users Users.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

3. Replace “Users” with the name of the folder you created and save the file as loc.bat.

(You should now be able to see your folder and the loc.bat file, with the loc.bat in the same directory as the folder Not in it.)

4. Now, right-click and create another text file. Copy and Paste the following into it:

ren Users.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} Users
(Make sure to replace the word “Users” with the name of your folder.)

5. Save it as key.bat.

6. Now you should see the loc.bat and the key.bat files in the same directory as the folder you created.

7. Now, all you need to do is double-click on the loc.bat file and the folder should have an icon that looks like the control panel. If you click on the folder it should redirect you to the Control Panel and thus you have locked the folder.

8. Of course, to unlock it, simply double-click on the key.bat file and the folder should turn back into the folder you first created.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:52:25 +0000

Like some others, i was able to preform the trick but i’m unable to undo what i have done. Can someone resolve this issue ?

By: How to Lock Or Hide A Folder, A File Or A Drive On The Computer « Bùi Quốc Phong

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:23:39 +0000

[...] previous post has been written on this topic here but I have found a few other methods of doing such a thing, excluding download programs that can be [...]

By: 7 freeware applications to protect and hide private data | Software for All

7 freeware applications to protect and hide private data | Software for All — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:58:47 +0000

[...] already have looked at a few ways to do it manually here on MakeUseOf. You can read about it here, here and [...]

By: Not Telling U

Not Telling U — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:47:23 +0000

Use InviziVault its awesome
also to make it very hidden if your an admin of windows vista
make a folder here C:\Windows\Winsafe Installer\Regtapi_32\
put some other folders in \Winsafe installer\ like:
data,Drivers,Index,Main Installer,com32,fron_32,marvin_32,resdata,setup,and ShellNew your welcome!!!

By: zane

zane — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 01:18:56 +0000

I managed to make the folder invisible but now I can delete it.

By: Diego

Diego — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:27:24 +0000

i did this but now i cant seem to rename the file or even delete it… whats wrong?
does anyone knows how to delete the file?

By: Diego

Diego — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:25:01 +0000

I have the same problem. can you please tell me exactly how you did the winrar thing…
?
thanks in advace:D

By: How to Lock Or Hide A Folder, A File Or A Drive On The Computer | MakeUseOf.com

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:02:30 +0000

[...] need if you use a computer that others use too. A previous post has been written on this topic here but I have found a few other methods of doing such a thing, excluding download programs that can be [...]

By: kp

kp — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:55:52 +0000

hey bro how can i recover data from invisible and hidden folder and data both…..
search bhi nahi ho paa raha hey…..
any trick or tools for recover for that type of data
pls help me serious trouble problem……..helppppppp

By: How To Quickly Hide Your Web Surfing From The Boss! | MakeUseOf.com

How To Quickly Hide Your Web Surfing From The Boss! | MakeUseOf.com — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:01:49 +0000

[...] few months back, Aibek wrote a great post on hiding all those ‘important folders’ you might have lying around your desktop. His method is perfect if someone is snooping around your [...]

By: Become A Secret Steganographer | MakeUseOf.com

Become A Secret Steganographer | MakeUseOf.com — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 09:35:31 +0000

[...] your secret plans to take over world leadership or you name it. Earlier we did a quick post on how to hide your folders and files in Windows but the I am tool I am about to show you is more secure and harder to [...]

By: Robert Paulson

Robert Paulson — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:38:11 +0000

Try using InviziVault (you can find it anywhere with google). Very easy to use, and it’s not obviously running like other encryption software. You even need a secret keystroke to launch it.
Super easy.. Super hidden. best $20 I ever spent.

By: Russell

Russell — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:16:37 +0000

I did the invisible folder but I cant delete it now. How do i delete it?

By: Three Cool Desktops from MakeUseOf Readers | MakeUseOf.com

Three Cool Desktops from MakeUseOf Readers | MakeUseOf.com — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:58:23 +0000

[...] his own words: I like it clean and simple. I keep about 15 programs on the Quick Launch. I also use invisible folder for keeping stuff that needs to be done asap. As about wallpaper you can download it from here. I [...]

By: Tammy

Tammy — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:52:32 +0000

It appears that I am having the same issue as you. Did you fix your issue, and if so can you please explain it to me. I am on a laptop with Windows Vista.

By: Sherri

Sherri — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:29:58 +0000

I played around with stegan programs in the past, but that copy /b cmd thing is easier. But 7z won’t give the option to extract it when I right click on the new image, however it does work if I open 7z, then open the new image from within 7z.

As far as the hidden folder trick, it shows up first in win explorer’s list (when I sort by name);it leaves a noticeable gap. So if I needed to use this trick, I’d have to bury it deep down in a seldom accessed sub-folder.

But they’re both handy to know, thanks.

By: Tips: rendere invisibile una cartella o nascondere più file, come assicurare la nostra privacy - Geekissimo

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:00:34 +0000

[...] Via | makeuseof.com [...]

By: Aibek

Aibek — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:40:08 +0000

In your case if someone clicks on that something.jpg the file won’t open. In our case the person sees an actual image.

By: Shrihari

Shrihari — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:16:25 +0000

Okay, these tricks work great.. But, isn’t a simpler way possible ?
1) Compress the folder or files into a zip file..
2) Then, rename something.zip to something.jpg or something else.

Isn’t this simpler ? Or how does this differ from the above mentioned ways

By: Maladict

Maladict — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:33:20 +0000

Had same problem, solution I came up with was adding it to an archive with winrar and telling winrar to delete the files after archiving. Probably some issue with windows not being able to delete the file due to the lack of name.

By: Aibek

Aibek — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:38:45 +0000

Shit, I have the same problem as well.

By: Aibek

Aibek — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:33:13 +0000

You need some kind of archive manage for that. It can be winrar, winzip, 7zip … whatever.

If you want to check whether the final image includes the files then you need to launch archive manager and drag’n drop the image file on top of it.

By: Aibek

Aibek — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:28:34 +0000

That sounds fine as well.

By: Jackson

Jackson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:06:47 +0000

seems I missed the link: http://www.interdimensionmedia.com/widgets/index.html

By: Jackson

Jackson — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:39:49 +0000

For Mac users, there is this cool little widget that does the exact same trick. It's called Abacadabra, from