How to: Determine if a File is Hidden in Visual Basic

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The GetFileInfo method can be used to get a FileInfo object, which contains information about the specified file, including a FileAttributes enumeration.

To determine if a file is hidden

  1. Get a FileInfo object for the file you wish to examine. This example gets a FileInfo object for the file Testfile.txt.

    Dim infoReader As System.IO.FileInfo
infoReader = My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFileInfo("C:\testfile.txt")

  2. Get a FileAttributes object from the FileInfo object. This example gets FileAttributes from the FileInfo object.

    Dim attributeReader As System.IO.FileAttributes
attributeReader = infoReader.Attributes

  3. Query FileAttributes to determine if the file is hidden. This example determines if the file is hidden and displays a result accordingly.

    If (attributeReader And System.IO.FileAttributes.Hidden) > 0 Then
    MsgBox("File is hidden!")
Else
    MsgBox("File is not hidden!")
End If

See Also

Tasks

How to: Determine a File's Attributes in Visual Basic

Reference

FileSystem

GetFileInfo

Other Resources

File, Directory, and Drive Properties in Visual Basic