ForceHide

Sure enough, you can view and access most Windows system files by default, but managing them is not recommended, unless you know what you’re doing. What’s more, the operating system hides the files it relies on for stability. You can apply such restrictions to any kind of file to keep it safe using applications like ForceHide.

You don’t even have to install the application on your computer for it to work, but it does administrator privileges in order to be able to trick your system into thinking some files are its own. What’s more, .NET Framework is one of the requirements for functionality, so you need to make sure it is a part of Windows.

On launch, a pretty compact main window shows up. The design is pretty intuitive, with different descriptions that let you know what needs to be done and how, but not through intrusive prompts. You need to drag files over the main window to get them ready, because there’s no built-in browse dialog for this operation.

If you want to forcefully hide more applications inside a folder, you need to add them all together, because it’s not possible to target the folder itself. It would have been also useful to see context menu integration at least for the options to hide, so you can reveal through the main window.

The hide operation is the basic one that Windows lets you perform with any ordinary file, which means that anyone enabling visibility from File Explorer options can reveal your hidden files. The system operation is mainly Windows’ own special hide method that doesn’t show files when choosing to view regular hidden items, and also prevents deletion.

All things considered, we come to the conclusion that ForceHide comes with good intentions, but isn’t really anything that couldn’t normally be performed through standard Windows features. Sure enough, it’s done faster this way, but since speed is the main concern, the lack of context menu integration is a little disappointing.