View files inside downloaded program files

We can't guarantee quick solutions - Experts Exchange isn't a help desk. We're a community of IT professionals committed to sharing knowledge. Our experts volunteer their time to help other people in the technology industry learn and succeed. Plans and Pricing. Contact Us. Certified Expert Program. Credly Partnership. When you are done, you should recheck those boxes, to hide the files again.

Directory Snoop will show the files in that directory. Not a free program, but there is a run free trial download. With the paid program you can wipe the files and then purge them, probably the trial version will do that too. In that directory there is a "hidden" desktop. The desktop. WE doesn't display a list of files that are in that directory, it displays a list of installed program-like objects ActiveX controls, possibly Java Applets, possibly other things not sure.

Lets use ActiveX controls as an example. In order to remove it, it must be deregistered and the various files wherever they are deleted. The specialized view of the DPF folder is designed to shield users from all those ugly details and assure that things are removed properly.

You see a simple list of installed objects, and when you "delete" or "remove" an item in the list, the files and registry keys associated with that item are removed. It will say "5 objects" or whatever Even if you properly uninstall all objects ActiveX controls, etc using the WE interface, there should still be at least one file in the DPF directory that desktop.

To see what the DPF directory contains, I go command line I run Adaware and Spybot every day, Hijack This at least once a week. None of these report any problems, and they certainly don't list the extra programs. I always set Options to show all files, extensions, etc. So what's going on here? Joined Jul 15, Messages 2. I've found the same thing and can make no sense of it.

I've run all diagnostics, etc. I have windows configured to show all files,extensions, etc. I created a word document, saved it there, still nothing. Explorer wouldn't even show me that. Now, here's the REALLY odd part - determined to see what was there I recently cleaned several cases of spyware off the drive , I finally decided to zip the folder and see if I could view the archived items in the zip folder. It worked! I could see all items. I renamed the original folder with 'old,' zipped it again, worked again!

Then I selected a file I knew wasn't anywhere else and ran a search on that file two, actually, one for 'file name' and for files containing 'file name,' as I've found that sometimes 'search' only returns certain files if entered as 'containing text.

Anyway, the two files in the zip folder were returned, but not the one still in the original folder. When I ran the 'containing text' search, it returned a reg backup file, log file and the two zipped files, still not the one in the Download folder.

Surely there's not a virus that can make the contents of one folder become entirely invisible - then again, dumb comment. Maybe I have more folders like this, I don't know, but I don't think so. I know these files aren't particularly needed, so I should be able to delete the entire folders, but still, I want to know what the heck is going on! Any ideas?? If you accidentally delete something, there is a possibility of retrieving it using the "undelete" command.

This, however, will only work for files just deleted. The file that is hidden is the "desktop. There are a number of special directories that MS hides at least partially like the History, Temp Internet, and Fonts folders.

I have found work arounds for most of them that let me make the contents visible to windows, most importantly the find files function. I have not been able to find such information for the Downloaded Program Files directory though and it is of considerable concern to me because the folder just "happens" to be one of the prime attack points for some of the worst malware on the internet. When I found that some non-ocx object malware files are also being placed in this directory I decided to post to a technical forum in an attempt to find a method of making this folders contents visible to windows also.

Perhaps they are remnants from IE6. Is there any way to determine if the 6 items that don't show under Windows are needed or can be removed? The files spweng. Before deleting them, attempt to unregister the DLL. To do this, open a command prompt, type. If it's not still installed it shouldn't be , both can be deleted. Regardless, I will remove those items. Since I can't see or delete them using Windows, do you see any problem booting Linux and deleting them from that operating system?

In that case, un-registering the dll file should hopefully not be an issue. A Microsoft article said that one can actually delete the Downloaded Program Files folder and that it will reappear after the next boot although the folder will not behave quite the same until some procedure is run. That gives me the confidence that removing items inside should not cause any significant problems.

The only concern there is that I see Registry entries pointing to the Spywarekiller file but hopefully it would never again be accessed. Maybe after removing the file a Registry cleaner would flag the issue. I have removed all entries from Downloaded Program Files other than Desktop. All is fine and I no longer have to wonder if there was any Malware residing in the folder. I have two machines running Vista and they both show this view by default.

I must be missing something obvious, but I have looked at all the usual options and can't see how to change the view.

Thanks very much. Once I worked out how to take ownership of a system file, I was able to rename the desktop. The folder view then changed after a reboot.