We have posted a tutorial in past to show / hide hidden files and folders quickly and easily in Windows. It provides 2 registry scripts to enable / disable "Show hidden files and folders" option on the fly:
Show/Hide Hidden Files & Folders on the fly in Windows XP, Vista & 7
Today in this tutorial, we are going to share a small script which can also be used to enable / disable "Show hidden files and folders" option in Windows.
This script when executed, checks the status of "Show hidden files and folders" option and toggles its value. So if its set to show hidden files, it changes the option to hide hidden files and vice versa.
Simply copy paste following code in NOTEPAD and save the file with name "Show_Hidden_Files_On_Off.vbs" (including quotes):
Hidden = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Hidden"
SHidden = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\ShowSuperHidden"
Set Sh = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
St = Sh.RegRead(Hidden)
If St = 2 Then
Sh.RegWrite Hidden, 1, "REG_DWORD"
Sh.RegWrite SHidden, 1, "REG_DWORD"
Else
Sh.RegWrite Hidden, 2, "REG_DWORD"
Sh.RegWrite SHidden, 0, "REG_DWORD"
End If
Sh.SendKeys("{F5}")
That's it. You can place this script at any location like Desktop, Quick Launch toolbar and whenever you need to toggle the "Show hidden files and folders" option, simply run the script.
PS: If you don't want to create the script manually or face any problem while creating the script, you can download a ready-made script using following link:
This article was posted by VG in following section: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP.
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Scott
Requires administrative privilege, it seems. Please tell people who actually use Windows security how this can be done. (I use Windows XP as a Limited User; your script does not work.)
Scott
OK, my problem isn't with Windows security. If you can delete my first comment and skip this one also, that would be nice. Sorry about that.
However, F5 doesn't do anything no matter what the setting of that registry value. I'll submit a better comment to this article if/when I figure out the problem.
t
Scott
Something is fishy with my computer, but it's so strange it cannot apply to anyone else, so if you'd just delete my comments here (or everyone ignore them with my apologies), that would be great.
Apparently the F keys are being ignored on my XP system just now; F2 is as broken as F5 is. But the context menu (right click) refresh works just fine. Weird.
CharlesJ
Hey Vishal, I think a shortcut to the context menu would be much better.
I am looking forward to it. :D
deb
Well, nothing I do makes this work. I've added the context menu, manually did the vbs file naming it WITH quotes, and when I run the script I have had two things:
First (before I downloaded it instead), I get error message about line 9 ST something isn't correct. (can't remember now, can't re-create).
Then, now when I run any of it, it simply opens up the script in notepad.
I'm sure it's me.
Luci
Is working great. Thanks a lot