Hidden File Tool for Windows

Windows has its own built-in search utility, but people often find that it's not good for more than the most basic searches. Hidden File Tool is a simple utility with which you can search for hidden files as well as a variety of other file types. It's not much to look at, but it does a good job of finding files that might otherwise be inaccessible.

The program's interface is plain and utilitarian, with all of its features displayed on one screen. From drop-down menus you select the drive you want to search and the file type; options include images, Microsoft Office files, and applications and scripts, or the program can search all files or all files and folders. Check boxes let you select hidden, system, archive, or read-only files. Once you've entered your search criteria, click the Search button, and Hidden File Tool will do its thing. The results are displayed in a grid with sortable headers, and you can delete files from within the program. There's no Help file, but this isn't a significant drawback; Hidden File Tool's interface is clear. The program's portable format means that you can take it with you on a USB drive--a good thing, since it could be a very useful tool in your troubleshooting toolkit. Overall, we found that Hidden File Tool was easy to use and did a good, and reasonably quick, job of finding the files we were looking for.

Hidden File Tool comes as a ZIP file. It's accessible after extraction with no need for installation.