Create Simple Script to Show / Hide Hidden Files and Folders in Windows XP, Vista and 7

We have posted a tutorial in past to show / hide hidden files and folders quickly and easily in Windows. It provides 2 registry scripts to enable / disable "Show hidden files and folders" option on the fly: Show/Hide Hidden Files & Folders on the fly in Windows XP, Vista & 7
Today in this tutorial, we are going to share a small script which can also be used to enable / disable "Show hidden files and folders" option in Windows.
This script when executed, checks the status of "Show hidden files and folders" option and toggles its value. So if its set to show hidden files, it changes the option to hide hidden files and vice versa.
Simply copy paste following code in NOTEPAD and save the file with name "Show_Hidden_Files_On_Off.vbs" (including quotes):

Hidden = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Hidden"
SHidden = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\ShowSuperHidden"
Set Sh = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
St = Sh.RegRead(Hidden)
If St = 2 Then
Sh.RegWrite Hidden, 1, "REG_DWORD"
Sh.RegWrite SHidden, 1, "REG_DWORD"
Else
Sh.RegWrite Hidden, 2, "REG_DWORD"
Sh.RegWrite SHidden, 0, "REG_DWORD"
End If
Sh.SendKeys("{F5}")

That's it. You can place this script at any location like Desktop, Quick Launch toolbar and whenever you need to toggle the "Show hidden files and folders" option, simply run the script.
PS: If you don't want to create the script manually or face any problem while creating the script, you can download a ready-made script using following link:

Download Script

Posted in: win vista