Sometimes you want to keep your files or folder away from people. Whether it’s a gift list or some hidden photographs file, hiding files is easy. In this article, I will show you how to hide folders in your windows computer.
Use Hidden Folders
Computers come with hidden folders that can protect all your files and folders from other eyes. It is the easiest way to hide your files. This won’t really hide data from someone who knows what they are doing, but it will make them invisible so people can’t find them easily. It is just as in general you hide things under your mattress. Step by step guide how you can hide files in windows 7 are as follows:
- Select the files and folders you want to hide
- Right-click and choose properties
- Click the General tab
- Click the checkbox next to hidden in the Attributes section
- Click apply
Now the files you choose are hidden away and people won’t be able to see your files when they are looking through your folders. When you need to find those files again, just turn hidden items on. Below are the pictures that can be helpful in understanding to hide files.
Use Apps to hide files from search and history
You can also use a third party app to hide files. Again these applications don’t really protect your data, but they do make it, so nobody casually comes across files you don’t want them to. My lockbox application is used to hide files.
My lockbox tucks your personal files inside the app and requires a password to unlock them. Nothing inside My lockbox will show in the search so that no one can search your important files easily. There is no encryption here, so while it is not super secure, it is fast and easy to use.
Hide files and folder using CMD
Follow the steps given below to hide your important files and folders in windows 10 or 7.
1: Open start menu and search for Command Prompt.
2: Run the cmd as an administrator.
3: Type the following command to give the address of a file you want to hide and press Enter:
cd C:\Users\Infies\Important Files (Change this address with yours)
4: Type the following command to hide a folder or file and press Enter:
attrib +h “Word Folder”
In cmd window replace the word “Word Folder” with the name of your folder.
5: Use this command to hide all the files inside the hidden folder.
attrib +h /s /d
Note: “” these marks are only necessary when there are spaces in the name.
Encrypt files to lock them away for good
Putting password and hiding files doesn’t protect the files in a real sense. If you want to secure those data, you want to encrypt them so nobody accesses them without a password. This will slow down your access to the files, but it is the most secure method to hide them away from other eyes. You have a ton of different options to encrypt files, but the easiest way is to create an encrypted ZIP file.
On Windows, we are the fan of 7-Zip as an archive utility and it is also an easy way to encrypt files.
- Right-click on the folder you want to encrypt
- Select 7-Zip and add to Archive
- Change the archive format to ZIP
- Change the encryption method to AES-256
- Enter a password and click Ok
Now your files are hidden inside the password protected archive where nobody can get them and get their access. The ZIP file will show up in search, but its contents won’t. 7-Zip is not that much perfect as it slows down the access to your files. Alternatively, you can use an encryption program. BitLocker is another good choice, though you’ll need Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 8 Pro to use it.
Hide data with Steganography
The users can use a steganography program to hide data inside other data. For example, you can hide a text message within a jpg graphics files or an MP3 music file. The data is encrypted first and then hidden inside another file with the steganography software.
Some steganography techniques require the exchange of a secret key and others use public and private key cryptography. A simplified example of steganography software is StegoMagic, a freeware download that will encrypt messages and hide them in TXT, .WAV, .BMP files.
Make use of public key infrastructure
A public key infrastructure is a system for managing public and private key pairs and digital certificates. Because keys and certificates are issued by a trusted third party, certificate-based security is stronger than other securities. You can easily protect data you want to share with someone else by encrypting it with a public key of its intended recipient, which is available to anyone.