How To Create Invisible Folder On Windows?

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Invisible Folder On Windows: Privacy and security must always be given utmost importance as personal and professional data in the wrong hands would create havoc. Even though people usually are careful about their data on the web such as social media profiles, information shared through emails or other platforms, etc have you thought about its protection on your desktop?

What if someone who has access to your laptop or PC gets some data that you didn’t want to share, which might it be something personal or legal documents? For such issues, Windows has simple provisions that would protect your privacy.

In this article, we will cover everything about one such provision that many don’t know about, that is, techniques to create an invisible folder on Windows!

Invisible folders in Windows

An invisible folder exactly means what it is named and is different from a ‘Hidden folder’. Let us know more about the invisible folders on Windows before getting into how to create one.

In Windows, hidden files are those files that are not visible and do not appear even when searched. These files can be viewed by clicking on the ‘Show hidden files’ option.

To know more about hidden files, click here.

Whereas, invisible files cannot be viewed until the creator decides to make them visible. So unlike hidden files, these cannot be accessed with a simple click!

How to create an invisible folder on Windows

To create invisible folders on your Windows desktop you need to do two main things:

Creating an invisible name for the folder.
Making the folder invisible.

1. Create an invisible folder name

Create a ‘New Folder’ on the Desktop.
Right-click on the folder and click on the ‘Rename’ option.
Now press ‘0160’ from the numeric pad on your keyboard while simultaneously pressing the ‘Alt’ button.
Through this, you are typing an ASCII character code that cannot be read by Windows, hence making it invisible. This means that you are adding a ‘non-breaking, space’ character as your folder name.
Now the name of your folder would have been made invisible.

Note: Use the digits present in the numeric pad for this as this trick won’t work if you press the numbers on top of the alphabets.

2. Make your folder invisible

Right-click the folder you had just created with an invisible name.
Click on the ‘Properties’ option.
Click on the ‘Change icon’ option under the ‘Folder icons’.
A dialog box with several options of folder icons would open.
Pull the scroll bar towards the left to view more and search for three blank icons amongst other options.
From the dialog box click on the ‘Customize’ tab.
Click on any one of those icons.
Click on the ‘Apply’ option followed by ‘OK’.
Click ‘Ok’ once again.

Now your folder would be completely invisible and can be accessed only by clicking on the exact location on the Desktop.

Couldn’t create an invisible folder using this technique? Try this using this alternative:

After creating a ‘New folder’, right-click on it and select the ‘Rename’ option.
Instead of using Alt+0160, try pressing ‘2’, ‘2’, ‘5’, from the numeric pad of the keyboard along with the ‘Alt’ button.
Create an invisible folder name.
Then follow the same steps as mentioned above to create an invisible icon.

This invisible folder and its contents cannot be viewed even in File Explorer, unlike the other folders and files.

We have now seen how to create an invisible folder on Windows 10 desktop and these steps are the same for Windows 7, Windows 8, and the earlier versions.

How to create multiple invisible folders

To create more than one invisible folders on the desktop follow the same steps mentioned except:

While renaming the folder, press Alt+0160 or Alt+255 one time extra for the next folder and so on.
For example: If you press, Alt+0160 once for the first folder then for the second folder press it twice.
This is because no two folders can be saved with the same folder name, so you are adding extra space characters to differentiate them.

Common problems faced

Here are some of the common problems faced while creating an invisible folder:

1. The folder didn’t turn invisible

If you face this problem even after trying the techniques mentioned above then try checking your security rights on the folder.
- Right-click on the folder > Open the ‘Properties’ > Open the ‘Security’ tab > Check whether the access is given to – Everyone or Administrator.
- If the access requires administrator permission the get access for this particular folder and try making the folder invisible.

2. The folder is seen as a colored glitch

This problem can be encountered in some devices in which the folder is visible as a colored blur instead of turning invisible.
Sometimes the folder would have turned invisible but a ‘box’ shaped border would be visible.
To solve this, try restarting your computer once. This usually works and you can successfully create an invisible folder.
As this technique is not an official Windows solution, there might be some bugs with time, hence do not rely on it as the only protection.
Another problem is that, if someone knows about this feature, then they can simply highlight the entire desktop to find out the location of the invisible file.
As mentioned earlier, you cannot see this folder in File Explorer but a blank space with properties would be present, so the folder might be exposed.

So on the whole, even though this is a unique option that isn’t commonly used, it is better not to depend on it entirely. Some other ways to protect your files are:

Creating password-protected files.
Storing files in your USB.
Storing it in the drives instead of on the desktop. This will prevent any accidental viewing of your data.

In this article, the steps to create an invisible folder on Windows have been clearly explained. Even though this isn’t the most secure way to protect your data, it is enough to keep it hidden at a location that only you can identify! Hope you found this useful and were successful in hiding your files from unwanted eyes.