How to hide a drive in Windows 8

If you are a Windows user, you would probably know about hiding or locking a folder or file which has confidential data. We generally, use some folder encryption software to do these tasks. But, if you have many such folders and files, it is not a good idea to lock each and every folder. A better option would be to move all such files and folders which you want to hide or do not want others to know about their existence, to some drive on your PC. Then, hide that entire drive so that it is not visible to anyone.
That hidden drive will not be seen in Windows File Explorer, but can be accessed through a Command Prompt or by typing the drive letter in the address bar of Explorer. So, when someone uses your Windows PC, they do not know that there is such a drive existing in your PC and your confidential data is safe. This can be done in Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. I will guide you through steps to be followed in Windows 8.

Hide a drive in Windows 8

There are 4 ways to hide a drive in Windows 8. It is through Disk Management, using Group Policy, through Windows Registry or by using Diskpart command in CMD. We will see these ways step by step, so that you can implement the same to hide a drive in Windows 8.

Hide Drive using Disk Management

If you want to hide a drive in Windows 8 through Disk Management, you need to right-click on My Computer and then click Manage.
In Computer Management Console open Storage by double clicking on it.

Now, double-click on Disk Management Snap-in.

 Disk Management Console opens up and you can see all drives of your PC.




Choose the drive which you want to hide and right click on it. Choose ‘Change Letter and Paths’ and click on Remove button.

If it asks for confirmation, say ‘Yes’. Now, you cannot see the hidden drive in My Computer.

Hide drive using Group Policy

Run gpedit.msc and navigate to the following settings:

User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/File Explorer

Double click Hide these specified drives in My Computer and select Enabled.



From the drop-down menu, select the Drive you want to hide.

This policy setting allows you to hide these specified drives in My Computer. This policy setting allows you to remove the icons representing selected hard drives from My Computer and File Explorer. Also, the drive letters representing the selected drives do not appear in the standard Open dialog box. If you enable this policy setting, select a drive or combination of drives in the drop-down list. This policy setting removes the drive icons. Users can still gain access to drive contents by using other methods, such as by typing the path to a directory on the drive in the Map Network Drive dialog box, in the Run dialog box, or in a command window. Also, this policy setting does not prevent users from using programs to access these drives or their contents. And, it does not prevent users from using the Disk Management snap-in to view and change drive characteristics. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, all drives are displayed, or select the “Do not restrict drives” option in the drop-down list.

Save and exit.

Hide Drive using Windows Registry

In this second way, we will use NoDrives registry key to hide a drive in Windows 8. As we add a key to the registry, I suggest you to take the backup of your registry. Once it is done, proceed!
Press Windows Key+ R, type ‘regedit’ and hit enter. It asks for confirmation, say ‘yes’. Now, registry Editor Console opens up. Navigate to the below path,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE –> Software –> Microsoft –> Windows –> CurrentVersion ->Explorer

Here we are going to create a new DWORD value, so right click on Explorer and choose New -> DWORD Value (32-bit).

Give the name as ‘NoDrives’ and double click on it, to change the properties. Now, console opens where we need to enter values. In Value data, choose the one based on the drive you want to hide. Each drive letter has unique value and values are as below,

A: 1, B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E: 16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048, M: 4096, N: 8192, O: 16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S: 262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X: 8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, All: 67108863

Choose the corresponding value for the drive and enter that value in ‘Value data’. Choose ‘Decimal’ for Base section. As I want to hide, drive ‘G’, I am entering the value as ‘64’.

If you want to hide two drives, say for example ‘E’ and ‘G’, you can enter value one value as ’80’ (E = 16 and G = 64) and it hides both the drives.
Restart your computer and your drive in hidden now. If you are supposed to get the drive back, change the value to Zero or you can even delete the ‘NoDrives’ registry key.

Hide Drive using CMD

1] Open an elevated command prompt, type Diskpart and hit Enter.
2] Type List Volume and hit Enter.
3] Now type select and the numeral against the letter of the Drive (eg. it could be G Drive), which you want to hide. For instance, it could be Select Volume 6. Hit Enter.
4] Finally, type Remove Letter G and hit Enter.
You will see a message – Diskpart successfully removed the drive letter or mount point.
To show the hidden drive, follow steps 1, 2, 3 mentioned above.
Now type Assign Letter D and hit Enter. This will show the drive in Explorer.

These are the 4 ways you can hide a drive natively, in Windows.
UPDATE: You can also use freeware HideCalc to hide disk drive in Windows.

Windows 8 Safety Settings

With the increasing influence of the Internet in our lives, online safety and privacy is becoming a very important topic to ponder upon. It is essential to maintain the privacy online, especially when we are sharing so much of our personal data on the web.
Thankfully, Windows 8 comes with some brilliant safety and privacy options to secure Windows, that help protect us from the online threats and risks. With Windows 8 safety and privacy tools, you can protect your online privacy as well as the safety of your children online.

Windows 8 Safety Settings

1] Privacy Settings
Go to the PC Settings from the ‘Charms Bar’. You can open the Charms Bar by taking your pointer to the right edge of the screen or by pressing the shortcut keys Win+C.



Go to the ‘Privacy’ section and control if the apps can use your location, name, and picture.

