Group policy on windows sets hidden files as invisible upon startup

Question

This is a policy I can't change and the people who set it won't, since not all people under the policy need to see those files anyway. However, I dislike going into the options dialog and clicking it off every-single-time... It gets frustrating after that 1000th time(so to speak)

Is there a program or does someone know a batch code that can do this for me with a single click?

EDIT: I'm referring to the computers at my school. I'm an ICT student and I need to work with hidden folders every now and then. Thing is, not all students are ICT students, so not all people need them. They expect as to know where the setting can be manipulated

Answer 1

There is no such policy, but here is registry setting and registry settings can be enforced through GPO with Administrative templates.

This is the registry key:

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
Value Name: ShowSuperHidden
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = Hide Files, 1 = Show Files)

This article explains how to create custom adm template: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323639 "How to create custom administrative templates in Windows 2000"

And this article explains how to use adm templates with GPO: http://www.petri.co.il/adding_new_administrative_templates_to_gpo.htm

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Here is an ADM template I have used in the past:

CLASS USER
CATEGORY "System"
CATEGORY "Folders Files"
POLICY "Hide\Show Hidden Files"
EXPLAIN "This setting will allow for you to set the show and hide files and folders by default Keep in mind that this information will be stored in cleartext in the systems registry."
KEYNAME "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced"

PART "SetThis" NUMERIC REQUIRED TXTCONVERT
VALUENAME "Hidden"
MIN 1 MAX 2 DEFAULT "2"
END PART

END POLICY
END CATEGORY
END CATEGORY

• Save the text with an ".adm" extention and place it somewhere.
  ( We save our custom ADM's here: C:\WINDOWS\inf\ADM Templates )
• Create a GPO called "HiddenFiles" then open it up and add this template to your GPO
  
• Right click the "Administrative Templates" -> View -> Filtering -> "Only show policy settings that can be fully managed"
  
• Then go into your "User Configuration" -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Folders Files -> "Hide\Show Hidden Files"
  

The only catch with using unmanaged ADM's is they need to be reversed not disabled when you want to remove them from your system.

If you set ( Hidden = 1 )
You will need to set ( Hidden = 0 )

Some Quoting from here: http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/Server/Windows_2003_Active_Directory/Q_23056271.html

[1]: "How to create custom administrative templates in Windows 2000" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323639

Answer 2

This is actually pretty easy, it just takes a little setup.

First, you'll want to create a registry key to set the "Show Hidden Files" option to true. Create a new file called "show.reg" and put the following text into it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] "Hidden"=dword:0000000

Place the file wherever you want to keep it (such as My Documents) and make note of it's location.

Then, on your desktop, create a new shortcut. In the path to the shortcut, put in:

regedit.exe /s c:\users\ path to file \show.reg

The /s command for regedit.exe suppresses the notifications regedit normally shows.

Once you've done this, you should be able to just double-click the shortcut and your hidden files will show up. You may have to refresh your Explorer window (press F5) to get the hidden files to show.

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If you want to hide the files again with the same method, follow the instructions above, but use a new registry file called "hide.reg" with the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced] "Hidden"=dword:0000002

Make sure you call the "hide" registry file in the shortcut:

regedit.exe /s c:\users\ path to file \hide.reg