How to Hide Files and Folders from Windows Search Results

In this article, we will demonstrate how you can hide files and folders from your Search Results in Windows 11/10. There is a built-in feature to sync in and index files on the PC and updates the data whenever there is a change. The search field, one that’s available next to the Start Menu helps you search for existing built-in or downloaded programs and files. After all existing files and programs related to your searched keywords, you see matched web results.

While this feature is definitely not for everyone, you may, sometimes, want to hide a set of files in a folder from being viewed by someone. Anyway, if this is something you were looking to solve for yourself, here’s how it can be done.

How to Hide Files and Folders from Windows Search Results

Here’s how you can configure your Windows search so as to hide certain folder(s) from appearing:

1. Open Windows Settings by pressing the Windows + ‘I’ key combination
2. From the options available on the Settings homepage, select Search
3. Click on Searching Windows from the options pane to your left
4. Scroll down and under the Excluded Folders head, click on Add an excluded folder
5. A dialog prompt of your Explorer will open.
6. Select the folder you don’t want to show up on your Windows search and click Selected Folder

It is just as easy for you to delete a folder from the list of excluded folders as it was to add one.

All you have to do is select the folder you don’t want to be a part of the list and select Remove excluded folder

How do you hide a folder in Windows 10?

A question very similar to the one discussed above is how one can hide a folder or Drive in Windows 10 and it’s a little different too. When you hide a folder in Windows, it doesn’t show up when you browse through File Explorer or Windows Search. Here’s how you can enable that privacy setting on a folder:

• Open File Explorer, right-click on the folder you want to hide, and click on Properties
• Under the General tab, enable the Hidden option which is next to the Attributes head
• Click on Apply and then Ok to save these changes
• Enable the Apply changes to this folder, subfolders, and files option if you’re hiding a folder with subfolders in it

Read this article if you want to know about how you can further increase your file’s secrecy by protecting it with a password.

How do I change a hidden folder to normal?

Analogous to the question above is how one can unhide a folder in Windows 10. If you want to view hidden files and folders, there’s a straightforward option to do so in File Explorer. Click on the View tab and in the Show/Hide section, select Hidden items.

We hope that this post was able to clear all your doubts around files on Windows and how they can be secured as per your needs.