[Windows 11 ] Show Hidden Files and Folders

How do you let Windows 11 show hidden files if you can’t find the needed files anywhere? You’ll see how to solve this problem in details.

Posted by @Lucas December 17, 2024 Updated By @Lucas May 12, 2023

As a new OS of the Windows family, Windows 11 has some new changes in the characters and some new features. If you upgrade to Windows 11 for Windows 10, you may find that some settings are in different locations in the new system.

Some users have already got confused about where to find the option to hide/unhide files. So, here, we’ll show you how to show hidden files in Windows 11 in 2 ways.

2 ways to show hidden files in Windows 11

In this part, we’ll show you how to find files not showing up in Windows 11. Both are using File Explorer.

Way 1. Show hidden files in Layout and View Options

Step 1. Open File Explorer from the taskbar, and select the “Layout and view options” icon. It’s the second icon from the right in the top menu.

Step 2. Press “Show.” And then choose “Hidden items”.

Then, the hidden files will now become visible in File Explorer.

2. View hidden files via Folder Options

You can also unhide files via Folder settings which is also the way how to hide files in Windows 11

Step 1. Launch File Explorer and press the three dots in the right-up corner, and select “Options”.

Step 2. In the Folder Options window, go to the “View” tab.

Step 3. Under “Advanced settings,” mark the checkbox next to “Show hidden files, folders, and drives.”

Step 4. Choose “Apply” and “OK” to save the change.

The folders and files will appear in File Explorer. If you wish to hide the files, repeat the steps and mark the checkbox next to “Don’t show hidden files, folders, and drives.”

What do I do for files not showing up in Windows 11?

If you just need to know how to show hidden files in Windows 11, then the above two ways should be enough.

However, sometimes, things are not that simple. Some users find that even if they unhide the hidden files, the target files and folders are still not showing up in Windows 11. If you’re in this dilemma, you’ll need more solutions to try.

In most cases, this issue is caused by drive problems: malware, virus, accidental data loss, corrupted file system, bad sector on the disk… Therefore, if you have an all-around disk and partition manager, it’ll be more convenient to fix this issue.

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is freeware for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP users to manage their devices efficiently and easily. It can format/check/create/delete/copy partitions with simple steps, you don’t need to worry about complex commands or operations.

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1. Check target partition and fix via chkdsk.exe

Step 1. Right-click on the partition which you are going to check, and choose "Advanced" -> "Check Partition".

Step 2. Select the way of checking errors to perform, and click "OK" to continue.

▶ There are 3 options: 1. Check partition and fix errors in this partition by using chkdsk.exe: finds out the wrong parts in the partition and deal with them. 2. Check partition for errors by using chkdsk.exe: only check and find. 3. Check whether there is a bad sector on the partition: just tell you whether there is a bad sector on the partition or not.

Step 3. The operation will be completed successfully in a while. You can view how far it goes through the process on the pop-out window. Click "OK" to finish this task.

2. Try to recover the target drive

Some users find that the data recovery tool may retrieve missing files on the target drive when there are not only files disappear but also a whole partition does not show up.

So, in this situation, you can try this way to see if the missing files can be found or not. To do a drive recovery, you can upgrade to the Professional Edition to employ “Partition Recovery Wizard”.

Step 1.  Run AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Click "Recover" and “Partition Recovery” on the top panel.

Step 2. Choose the target disk that contains the partition and click “Next”.

Step 2. Here offers you two search modes. Choose one and click “Next”.

Step 3. The lost partitions will be listed. Choose the one that you want to recover and click “Proceed”

Step 4. When you are prompted that the partitions have been recovered successfully, click “Finish”.

Ending

This post shows you how to show hidden files in Windows 11 under 2 situations. If you just need to see hidden files you can solve the problem via change the settings in File Explorer. If the issue is caused by a drive problem, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant to solve the problem.

Besides the features we’ve mentioned, this tool can also clone disk, convert the disk to MBR/GPT without cleaning data, change file system, move installed programs… And if you need, you can use the Server Edition to manage your Server devices efficiently.