Windows folders are the easiest way to save our files and folders on your computer. Folders, or directories, are usually available to all users of a computer, as long as they have permissions to access them. By default, Windows does not offer many options to prevent other users from accessing our folders, except for a complex system of access permissions. However, it is possible to protect our folders and their data by hiding folders and making them undetectable with a simple command for CMD: attrib.
The attrib command is a command that allows us to specify the attributes that any file or any folder on our computer can have. Unlike the normal function to hide files or folders, which can be easily reversed, if we decide to mark a file or a folder as hidden with this command, it will be really hidden. And not only that, but it will even be undetectable.
Create a folder from CMD
Surely most of us know how to create a new folder on the computer. Simply right-click on any directory and choose the New> Folder section . We will give you the name we want and ready, we will have a folder ready to store in it what we want.
In addition to using the standard form to create a new folder, we can also create it from CMD. To do this, we must open CMD with Administrator permissions and we will use the MD command to create a new folder in the directory we want.
For example, we can create a new folder called “iTiGic” in “C: /” using the following command:
md “c: / iTiGic”
If we need to create several folders, we can easily do it with this command by typing the names of the folders one after the other. For example:
md sz1 sz2 sz3 sz4
Once we have created the folder, the next step will also be to hide it from CMD.
How to make an undetectable folder in Windows 10
The attrib command allows us to modify the attributes of any file or folder on our computer. This command has different parameters that we can use to give the different attributes to the files or folders of the PC:
- A: used to know if the file or folder has been modified or not.
- A: It allows us to configure the directory as “read only” to prevent its content from being modified.
- H: we can mark the file as hidden.
- S: Assign the file as if it were the system, that is, mark it as hidden and read-only.
By using this command, we can use the parameters we want preceded by a “+” to assign them, or preceded by a “-” to remove them.
To convert any folder into a hidden and protected folder , what we must do is use the “+ h” and “+ s” parameters. For example:
attrib + s + h “c: / iTiGic / sz1”
As we can see, the folder is hidden, and now it no longer appears in the directory list, neither in the folder nor using the CMD “dir” command.
If you want to show the folder again, what we must do is remove the parameters that we have just assigned. We can do this easily by changing the “+” to the “-“, as, for example, with:
attrib -s -h “c: / iTiGic / sz1”
Quick and easy method to create a hidden folder, but not very effective
As we can see, this is a very fast way to hide and protect the files we want inside our computer. And also, to do it without using additional software. However, it is not exactly the safest method we can use.
If a user knows that the folder is hidden, he could easily unhide it using the “attrib” command again just as we have taught. The same is true if you activate the option to view hidden or system files in the File Explorer properties or, for example, use a Linux Live to access the data.
If we really want to hide and protect our data, what we must do is use an encryption software, such as VeraCrypt, that allows us to protect them with a password to prevent the data from falling into the hands of unauthorized users.
