Why does Word 97 show "hidden" files?

[davidi]

In Win. Explorer, I've given a "hidden" attribute to a folder and to several files, and I've ticked "Do not show hidden files" under View / Folder Options / View. In Explorer windows, they don't show. However, in the Word 97 File / Open dialog box, I can still navigate to, see, and open any of those files.

Anyone know how to prevent Word from "seeing" the hidden folder and files?

Thanks.

Dave

[BAM]

Hi Dave,

Ah...one of my favorite questions. <grin>

After spending several days on this issue, uninstalling and reinstalling this and that I have an answer.

First the solution as strange as it may sound, go to Start/Settings/Active Desktop and toggle the "View as Web Page". (e.g. turn off/on then on/off)

You can also go to the Recycle Bin properties and toggle the Delete confirmation if you don't want to change the Active Desktop.

I recommend that whenever you change the Hidden files option or display of File Extensions (see note at bottom), toggle the Active Desktop (Classic/Web) option on the General tab of the Folder Options too.

Second, for those who want to know why the Active Desktop or Delete Confirmation has anything to do with hidden files:

From what I can determine it has to do with the installation of Active Desktop on Win95/ IE 4 & 5 and Win98 (includes Active Desktop)

In the Registry, the HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVe rsionExplorerShellState value.

is not updating correctly when the Folder View Options are changed. (Those are stored in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVe rsionExplorerAdvanced)

The Active Desktop state and Recycle Bin Delete confirmation are stored in the same byte (5), so changing either of them will refresh the ShellState value.

Note that this also applies to file extensions displaying/not displaying in the File of Type list in the File/Open/Save As dialog boxes.
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Cheers!