INFO: Accessing Super Hidden Files in Windows 2000

ID: Q225112

This article discusses a Beta release of a Microsoft product. The information in this article is provided as-is and is subject to change without notice.

No formal product support is available from Microsoft for this Beta product. For information about obtaining support for a Beta release, please see the documentation included with the Beta product files, or check the Web location from which you downloaded the release.

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API), included with:
- Microsoft Windows 2000

SUMMARY

Windows 2000 marks many system files as Super Hidden, which means that they have both the hidden and system attributes set. These files are still accessible, but they are not displayed in Windows Explorer.

MORE INFORMATION

To simplify the user interface in Windows 2000, many of the system files are marked as Super Hidden. Super Hidden files are not visible in the Windows 2000 Explorer, even with the Show Hidden Files option selected.

To view all files in Windows Explorer complete the following steps:

Select Folder Options from the Tools menu.

Click the View tab.

Uncheck Hide protected operating system files in the Available Settings box.

NOTE: You can also view hidden system files from the MS-DOS command line.

Hidden system files can be read by any application, and they appear in the File Open dialog box. They can also be opened in a text editor such as Notepad.

NOTE: The Super Hidden files feature is turned off by default in Windows 2000 Server editions.

Applications written for Windows 3.x or MS-DOS should specify both the Hidden and System attributes when searching for Super Hidden files. By default, an MS-DOS or Windows 3.x application calls the INT 21 subfunction 4E API to find files, which returns only files with either no attributes set or just the Archive attribute set. To reliably find a Super Hidden file, MS-DOS or Windows 3.x applications must search for the file with two different sets of criteria - once with no attributes set, and again with both System and Hidden attributes set.

Additional query words: compatguidechange


Keywords          : kbWinOS2000 kbGrpKernBase 
Version           : winnt:
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbinfo

Last Reviewed: May 25, 1999