Does pressing ‘show hidden files’ damage your PC?

OnlyAlex

OnlyAlex

OnlyAlex

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Does pressing the box ‘show hidden files’ on File Explorer on Windows 11 damage your PC. I went to open a hidden folder but it said I needed permission and security clearance so I panicked and decided not to bother opening the folder and changing permissions, but should I be worried? I was trying to check something but wish I hadn’t bothered.

Cheers
 
OnlyAlex said:
Does pressing the box ‘show hidden files’ on File Explorer on Windows 11 damage your PC. I went to open a hidden folder but it said I needed permission and security clearance so I panicked and decided not to bother opening the folder and changing permissions, but should I be worried? I was trying to check something but wish I hadn’t bothered.

Cheers
Click to expand...


No, it won't damage your PC if you show hidden files. But it will give you the opportunity to damage your PC if you start altering some of the previously hidden files if you don't know what you're doing. That's why they're hidden.
 
No, it's just UAC (user account control) warning you that an action that requires administrative privileges has been requested. This is a feature designed to alert you, in case it's not something you had directly requested (malware could be attempting to perform certain actions, for example).
 
As the guys already said
Showing hidden/system files
Doesn't do any harm in itself but
Messing around with some of them afterwards
Might do

What we're you trying to check?
Perhaps we can suggest another way of doing it
Or tell you if it's something
It's safe to alter/mess around with

And as always
You should have some sort of
System image backups
Before playing around with stuff
Should have one regardless as windows can
Manage to mess itself up sometimes
Without your intervention
 
As others have said, no.

Hidden files/folders are really only used to make it easier for us human to view directory listing, basically instead of seeing hundreds of files and trying to find what you want in a big list you can 'hide' files so the list is smaller and easier for our monkey brains to deal with. :)

Windows is pretty good these days with preventing you, through the use of permissions, from deleting/changing files you shouldn't be so when/if you get a prompt saying you need permission and security clearance it's probably a good idea, like you did, to not bother changing them.
 
There's not really a reasonable reason to ever show hidden files unless you are manually making files hidden for whatever reason :p
 
mrk said:
There's not really a reasonable reason to ever show hidden files unless you are manually making files hidden for whatever reason :p
Click to expand...
I always have mine set to show them
But I do tend to mess around with stuff I shouldn't
To learn what happens
Though I don't claim to be reasonable :cry:
But yeah sometimes it's necessary
To go into hidden files to fix something
Even if its something I broke
By modifying hidden files :cry:
 
Silicon Si said:
From time to time I need to access AppData so yes hidden files are shown on all my pc's!
Click to expand...
You can do that without showing hidden files, just have a shortcut saved in a maintenance folder like I do which I run through monthly.

syEyaHD.png


As long as you shortcut it, they can remain hidden.
 
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