View 'Hidden Files and Folders' via File Explorer

Why Files Are Hidden in the First Place

Windows marks certain files and folders as hidden to keep everyday users from accidentally deleting or modifying things the OS depends on — configuration files, per-app data stores, and low-level system binaries. Most of the time you never need to see them. But there are plenty of legitimate reasons to look: recovering a lost file from an app's local storage in AppData, manually cleaning up leftover files after an uninstall, troubleshooting a corrupted user profile, or accessing recovery partitions and system files while doing repair work.

Showing Hidden Files (Windows 11)

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Click the View menu in the toolbar.
3. Hover over Show.
4. Click Hidden items to toggle it on (a checkmark appears next to it).

Hidden files and folders now appear throughout File Explorer, shown slightly faded/translucent compared to normal files so you can still visually distinguish them.

Showing Hidden Files (Windows 10)

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Click the View tab in the ribbon at the top.
3. In the "Show/hide" group, check the Hidden items checkbox.

Going Further: Showing Protected Operating System Files

Toggling "Hidden items" reveals normal hidden files, but Windows keeps a second, stricter category — protected operating system files — hidden separately even after you enable that. These are core system files (like pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, and boot configuration files) that Windows deliberately makes harder to expose because accidentally deleting or moving them can break the OS.

1. Open File Explorer and press Alt to reveal the classic menu bar (or click the ... "See more" button in Windows 11, then Options), then go to Folder Options (Windows 11: search "Folder Options" in Start, or click View > Show > Options in File Explorer's newer layout).
2. In the Folder Options window, click the View tab.
3. Under "Advanced settings," find Hidden files and folders and select Show hidden files, folders, and drives.
4. Just below that, uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). Windows will show a warning dialog — click Yes to confirm.
5. Click OK.

Finding the AppData Folder

The most common reason people go looking for hidden files is AppData, where most installed applications store their settings, cache, and local data. It's hidden by default even in a completely fresh Windows install. Once "Hidden items" is enabled, you can reach it two ways:

• Navigate to C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData directly.
• Or press Windows key + R, type %appdata%, and press Enter — this jumps straight to AppData\Roaming, one of its three subfolders.

AppData has three subfolders with different persistence rules:

• Roaming — data meant to follow a user across machines on a domain network (settings, small config files).
• Local — machine-specific data, often larger (caches, logs, local databases). This is where most browser profile data lives.
• LocalLow — like Local, but used by lower-integrity/sandboxed processes.

Quickly Toggling Hidden Files with a Shortcut

If you find yourself toggling this often, you can bind it to a keyboard shortcut or just remember the address bar trick: typing %appdata%, %localappdata%, or %programdata% directly into File Explorer's address bar navigates straight to those hidden folders without needing to enable "Hidden items" at all — useful for a one-off visit.

Turning It Back Off

Repeat the same steps and uncheck "Hidden items" (View menu) if you'd rather keep your everyday view clean. It's a purely cosmetic setting — hiding files again doesn't move or change them, it just stops File Explorer from displaying them.