Repair Windows unable to show hidden files

In some cases, Windows will not be able to show hidden files upon request. In Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options... > View Tab > Advanced settings, check on Show hidden files and folders and hit Apply. But after these steps the hidden files are still not shown, and the next time you go in to the same setting, you'll see the setting is set to Do not show hidden files and folders. This is probably caused by your Windows registry being modified by certain virus.

 

Here are the way to manually fix this problem and re-enable the showing of hidden files in Windows system.

1. Go to Start > Run > type in regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL
3. Delete the key CheckedValue in the right hand window.
4. Create a new DWORD Value named CheckedValue.
5. Double click on it and set the value data to 1.

Now, restart your computer and everything should be working fine.


Alternatively, you can open up notepad, copy-paste following code and save as .reg file and run it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL]
"CheckedValue"=dword:1

Download: Re-Enable Hidden Folder.zip