If you have sensitive data on your PC, then you may not want it on your desktop for everybody to see. Instead, using Windows 7, you can easily protect your private documents from prying eyes by following the walkthrough we’ve listed below.
This method will make it impossible for anybody to even see your folder. While some people choose to encrypt their folders to protect sensitive data, this solution is not ideal. After all, the folder is still right there on your desktop where anybody can see it. And, when that person sees that your folder is protected with a password, then it will become obvious that you’re trying to hide something.
For that reason, most people agree that using hidden folders to hide your sensitive files is the best option. Here’s how it’s done:
1)      Create a sample folder on your desktop
2)      Put a few unimportant files in there
3)      Right click on the folder and select ‘Properties’ from the list that drops down
4)      Go to the ‘General’ tab and check the box beside ‘Hidden’
5)      This will cause the folder to ‘disappear’ from your desktop. If it doesn’t disappear, then you probably have the ‘view hidden folders’ setting enabled in Windows Explorer. Don’t disable this setting yet.
6)      Go to your hidden folder, open it up, and highlight the files within. Right click on any one of these files and select ‘properties’. Check the box under the ‘General’ tab and make sure that the files within are not hidden. You want your folder to be hidden, not the actual files within.
7)      If your ‘Show hidden files and folders’ option is enabled, then you can now disable it in order to hide your folder. Use your Windows Start bar to search for ‘folder options’. Find the ‘View’ tab and then check or uncheck the ‘Show hidden files and folders’ box.
8)      Instead of changing your viewing settings every time you want to see your folder, you can simply navigate to it using the Windows Explorer search bar. If your folder is named ‘Sample’ and it’s hidden on your desktop, for example, then you would open up Windows Explorer, click on the ‘Desktop’ link on the left hand side, and then type in ‘/samplefolder’ in the address bar (without the quotation marks).
9)      Of course, if any user enables the ‘show hidden files and folders’ option in the future, then your secret folder will quickly be found on your desktop. For that reason, you may want to hide your folder deep within an obscure part of your hard drive, like among the texture files of a PC game. Try choosing a visible folder with a boring name. To protect it even further, consider encrypting it using a third-party program, which will put a password on the folder. In the unlikely event that somebody stumbles upon your folder, your files will be safe within.