How to hide files and folders in Windows and macOS

Vindovs Macos / by admin / December 19, 2019

If you do not want to share confidential information with colleagues or people in the household, here are some ways to hide it.

Windows

built-in

This is the easiest way and the necessary tools are already built into Windows. The order workflow does not differ either in Windows 7 or in Windows 10:

Create a folder (or file) that you want to hide.
Click on the set up, right-click the folder, and click the menu item "Properties".
In the Folder Options window tick the "Hidden".
Select whether the system should hide all subfolders and files or just enough to hide a folder containing them. In principle, it is sufficient only to hide the folder.
Click OK.

Finish Now the folder is hidden. But it can still be seen, if your computer Show hidden files. To disable this feature, do the following:

Open the "Start" menu and start typing the phrase "Show hidden files and folders."
Open the settings found.
In the resulting options box, select the tab "View" options scrolled down the list and look for the section "Hidden files and folders." Check "Do not show hidden files, folders and drives." Click OK.

instagram viewer

Now the hidden files and folders will not be displayed in the "Explorer" in the search results. Note that third-party file managers still see your folder.

More clever way

To hide something, you need to place it in plain sight. Following this ancient wisdom, try to hide important data in some beautiful picture.

This trick made possible by the characteristics of the JPEG file. Program for viewing images begin to analyze JPEG files from the beginning, ignoring the data recorded at the end of the file. Archivers also recognize the beginning of the archives of the special signatures, which can be located in the file anywhere.

Simply put, you can connect the image file and the file so that the information in the archive will be hidden in the image file. Outsider, opening your file in the image viewer will only see the picture. You can open a picture archiver, and see in it the hidden data.

Make it pretty simple:

Back up data that you want to hide in a ZIP or RAR format.
Place the file and the picture in which you want to hide it in a folder on drive C (so that the path to the folder was C: \ vasha_papka).
Hold Win + R, type cmd and press Enter.
In the command prompt, type cd C: \ vasha_papka \To go to the newly created folder.
then type copy / b + vashe_izobrazhenie.jpg vash_arhiv.rar novoe_izobrazhenie.jpg.

Done. Command line creates a picture novoe_izobrazhenie.jpgWhich will be opened in any viewer. But if you open the image archiver, you can see your hidden data. Clever, right?

This method can also be used to transmit interlocutors any data on the forums or chat rooms, where it is forbidden to share any type of files other than pictures.

macOS

Create hidden files in macOS have the command line, because the honest users of Apple products have nothing to hide, and the hidden attribute is intended primarily for system files. But still it's very simple.

Create a folder (or file) that you want to hide.
Open the "Terminal".
enter the command chflags hiddenBut do not press Enter.
Drag your folder in the window "Terminal".
Now press Enter.

Your folder will be invisible. To open it, you will have to enter the path to it via Finder → «transition» → «Go to Folder".

Still it is possible to view hidden folders by entering the terminal command defaults write com.apple. Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES. Then restart the Finder via Apple → «Force Quit."

Team defaults write com.apple. Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO again will hide files and folders.