Windows Vista – Show Hidden System Files and Extensions

In Windows XP you used to go to the tools menu in windows explorer to view folder options, this is all changed in Windows Vista; they have taken out the tool option. But all is not lost, you can still get to the folder option, you just have to take another route, I will show you how.

First open up the control panel by clicking on the start globe at the bottom left hand corner of your screen.

Then select control panel, once the control panels is open, then choose Appearance and Personalization.

Click on Images for larger view


The next window you will see the familiar folder options.



Below the main folder option you will see sub categories, one of these will be show hidden files and folders, go ahead and click on it.



Here you will see the folder options window, just scroll down until you see show hidden files and folders and move your mouse to the circle and click. Now you can also uncheck the box that says hide extensions for known file types, this will allow you to see if the file is an mp3, exe or jpeg picture file. There is one other box you may or may not want to uncheck and that is the hide protected operating system files, but be careful, those files are protected for a reason, if you accidentally delete any of those files you could cause Windows Vista not to open the next time you start your computer. Make sure you click apply when you are finished to save your changes and you are done.