CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsbatch-filecommand-linecmd
user8258333
user8258333

Reputation:

Change "Show hidden files and folders" setting via Command Prompt

Is there a way to change system settings (like in my example, to show/hide hidden folders and files) via the command prompt? If so, how is this done?

Upvotes: 6

Views: 4228

Answers (1)

user736893
user736893

Reputation:

To enable the option you mentioned, you can use REG ADD:

reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced /v Hidden /t REG_DWORD /d 0x1 /f

Settings such as "Show hidden files, folders and drives" in the Windows Explorer options are most commonly stored in the registry. This one, for example, looks like this:

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
Value Name: Hidden
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (1 = show hidden, 2 = do not show)

You can use the reg command to modify keys via command line. See more info here: https://ss64.com/nt/reg.html

To see if the "Show hidden files" setting is enabled, you can use reg query:

reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced /v Hidden

More info on reg add:

REG ADD KeyName [/v ValueName | /ve] [/t type] [/s Separator] [/d Data] [/f]

KeyName     [\\Machine\]FullKey

Machine     Name of remote machine - omitting defaults to the current machine 
            Only HKLM and HKU are available on remote machines
FullKey     ROOTKEY\SubKey ROOTKEY [ HKLM | HKCU | HKCR | HKU | HKCC ] SubKey 
            The full name of a registry key under the selected ROOTKEY
/v          The value name, under the selected Key, to add
/ve         adds an empty value name <no name> for the key
/t          RegKey data types
            [ REG_SZ | REG_MULTI_SZ | REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN | REG_DWORD | 
              REG_BINARY | REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN | REG_NONE | REG_EXPAND_SZ ]
            If omitted, REG_SZ is assumed
/s          Specify one character that you use as the separator in your data 
            string for REG_MULTI_SZ. If omitted, use "\0" as the separator
/d          The data to assign to the registry ValueName being added
/f          Force overwriting the existing registry entry without prompt

Upvotes: 7

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