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Thread: How To Create An Invisible Folder

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    Arrow How To Create An Invisible Folder

    As the title states this is how to make an invisible, not hidden, folder within Windows, this works for all versions as far as im aware so lets get started,

    NOTE TO VISTA USERS: There is a bug within Vista that doesnt allow you to delete the folder once you've made it, to get rid of the folder you MUST add it to either a zip or a RAR folder and then delete it

    First off what you need to do is actually create a folder, for thoes of you who do not know how to do this, right click on your desktop, highlight new and click folder rename your folder to anything you like for the moment.

    SS 1.jpg

    Your screen now should look something like mine,

    SS5.jpg
    Now what you want to do is put all the files and folders you wish to hide into this folder as these next steps will make your folder invisible.

    To make the name invisible you want to put a space in, but you may of noticed that you cannot just enter a " " so what we will do is use the symbol for space, to do this we must type in the following, you must hold the Alt key and push 0160 then let go of alt, once you have let go left click back onto your desktop and as you can see your folder name is blank, now to make the folder icon disapear we need to right click the folder and select properties.

    once the box below has opened up select the customise tab and at the bottom select change icon.

    SS2.jpg
    when a further box pops up scroll right untill you see the image thats highlighted in the screen shot below
    SS3.jpg
    click it and push ok, then click apply on the previous box and boom, you should now have an empty space where your folder was,

    if the icon is still visible push F5 on your desktop and it should disappear, now remember where you put that folder personally i leave my folder in the middle on the right hand side of my screen because its rare that people click there, now in the unfortunate event that you forget where you left that folder push Ctrl+A on your desktop and it will highlight all the files and folders on your desktop, including your invisible one.
    And thats how you create an invisible folder using Windows

    NOTE:
    This isnt limited to just your desktop you can use it anywhere on your computer just follow the same steps as above and it will work fine

    EDIT: there seems to be a few people who are saying that this is flawed since if you click and drag a box over the area you can find it, im not claiming this is the perfect way to hide or secure your files and folders its just a little trick that you can do within windows and its as i said in the title its invisible not hidden
    Last edited by Bennieboi20; 18th-June-2011 at 21:36.
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    Well people, now you know where to hide you're um... "videos".
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    Quote Originally Posted by T12av1S View Post
    Well people, now you know where to hide you're um... "videos".
    and by your "videos" you mean loli right?


    PAN!

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    hehe nice!
    That blank space is called the "hard space"

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    This method isn't perfect however, drag a box over the icon you can still see the outline of the text for the invisible character used and this shows up in microsoft command prompt.

    If you hid it in a place not as easy to access as the desktop it would probably work provided the person you are hiding the files and folders from has is not tech savvy at all. Also the files contained within the folder will still appear if you carried out a wildcard search for the file types, such as looking for every .jpg file on the hard drive.

    If you really want to secure files, use Truecrypt.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tassadar View Post
    This method isn't perfect however, drag a box over the icon you can still see the outline of the text for the invisible character used and this shows up in microsoft command prompt.

    If you hid it in a place not as easy to access as the desktop it would probably work provided the person you are hiding the files and folders from has is not tech savvy at all. Also the files contained within the folder will still appear if you carried out a wildcard search for the file types, such as looking for every .jpg file on the hard drive.

    If you really want to secure files, use Truecrypt.
    as i should of stated, this isnt a perfect method if you truly want to hide something on your computer, this is only a trick for people who want to do something different without downloading things and want to have easy access to their folder, to be honest if you really wanted to you could create a hidden folder but then you would have to go back and forth between your control pannel and things, i said on the chat yesterday you could even place it behind your windows 7 gadgets for a bit of extra hiding, this isnt about securing files really its just a fun thing to do with windows
    Last edited by Bennieboi20; 16th-June-2011 at 10:24.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bennieboi20 View Post
    as i should of stated, this isnt a perfect method if you truly want to hide something on your computer, this is only a trick for people who want to do something different without downloading things and want to have easy access to their folder, to be honest if you really wanted to you could create a hidden folder but then you would have to go back and forth between your control pannel and things, i said on the chat yesterday you could even place it behind your windows 7 gadgets for a bit of extra hiding, this isnt about securing files really its just a fun thing to do with windows
    Oh, ok, I just wanted to say about the alternative for files which must not be found.

