ShowAllFiles

Show hidden files in the File Explorer

Overview

ShowAllFiles is a tray application for Windows that allows users to quickly toggle the visibility of hidden files in the File Explorer. It provides a system tray interface, supports global hotkeys, logging, and optional verbose console output. ShowAllFiles was inspired by the MacOS feature available in the Finder application.

License: BSD-3-Clause

Features

• Toggle hidden files visibility via system tray menu or global hotkey (Win + Shift + .).
• System tray integration.
• Configurable logging (level and file output), with log rotation.
• Optional console for verbose output and debugging.
• Windows environment-aware, with automatic handling of system registry keys.
• Message box notifications for errors and information.

Installation

Install the latest version from the releases page.

Installer

Installation via the installer (*.zip) is the recommended method because it simplifies the process of installing ShowAllFiles to your device by:

• Installing Certificate Authorities to the CurrentUser certificate store.
• Installing ShowAllFiles to its own folder in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs.
• Creating an uninstaller.
• Creating a start menu shortcut.
• Enabling ShowAllFiles to run on device startup.
• Writing product information to the registry.

Standalone

Tech-savvy users are welcome to download the standalone executable (*.exe), rename it, and add it to their $env:PATH.

Usage

Toggle the visibility of your hidden files via the tray icon or the defined hotkey.

ShowAllFiles can also be ran with optional command-line flags:

Usage of ShowAllFiles.exe:
      --log-level string   Log level: DEBUG|INFO|WARN|ERROR|FATAL|PANIC (default "INFO")
      --log string         File path to save log output
  -v, --verbose            Allocates a new console for verbose output
      --version            Prints version to console

Components

Hotkey

• Win + Shift + . : Toggles visibility of hidden files.

System Tray

The application provides a system tray icon with the following options:

• Show/Hide : Show or hide hidden files.
• About : Display application version.
• Report bug : Opens the issues page in the browser.
• Quit : Exit the application.

Logging

ShowAllFiles uses logrus for logging and supports:

• File output with log rotation (4 backups, 28-day retention).
• Configurable log levels.
• Verbose output via console.

Registry

ShowAllFiles interacts with the following Windows registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Specifically, it toggles the Hidden property value to show or hide hidden files.

Remarks

• Designed and compiled for Windows only.
• Requires environment variable SystemRoot to be set.

Acknowledgements

• Base image of the folder icon used in this project was created by kmg design on Flaticon