Make a File/Folder Hidden on Windows with Java

Question

I need to make files and folders hidden on both Windows and Linux. I know that appending a '.' to the front of a file or folder will make it hidden on Linux. How do I make a file or folder hidden on Windows?

Answer 1

The functionality that you desire is a feature of NIO.2 in the upcoming Java 7.

Here's an article describing how will it be used for what you need: Managing Metadata (File and File Store Attributes). There's an example with DOS File Attributes:

Path file = ...; try {     DosFileAttributes attr = Attributes.readDosFileAttributes(file);     System.out.println("isReadOnly is " + attr.isReadOnly());     System.out.println("isHidden is " + attr.isHidden());     System.out.println("isArchive is " + attr.isArchive());     System.out.println("isSystem is " + attr.isSystem()); } catch (IOException x) {     System.err.println("DOS file attributes not supported:" + x); } 

Setting attributes can be done using DosFileAttributeView

Considering these facts, I doubt that there's a standard and elegant way to accomplish that in Java 6 or Java 5.

Answer 2

For Java 6 and below,

You will need to use a native call, here is one way for windows

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("attrib +H myHiddenFile.java"); 

You should learn a bit about win32-api or Java Native.