Question WTH did I do?! Folders and files now hidden/transparent! Everything messed up.

[Matt_Stevens]

OK, I have never had this happen. I was trying to find a backup folder for some files and of course, they were hidden. Stupid Windows 10 on my new Lenovo Prime laptop.

I was trying to access them and clicked something by accident. The next thing I know my computer went nuts, made changes and suddenly half of my files and folders are TRANSPARENT! WTF! It's like the system decided to make a lot of normal files hidden files or something.

I have NO IDEA how to undo this and need help. I have been in a panic for about two hours trying to fix this.

This is only some folders and files on my C drive. Nothing on my second D drive. Upon further looking there is no question that files/folders related to my account are accidentally hidden. I have no idea how to reverse this.

It seems my system has NO restore points.

 

[mxnerd]

How to Reset File Explorer's Folder View in Windows 10

Windows 10 lets you customize how you see the contents of your folders by adding or removing the preview/details pane, viewing layout of icons, grouping and sorting, and more.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[Matt_Stevens]

What's interesting is I tried that and it didn't work. It just didn't actually do the job. Nothing happened. So this morning I was forced to redo Windows. I will absolutley have to create a full backup of my system once it is completely set up.

 

[Noid]

" Night Mode " made my File Manager hard to " See " the file Menu items, and the currently highlighted item in the window.

Needed to turn it off for " APPS "
( a toggle in the display settings )

and yes , turning this on and off does not create a restore point.
Also, if system files were visible before, and not now, check the
File Manager advanced settings for the toggle on " view system files "