Hide Folders in Home directory

My Windows 10 user folder:

I do not want to see Contacts, Favorites and Searches folders within my Home folder. I do not use them and I do not want to see them. Is there a way to hide them or remove them permanently?

I've tried hiding these folder, but it does not work.

I've also tried unchecking Readonly checkbox, but that setting will not stick for some reason.

nik

Posted 2016-02-25T20:46:21.390

Reputation: 143

You can right-click on the items and open Properties and then tick Hidden. If you have opted not to show hidden files and folders then this will make these directories invisible (unless you show these files). I don't know whether doing this would affect anything else such as program access but I wouldn't imagine so. – LJD200 – 2016-02-25T21:01:47.223

Answers

Contacts can be hidden using this Registry Edit.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions{56784854-C6CB-462B-8169-88E350ACB882}\PropertyBag] "ThisPCPolicy"="Hide"

w32sh

Posted 2016-02-25T20:46:21.390

Reputation: 8 611

And that too only in the users folder namespace view. If the user browses the path by typing in the address bar, it would still show the Contacts folder. – w32sh – 2016-02-26T10:11:17.703

It seems a logoff/logon is required to see the results. – Razvan Socol – 2019-08-12T16:02:35.147

Other known folder ID-s can be found in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/knownfolderid

– Razvan Socol – 2019-08-12T16:03:16.603

You can't delete them as they are system folders, and they will be recreated upon next boot/login.

You CAN hide them though (assuming you don't have "show hidden files" enabled in Explorer), by simply applying the "hidden" file attribute to them.

To do this:

Right-click the folder you want hidden, pick Properties, check-mark "Hidden", and hit OK.

Open a command prompt, then use attrib to hide them. E.G.: attrib c:\users\YourName\Favorites +h

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007

Posted 2016-02-25T20:46:21.390

Reputation: 103 763

This is the first thing I tried. And it does not work. I can hide other folders in my home directory but not these system directories. – nik – 2016-02-26T02:58:44.973