How to make a File or Folder Hidden or Read Only in Windows 10

In this post, we will show you how you can make your files or folders Hidden or Read only on Windows 10 PC. When you set a file as Hidden, folks will not be able to see the file or folder. When you set a file to be Read only, folks will be able to read the file but they will not be able to make changes and save them.

Hidden Files are any files with the ‘Hidden’ attribute in the Properties turned on. These files are hidden because they are usually important operating system-related files. These files are hidden from the normal view so that they do not get changed or deleted. While the Hidden attribute can be applied to files and folders, the Read only attribute applies to files inside a folder only.

Make a file or folder Hidden in Windows 1o

To set the attributes of the File or Folder to Hidden, follow these steps:

1. Locate the file
2. Right-click on it
3. Under Attributes, select Hidden.
4. The file will get hidden.

To see it again, you can use this method to show Hidden files.

You should know one thing. If the checkbox shows a square inside, the Folder’s Properties, it means that some items inside are Hidden or Read only and some not.

A blank checkbox indicates that none of the items have that attribute, whereas a checkmark indicates that that file or all the files in the folder have that attribute.

Make a file Read only in Windows 1o

To set the attributes of the File or Folder to Read only, follow these steps:

1. Locate the file
2. Right-click on it
3. Under Attributes, select Read only.
4. The file will now be Read only and changes made will not get saved.

You will, however, be able to save this file with a different name.

Clicking on the Advanced button, as shown above in the first image, will open another box that allows you to compress or encrypt files and archive or index items.

I hope this basic tutorial helps you.

Now read: How to list all the Hidden files & folders on your Windows computer.