Wednesday, October 1, 2014

How to show ALL files in Windows 7 Explorer?

I am pretty sure that in Windows XP, if you go into the Folder Options and then select "Show hidden files, folders and drives" and also uncheck "Hide protected operating system files", then Windows Explorer will show you ALL files.



But that does not appear to be the case in Windows 7 (I am using Ultimate 64-bit). For example, according to this question, Windows 7 has the following 2 directories:




%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations 
%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations


But I cannot find them by just clicking around in Windows Explorer. I can navigate to %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows in Windows Explorer, but then I don't see a "Recent" directory. I only see a "Recent Items" directory and it does not have the "AutomaticDestinations" and "CustomDestinations" directories.



However, if I copy and paste "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations" or "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations" into the Windows Explorer address bar, then it shows me the contents of the directory. But then a couple of odd things happen:



1) Even though I am seeing the contents of %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations, the Windows Explorer address bar shows "Computer > VOLUMENAME (C:) > Users > username > AppData > Roaming > Microsoft > Windows > Recent Items"




2) The left pane of Windows Explorer that shows the file system tree highlights an empty folder (just a folder icon with no name) underneath the "Recent Items" directory.



What is this bizarre behavior, and is there any way to get Windows Explorer to show ALL files/directories?

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