CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
Brain Stroke Patient
Brain Stroke Patient

Reputation: 169

How to remove hidden attribute of a folder in windows?

I mistakenly turned C:\Users\User into a hidden folder. Now, a lot of my programs aren't running. I can't even open file explorer. I managed to open powershell in admin mode, but am able to see the hidden folders using ls - Force. However, I don't know how to unhide them. How to I remove the the hidden attribute so that the mode of the folders change from d--h-- to d-----?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 9787

Answers (2)

mklement0
mklement0

Reputation: 437513

Mathias R. Jessen's helpful answer shows how to use PowerShell-native commands to solve your problem, but on occasion it is easier to call an external program to do a simple job, which is the standard attrib.exe utility in this case:

# Remove (-) the hidden (h) attribute from the specified dir.
attrib -h C:\Users\User

Note: Hypothetically speaking, if the target file or directory also has the system (s) attribute set - which you shouldn't modify yourself, and it is similarly ill-advised to change the hidden status of true system files - you would need attrib -s -h ... in order to turn off the hidden attribute (you could then restore the system attribute with attrib +s ...).

Upvotes: 5

Mathias R. Jessen
Mathias R. Jessen

Reputation: 174485

As Lee_Dailey points out, you can edit the Attributes property value on the corresponding DirectoryInfo object.

Since Attributes is a Flags enum (or a bit field if you will), the easiest way to remove a flag is to use bitwise operators:

$folder = Get-Item C:\Users\User -Force
$folder.Attributes = $folder.Attributes -band -bnot [System.IO.FileAttributes]::Hidden

This will set the value of Attributes to whatever it already is, but excluding the Hidden flag regardless of whether it was set or not

Upvotes: 9

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