Originally posted by: Lucky
so, can anyone explain the purpose of them?
Tons of programs will set a folder or file attribute to 'hidden'. There are many reasons to hide a file or folder some of which are:
1) This used to be the major form of copy protection. People who just copy a disk to another and don't know there are hidden files/folders won't copy everything. Or even more difficult, the hidden file/folder was put on a specific spot on the disk meaning that if you blindly copy the hidden file/folder you likely will copy it to a different spot on the new disk resulting in proof that the disk isn't original.
2) Protection of idiots. People often delete important files/folders. Making it hidden prevents unknowledgable users from deleting important files.
3) Cleaning up clutter. Suppose two users are on a computer and one knows nothing about the computer. The knowledgeable user can hide the seldom used programs and files making the disk look uncluttered and easy to use for the unknowledgeable user. I used to do this for my mom. When she clicked on her hard drive, the only thing there was Word - it wasn't too hard for her to find it then.
4) Hiding files from parents/spouce. This is a good technique if you don't want them to find your 'pictures'.
5) Many more reasons exist, but I'm too lazy to think of them at this point.
At work I have most common/recent Windows versions running (95, 98, NT, 2000, XP home). In all of them (as I have them set up) the folders and files are in plain view (they just are slightly greyed out or slighly lighter in color to show that they are hidden). So I don't know what the article writer was smoking when he/she said the files were nearly impossible to find. In fact in some versions of Windows the majority of the folders in the Windows directory are hidden (likely for reasons #2 and #3). But for fun I opened those files that they claimed were tracking devices. Most of them were empty (meaning nothing was stored there) but a few had a list of the Microsoft updates that had been performed. I guess a few privacy people will be stunned to find out that Microsoft stores a list of what you downloaded from Microsoft on your computer. But then after thinking awhile, you would assume Microsoft also keeps this data stored on their side as well - so the damage has been done: they know what files people download from Microsoft. Gasp!
Facebook
Twitter