RajKohli said:
Let make it more clear to you.
1. System Folders also do behave like Hiddens.
2. You can not set the System attribute to your folders within from
Windows.
After your last reply, I created some folders and subfolders on my C
Drive
and set the attributes.
My Place [Attrib +S]
Your Place [Attrib +S +H]
Our Place [Attrib +H]
What I notice is that Windows Explorer was doing a strange behavior on
both
side in Hierarchy and Right Side pane. Here is the explanations:
1. If "Show Hidden Files and Folders" and "Hide Protected Operating
System
Files" are both set to "No" then Explorer will not show any files on
either
sides of explorer.
2. If "Show Hidden Files and Folders" is set to "No" and "Hide Protected
Operating System Files" is set to "Yes" then still explorer will not show
any
hidden or system files on both sides. So, this indicates that System
Folders
do behave like hidden as well. Goto Command Prompt and type DIR. Prompt
will
not show you the System Folders.
3. If both options are set to "Yes" then explorer will show you all
Hidden
and System folders.
Now What I notice is:
* Explorer was not showing the Hidden folders in left side hierarchy.
Even
my "Your Place wouldn't have a + sign to expand the folder to see the
hidden
folder in left side hierarchy.
* Explorer was only showing hidden and system folders in light color in
right side pane.
So the default behavior of Explorer is:
1. Will only show System folders in explorer if both options are set to
"Yes" in folder options.
2. Will not show hidden folders in Left Side hierarchy.
3. Lighten colors are only display in right side hierarchy.
4. MSOCache was only a hidden folder.
Raj.
Raj,
Well I'm glad you took the time to finally confirm what I was saying.
Basically, "show hidden files and folders" acts differently for system
versus non-system folders as far as the hierarchy display is concerned.
My conclusion is that the wording of "show hidden files and folders" is
misleading at best.
Now that we've gone through all this discussion, let me give you a
little background. I wrote a macro for a client that includes an API
routine to bring up the Explorer window so the client can browse for a
path to save the output the macro creates. The client told me the lowest
level folder in the desired path was not showing up and I didn't
understand why. After a little research, I determined the client had set
the "hidden" attribute on that lowest level folder. It was during that
research that I ran into this mess with the option to "show hidden files
and folders". And here I thought Project took top honors for really
strange behavior
Thanks for sticking with me. I'm willing to bet you are a little smarter
after this exercise also.
John
Project MVP
:
RajKohli,
My comments on your statements
You are seeing those "MSOCache" and other folders in Explorer
Hierarchy
because they has only System Attribute set not the hidden attribute.
Then how come when I right click on MSOCache or Application Data, (two
system folders), and go to properties, it shows the attribute as
hidden?
What you are doing is setting the Hidden Attribute to your folders
and
Windows Explorer only shows the Non-Hidden or System Folders in the
right
side Hierachy.
First of all, I think you mean the left side. The contents of the
currently selected folder in the hierarchy appears on the right side.
At
least that's what I see.
According the my knowledge, the default behavior of Windows Explorer
is
to
show the System Folder in right-side pane but not the hidden once.
The
confusion is just because of light color of folders. Both the System
and
Hidden folders has the light color shade.
Again, we seem to have a difference on which side the hierarchy
appears.
Theme is: Folder Option's "Show Hidden Files and Folders" doesn't
effect
System Folders. They will still remain in Explorer Hierachy.
I'll have to disagree with this statement. The MSOCache folder is a
system folder. If I check the option to show hidden files and folders,
MSOCache will appear both in the Explorer heirarchy and in the folder
display on the right side. If the option is checked to NOT show hidden
files and folders, MSOCache is not shown in either place. However for
non-system folders the option works a little differently. If the option
to show hidden files and folders is checked, then non-system folders
will NOT appear in the hierarchy but they will show up (dimmed) on the
right side. If the option is checked to NOT show hidden files and
folders then a non-system folder will not show up in either place.
The bottom line is I still don't understand why and at the very least
the option for showing or not showing hidden files and folders is
incorrect or misleading.
John
:
MSOCache is "System folder".
1. Open My Computer
2. Click Tools - Folder Options - click View tab.
3. Make a check mark on "Hide Protected Operating System Files
(Recommended)"
Hope this is what you were looking for, let us know!
RajHokli,
I already have that checked but you missed the whole point. Let me
try
to explain again. I currently have my folder options set to "show
hidden
files and folders". That option does not work consistently.
Existing
hidden files, (I only used the MSOCache as an example), are indeed
displayed in the Explorer hierarchy. However when I add a new set
of
folders (i.e. C:\Server\Cobra\00279) to the hierarchy and then set
the
attribute of the lower most folder (i.e. "00279") as "hidden", it
does
NOT show up the the Explorer hierarchy. I want to know why?
John
:
Guys,
I'm sure (or at least hoping) someone has a simple explanation
for
this. This occurs with either Windows XP or Windows XP Pro. In
both
cases I have Windows/Control Panel/Folder Options/View tab set
to
show
hidden files and folders.
I create a folder as follows:
C:\Server\Cobra\00279
If I set the attribute for the "00279" folder to be hidden, it
will
NOT show up in the hierarchy in Windows Explorer. If I uncheck
the
'hidden" attribute, the "00279" folder WILL show up in the
hierarchy
in Windows Explorer. However, other existing Windows hidden
folders
(e.g. MSOCache) WILL always show in the hierarchy. What am I
missing?
By the way, I can see the dimmed hidden folder (00279) on the
right side of Explorer IF the Cobra folder is selected in the
hierarchy,
and that of course allows me to select the dimmed folder and
change
the
attribute, but that doesn't solve my underlying problem (i.e.
not
showing up in the hierarchy).
John
