DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

common folders became system folders and hence cant unhide them

5 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/common-folders-became-system-folders-and-hence-cant-unhide-them.100953/

A
anuvrat_parashar Original post #1
Oct 31, 2008 at 9:49 AM
My system was recently attacked by TR/Delf.aam.35 Trojan. What it did was that it changed the attributes of the folders (that i double clicked to open) to hidden (system folder). and created an executable having the same name as the folder double clicking AVG 8.* (that was then installed) was not able to detect the virus. I switched to Avira Antivir Personal. It detected and removed the malicious software and other things but the folders that had been hidden by it could not be set visible again.

I went to folder options > view > show hidden files. The files were not revealed. Then i tried the option of "show system files and folders", this revealed the folders. The problem now is that those folders (right click > properties - attributes) the hidden checkbox is checked and is disabled ( i.e its grey in colour and cannot be unchecked).
I tried the attrib -h in the command prompt which said cannot unhide system files.
Please tell me what to do. Mean while i am even trying to search for some remedy in the previous posts even.
Thankyou.
swatkat
swatkat #2
Oct 31, 2008 at 10:02 AM
My system was recently attacked by TR/Delf.aam.35 Trojan. What it did was that it changed the attributes of the folders (that i double clicked to open) to hidden (system folder). and created an executable having the same name as the folder double clicking AVG 8.* (that was then installed) was not able to detect the virus. I switched to Avira Antivir Personal. It detected and removed the malicious software and other things but the folders that had been hidden by it could not be set visible again.

I went to folder options > view > show hidden files. The files were not revealed. Then i tried the option of "show system files and folders", this revealed the folders. The problem now is that those folders (right click > properties - attributes) the hidden checkbox is checked and is disabled ( i.e its grey in colour and cannot be unchecked).
I tried the attrib -h in the command prompt which said cannot unhide system files.
Please tell me what to do. Mean while i am even trying to search for some remedy in the previous posts even.
Thankyou.

Use attrib -s command on those folders to remove "System" attribute. After this, you can remove hidden attribute.
rhitwick
Oct 31, 2008 at 10:26 AM
In proper way
>Go to command prompt
>browse to the folder
>execute "dir" command (it would show u d exact name of the folder u want to unhide)
>execute the following attrib -s -h -r <foldername> (s=system, h=hidden and r=read only)
rhitwick
Nov 1, 2008 at 1:28 PM
hey, did it work??
update us.