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    Hey Bennieboi - I thought I'd try this out, just to see if it really worked, and it does, beautifully. Except for one thing:

    I followed your instructions to the letter, and I now have a folder on my desktop that I can't delete. Tried dragging it into the Recycle Bin, it just popped back to it's former location on my desktop. Tried right-clicking and going to the Properties tab, "Restore Defaults", then deleting, no joy. Tried renaming, no luck. Tried restoring the folder icon AND renaming, it's still there. Can you offer any advice on how to get rid of it? I really don't need it, I just tried this out for sh*ts and giggles. BTW, my OS is Windows Vista (32-bit, I believe).

    EDIT: Okay, I dragged a photo into this folder, and can rename, cut/copy/paste/, or delete the photo, but still can't do any of those things with the folder. Not funny anymore... I want rid of this thing!

    EDIT 2: Going to try restarting my PC. Hope that gets rid of it.

    FINAL EDIT: Restarting didn't work either. The only way I was able to get rid of the sonofagun was to do the following:

    1. Open WinRAR, and browse to my desktop
    2. Right-click the "invisible" folder and select "Add to archive"
    3. In the window that pops up, select the option to "delete files after archiving"
    4. Discover that the "invisible folder" is gone, and delete the archive. Done!

    Man, what a pain! Vista users, beware. Glad it's sorted out, now I've gotta go to work. Peace out.
    Last edited by Rockstar1983; 17th-June-2011 at 19:51. Reason: Self-evident: See above
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rockstar1983 View Post
    Hey Bennieboi - I thought I'd try this out, just to see if it really worked, and it does, beautifully. Except for one thing:

    I followed your instructions to the letter, and I now have a folder on my desktop that I can't delete. Tried dragging it into the Recycle Bin, it just popped back to it's former location on my desktop. Tried right-clicking and going to the Properties tab, "Restore Defaults", then deleting, no joy. Tried renaming, no luck. Tried restoring the folder icon AND renaming, it's still there. Can you offer any advice on how to get rid of it? I really don't need it, I just tried this out for sh*ts and giggles. BTW, my OS is Windows Vista (32-bit, I believe).

    EDIT: Okay, I dragged a photo into this folder, and can rename, cut/copy/paste/, or delete the photo, but still can't do any of those things with the folder. Not funny anymore... I want rid of this thing!

    EDIT 2: Going to try restarting my PC. Hope that gets rid of it.

    FINAL EDIT: Restarting didn't work either. The only way I was able to get rid of the sonofagun was to do the following:

    1. Open WinRAR, and browse to my desktop
    2. Right-click the "invisible" folder and select "Add to archive"
    3. In the window that pops up, select the option to "delete files after archiving"
    4. Discover that the "invisible folder" is gone, and delete the archive. Done!

    Man, what a pain! Vista users, beware. Glad it's sorted out, now I've gotta go to work. Peace out.
    ahhh right ok you had the vista bug i forgot about that, yeah its a bug within windows vista that doesnt allow you delete it ater as it doesnt see it as a folder, there are two ways to do this the 1st is to do what you did, add it to an archive and delete it that way, or the 2nd but more complicated way is to delete it via CMD im gonna add in details of the bug at the start of my post cheers rockstar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bennieboi20 View Post
    ahhh right ok you had the vista bug i forgot about that, yeah its a bug within windows vista that doesnt allow you delete it ater as it doesnt see it as a folder, there are two ways to do this the 1st is to do what you did, add it to an archive and delete it that way, or the 2nd but more complicated way is to delete it via CMD im gonna add in details of the bug at the start of my post cheers rockstar
    No problem, man. Thought I'd share my experience here, incase someone else ran into the same problem that I did (Which, if they have Vista, they probably will). Glad I found the WinRAR trick, because trying to do command-prompt stuff makes me feel like a complete dribbling idiot. For some reason, I just can't master the syntax.

    EDIT: I see where you've added to the top post, but make sure to add that you MUST add the folder to an archive, *then* select "Delete files after archiving" to get rid of it, otherwise the trick won't work. Also, I've only tested it in WinRAR, not WinZip, but it should work as long as there's an option to delete after archiving.
    Last edited by Rockstar1983; 18th-June-2011 at 19:23.
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