"Application Data", etc., HIDDEN, WON'T UNHIDE; usual methods don't work.

[mikewill4]

I know this has been discussed in thousands of posts. No one seems to
have my problem though. After installing IE 7.0 and then uninstalling
it, going back to 6, I now notice a problem -- don't know how long
it's been there -- My Local Settings and Application Data folders are
now hidden, in every user profile. They weren't before. Now they
are. Plus, changing all the settings in Folder Options does NOT help
at all. Settings are:

Display contents of System folders - CHECKED
Show hidden Files and Folders - SELECTED
Hide Protected System Files - UNCHECKED

I've tried everything, including restore defaults and then restore
above settings; reboots; etc; NOTHING.

This is very curious, and I'd very much like to figure out why this is
happening. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. THANKS.

 

[mikewill4]

UPDATE:
Found a tip on another website, opened up a CMD window and ran
attrib -h "Application Data"
and
attrib -h "Local Settings"
and that fixed the problem. I'd still like to know what caused it.
Hmmmmmmm.

 

[mikewill4]

UPDATE:
found a tip on another site, opened up a CMD window, and ran
attrib -h "Application Data"
and
attrib -h "Local Settings"
and that fixed the problem. Still like to know what caused it
tho..... Hmmmmm.