Displaying Files For System Administrator

Displaying files which the Windows operating system hides by default makes useful information available for the system administrator.

For instance, the files in the System folder are almost always hidden, as are system files and file extensions. If the computer’s users are small children, this is very sensible; for anyone else - and especially for the computer’s system administrator - it can be catastrophic. To manage a computer properly, the system administrator must be able to see what is going on.

To fix things, adjust your folder options: Open a folder (anyfolder). Click on the Toolsmenu, and choose‘Folder Options’. A dialog box appears,similar to the oneshown here. Click onthe View tab in the middle to bring up arange of options.

4.The options will vary slightly as between the different versions of Windows operating systems. Most options are just a matter of personal preference, and make no major difference one way or the other. For system administration, however, the following settings are recommended:

• Tick the ‘Display the full path in the address bar’ option (if present);
• Tick the ‘Display the full path in the title bar’ option;
• Under the ’Hidden files and folders’ option, choose ’Show hidden files and folders’;
• Untick the ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ option.

5. Click on the Apply button at the bottom;

6. Click on the ‘Apply to All Folders’ button at the top;

7. A dialog box appears to tell you that settings will be applied later. Click on ‘OK’;

8. Click on ‘OK’ to close the ‘Folder Options’ dialog box.

Open a Folders Options dialog box, and experiment with the different settings to discover what each does.