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How To Enable Registry Editor, Folder Options, Hidden Files and Command Prompt

These days computer viruses are aplenty and while antiviruses do manage to contain them most of the times, some may make some irreversible changes to your computer, especially in the registry which maybe difficult to correct.

In this tutorial we list some of these changes that you would like to reverse manually.

Registry Editing Disabled

In case your Registry Editor (REGEDIT ) has been disabled by some virus, to enable it again manually, you should follow these steps:
1. Open the Group Policy Editor by Start > Run > gpedit.msc
2. In the left pane, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates and then System.
3. In the right pane, check the properties of the ‘Prevent access to registry editing tools’ and set it to Disabled.

Tools > Folder Options Not Visible

Many malicious viruses and worms these days hide or disable your ‘Folder Options’ so that you can’t access advanced folder and file options. To re enable it, follow the steps listed below.

Method 1:
1. Open the Group Policy Editor by Start > Run > gpedit.msc
2. In the left pane, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components and then Windows Explorer..
3. In the right pane, check the properties of the ‘Removes the Folder Options menu item from the Tools menu’ and set it to Disabled.
4. You should be able to view the folder options now in the Tools menu.

Method 2: (If Method 1 does not work.)
1. Open the Registry Editor by Start > Run > regedit.
2. Navigate to the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
keys and delete the NoFolderOptions DWord value if any.
3. Close the registry and restart the computer if the changes haven’t taken effect.

Hidden Files Not Visible

1. Open the Registry Editor by Start > Run > regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden
and change the values of the HIDDEN > CheckedValue to 2 and HIDDEN > DefaultValue to 1. Also change the values of SHOWALL > CheckedValue to 1 and SHOWALL > DefaultValue to 2. This should set everything to normal and you should be able to view the files easily by changing the Folder Options settings.

Command Prompt Disabled.

1. Open the Group Policy Editor by Start > Run > gpedit.msc
2. In the left pane, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates and then System.
3. In the right pane, check the properties of the ‘Prevent access to the command prompt’ and set it to Disabled.

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