How to Create an Invisible Folder on Your Windows 10 Desktop

Have you ever preferred to disguise documents suitable below someone’s nose? With this digital parlor trick, you can hide a folder in simple sight on your Windows 10 desktop.

Although there are certainly better (and much more safe) strategies to cover files, this brief idea is significantly extra delightful.

To execute this feat, you develop a folder with an invisible name and no icon. To get started, correct-simply click an empty place on your desktop, click on “New,” and then find “Folder.”

The folder appears onscreen with “New Folder” highlighted so you can rename it.

When you rename the folder, press and hold Alt as you variety 255 on the numeric keypad, and then press Enter. Be aware that you will have to sort the figures on a numeric keypad, not the quantity keys at the top rated of your keyboard.

What you are accomplishing is typing a exclusive character that is not on the keyboard with an ASCII character code. This names the folder with an invisible, nonbreaking space character that will not look in Home windows Explorer.

Now that the name is invisible, we’ll just take treatment of the icon. Appropriate-click on the folder and pick “Properties.”

Click the “Customize” tab, and then click on “Change Icon” in the “Folder Icons” area.

In the “Change Icon for Folder” window, scroll to the ideal, pick out the invisible icon, and then click “OK.”

Click on Alright all over again to shut the homes window and voilà! Your folder icon has vanished!

You can continue to discover the folder on your desktop if you drag your mouse pointer in excess of a substantial space to pick several icons. Or else, it continues to be invisible. The folder will also be invisible in File Explorer and will keep that way, even with contents inside it. (Explorer generally displays a preview of data files inside a folder in its icon).

If you want to hide a number of folders at the moment on your desktop, repeat the course of action higher than, but press Alt+255 additional than the moment to form various invisible people. Two folders just can’t have the identical identify, so the 2nd a person will want two blank areas.

You can repeat the same pattern with three or additional folders, just raise the number of invisible spaces in the folder title each time.

Relevant: How to Cover Files and Folders on Each individual Working Program

This Isn’t Secure and Can Be Buggy

Obviously, this is not a secure way to hide data files. Any individual can uncover the contents of an invisible folder via a method research. Anyone may well also unintentionally learn it as he’s applying the desktop.

It can be helpful if you only need to have to disguise some thing quickly (or if you just want to prank a person). If you actually want to protected any data files, however, you should absolutely use encryption.

This trick isn’t an official Windows aspect, so it could possibly once in a while have some bugs. Occasionally, the icon may possibly be black or seem as a faint define, alternatively than being totally invisible. This might be related to the sizing of the icon. If the icon is not invisible, press Ctrl and use the scroll wheel on your mouse until you come across the correct sizing.

If you have any problems, just move the files in the folder to a new a single, and then delete the invisible a single. Or, you can test to restore the folder back to its normal condition.

How to Make a Folder Seen Yet again

To undo the invisible trick, ideal-click on the invisible folder and decide on “Properties.” Click the “Customize” tab, and then click on “Change Icon.” This time, select a common icon for the folder as a substitute of the invisible 1.

To alter the identify, right-click on the folder and find “Rename.” Sort what you want to identify the folder, and then push Enter.