Monday, September 6, 2010

Unhiding files hidden by viruses and malware

A common and annoying trick (for most) used by malware is to hide files and folders and replace them with copies of the malware executable file with common windows folder or file icons. By the time one figures out their system has been infected half the stuff on the hard disks and USBs seems to have vanished and cleaning the malware does not seem to do anything for the "missing" files. Some clueless Windows users assume that the malware had deleted all their personal files while the more fortunate ones do find out that changing two settings in Folder Options is all that is needed to get Windows to show them their precious files. Those two settings are:
  • Show Hidden Files (enable this)
  • Hide protected operating system files (disable this)
    For some odd reason Windows thinks that any files marked as System and Hidden should be a protected operating system file.
So here's a simple way to let you unhide the files hidden by malware:
  • Download unhide.zip
    MD5: 3A1961622326EB09EDE9EAAE43C2A728
    SHA-1: 86F89724525753D3473504D989168668780E9554
  • Extract unhide.bat
  • Copy unhide.bat to the folder whose contents disappeared after the malware unfection
  • Double-click unhide.bat to run it and all your missing files and folders would automagically appear (unless the malware did actually delete it).
Those familiar with Command Prompt can just use the following command instead of downloading the batch file:
  • attrib /d /s -h -s

33 comments:

vinod said...

that was awesome

WRGP said...

Exclellent!!! It Works great!!!!!!

Unknown said...

omg ty so much
but you should say that if you use cmd instead you should go to the C:\Windows\System32 directory or the command won't work

jitendra said...

AWESOME !!!! Thanks a lot :)

Unknown said...

Marvelous!!!!it power full thank guy

Anonymous said...

You neednt do all these things!

Just unhide the system protected and Cut and paste the content of that folder into a new folder and rename it once you have deleted the protected (virus manipulated folder) of yours,Its that easy.
Or if you are that stubborn that you want tochange the property of the folder,you may well follow the above given procedure.

By JustaNoob

Aniagyei said...

wow, it helped

Anonymous said...

Many Many Thanx
Aman Kumar

bhaktear said...

thankx

Unknown said...

Excellent fix!

GENIUSASWIN said...

great...........

Khim said...

Nice one. Or you could also possibly go to VIEW and show all hidden files. The folders will appear but they will be looking greyed out. Select all the folders, right-click to its properties, and uncheck the hidden box. Voilla

Kamran Ahmed said...

Thanks, it is working

HARSH said...

wow suuupppperrrrrrr.....

Anonymous said...

thanks its work ^_^
my file appeared like magic.. hehehhe

Unknown said...

wow, great simple trick!!!!

Anonymous said...

great...found a stream of water in the desert

Anonymous said...

Thanks Very Much...you Are Great

Anonymous said...

Wow! That was awesome!!! Thanks a lot man!!! :)

Unknown said...

thank u so much for guiding

Unknown said...

U r awasome bro ty so much

Anonymous said...

Thank u very much

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much.......awesome!!!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks mam it really help :*

Unknown said...

Awesome bro......
Thanks a lot.......

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot. it worked for me.

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot friend. I had tried in vain hour hours until I came across this blog post of yours. God bless you.

Vishal said...

Worked in a jiffy! Thanks Man!!

jass said...

awsome

jass said...

awsome

Awais ahmed said...

thanks bro for this trick

Unknown said...

Very nice post amazing see more IT Tips and Tricks Windows 7, Windows 8 Windows 8.1 Windows 10. https://muskanweb.blogspot.com

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