How to remove hidden attribute of a folder in windows?

Question

I mistakenly turned C:\Users\User into a hidden folder. Now, a lot of my programs aren't running. I can't even open file explorer. I managed to open powershell in admin mode, but am able to see the hidden folders using ls - Force. However, I don't know how to unhide them. How to I remove the the hidden attribute so that the mode of the folders change from d--h-- to d-----?

Answer 1

As Lee_Dailey points out, you can edit the Attributes property value on the corresponding DirectoryInfo object.

Since Attributes is a Flags enum (or a bit field if you will), the easiest way to remove a flag is to use bitwise operators:

$folder = Get-Item C:\Users\User -Force
$folder.Attributes = $folder.Attributes -band -bnot [System.IO.FileAttributes]::Hidden

This will set the value of Attributes to whatever it already is, but excluding the Hidden flag regardless of whether it was set or not