Windows does not use the dot-file convention for hidden files. However, many Windows applications (mostly opensource/cross-platform) use files and folders with this convention. How can I make Windows Explorer automatically hide these dot-files?
Windows – Hiding files/folders which begin with a full stop (period)
windows 7windows-explorer
Related Solutions
Windows – Using Windows Explorer, how to find file names starting with a dot (period), in 7 or Vista
Use Window's "Search Advanced Query Syntax", which basically lets you do stuff that Vista and XP advanced search used to let you (that Windows 7 hid). Read about it on MSDN.
Hence, you can just search filename:.
to find all files with a file name that begins with "."
See this writeup on File System Redirector.
If a 32 bit program attempts to access the
System32
folder it will be invisibly redirected to the%windir%\SysWOW64
directory, to maintain compatibility between 32/64 bit applications.The
%windir%\System32
directory is reserved for 64-bit applications. Most DLL file names were not changed when 64-bit versions of the DLLs were created, so 32-bit versions of the DLLs are stored in a different directory. WOW64 hides this difference by using a file system redirector.In most cases, whenever a 32-bit application attempts to access
%windir%\System32
, the access is redirected to%windir%\SysWOW64
. Access to%windir%\lastgood\system32
is redirected to%windir%\lastgood\SysWOW64
. Access to%windir%\regedit.exe
is redirected to%windir%\SysWOW64\regedit.exe
. If the access causes the system to display the UAC prompt, redirection does not occur. Instead, the 64-bit version of the requested file is launched.To prevent this problem, either specify the SysWOW64 directory to avoid >redirection and ensure access to the 32-bit version of the file, or run the 32- > bit application with administrator privileges so the UAC prompt is not displayed. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP: UAC is not supported. Certain subdirectories are exempt from redirection.
Access to these subdirectories is not redirected to
%windir%\SysWOW64
:
%windir%\system32\catroot
%windir%\system32\catroot2
%windir%\system32\driverstore
%windir%\system32\drivers\etc
%windir%\system32\logfiles
%windir%\system32\spool
Best Answer
ATTRIB +H /s /d C:\.*
is the command to hide anything, directories included that start with a dotThis won't list the files (as stated below), but will hit every file it can access, and apply the Hidden attribute.
Once this is done, you can make sure that the Folder Options are set to hide hidden files. Click on Start, type
folder options
and press Enter. Click on the View tab, then choose Don't show hidden files, folders, or drives under Files and Folders \ Hidden files and folders. Hit Apply, then OK (or just OK).