2] Family Safety
The Family Safety feature of Windows 8 allows you to get the reports of all the activities done by your kids on your PC. Furthermore, you can set the time limits for them to be online, apply restrictions for certain apps and much more.


To apply the Family Safety to your child or anyone in the family, you first need to create an account for them.
Go to the control panelàUser Account and Family SafetyàSet up Family Safety for Any Users.
While creating a new account for a new user, check in the box to turn the family safety on. Checking this check box will start monitoring the account automatically.



You can now adjust the settings accordingly. Set the time limits, web filtering, apps and games used etc. You can also restrict some particular websites, apps and games for this new user from the Family Safety settings.


You can also view the detailed activity reports of the new user, right from the websites he/she visited, pages blocked, games played and the time spent on the PC.

3] Protect Your PC from Malware

Microsoft has always been very particular about the protection against malware. Windows 8 comes with some very good technologies which defend your PC against such malicious software and hacking attempts. Features like Windows Firewall, Windows Defender, and Windows SmartScreen make your PC safer and more secure.
Windows Firewall is turned on by default. Microsoft suggests not to turn the Firewall Off even for a few minutes as it may expose your computer system to malware – unless of course, you are using a third-party firewall software.
Windows Defender: It is recommended to keep Windows Defender ON as it guards your computer against any malware, spyware or viruses spread online. It is not turned by default and you have to adjust the settings manually.
If the Windows Defender in your PC is off, you might see a message showing that Defender is turned off and isn’t protecting your computer.
To adjust the settings go to the Action Center. Press Win+C and open the Charms Bar and search for Action Center. After you turn it ON, Windows Defender runs automatically in background and alert you if any malware attempt to install on your system. It uses red, yellow and green colors to show the security status of your computer. Furthermore, it also lets you scanning your system to check if any malware has landed to your PC. You can remove the threats detected in the scan.
You may also use a free third-party antivirus software or an Internet Security Suite, if you wish.

Windows SmartScreen


This is the new safety feature added to Windows 8 which protects your computer from any kind of spyware. Microsoft has its own database of apps and Windows SmartScreen, if turned ON, won’t allow you to download any app until its reputation is verified. You can adjust the SmartScreen settings from the Action Center.
If your personal data is shared with the social networking websites and the online vendors, it becomes very important to understand the importance of online privacy and adjust the safety settings accordingly.

Stay safer!
Do share if you have any additional tips.

Windows 10 at the core of future Internet of Things?

While Microsoft pointed out many uses of Windows 10 at its Jan 21 2015 event, it missed out on Internet of Things. Or, at least, did not bring up the topic. It talked about desktop version of Windows 10, mobile version of Windows 10 and Windows 10 for Surface Hub and more but did not drop a hint that it is bringing Windows 10 into the realm of Internet of Things. The article tries to decode how the future of Internet of Things can change with Windows 10 at its core.

Windows 10 for Internet of Things

In the recent developments, the most important are availability of Windows 10 for a range of devices and the upgraded version of Raspberry Pi. There have been more developments but they are out of scope of this article. We focus on Windows 10 for Internet of Things in this post.

Though they did not mention it specially, the way Microsoft presented Windows 10 at the Jan 21 2015 event, they did drop many hints about having an edition of Microsoft Windows 10 for Internet of Things. One such hint was Surface Hub, which is nothing but a screen in effect but runs on Windows 10. The Holographic glasses will also run on Windows 10. Microsoft has come up with a micro version of .Net framework. All these are ample to suggest that there will be a version of Windows 10 for Internet of Things. And the doubts are cleared with new version of Raspberry supporting Windows 10.

More Coding Options As Windows Does All Essential Work
If Microsoft is offering a custom version of Windows 10, that I believe is named “Windows 10 Athens“, for micro systems and for Single computer boards such as Raspberry PI 2, there is a great scope of people using Windows 10 to build all the small things that will be connected to the Internet. Right now, people are using Linux for IoT (Internet of Things) and most of them code in Python and C++. Both these languages, once into executable form, will not be a problem for running on Windows 10. Every programmer knows that coding in C++ and Python is better and provides total control over hardware. So far, they had to come up with codes that would make the most of the hardware and deal with the compatibility of the operating system running these custom programs. They had to code for proper usage of hardware so that no part of the hardware was clogged and left unavailable for programs.

Notwithstanding the fact that programmers have better control over the hardware required for Internet of Things, the Windows 10 operating system will let them program more easily using more languages. Thus, more people will enter into creating and maintaining Internet of Things. Windows 10 is not about graphics user interface. Even Linux provides one but is bulky compared to Win10. The better part is that it is trimmed down just to suit the single computer boards such as Raspberry Pi 2 and does not waste resources unlike other operating systems. Programmers can now code without having to worry about handling memory properly, for instance. Windows 10 itself handles RAM in way that no part of memory is blocked and is easily available to programs on the IoT things. Likewise, the operating system runs easily on ARM-based processors and handles micro x86 chips easily.

Security of Internet of Things: Micro .NET and Win10 Internal Security
With Microsoft developing a micro version of .NET, security will increase with Windows 10 for Internet of Things. As of now, people do not even care to change their default passwords on things connected to the Internet. The ovens, lighting systems etc come with default passwords such as “passwords”, “1234” or “0000” and end users do not even know that they have to change the password to make themselves safer. All these while, any hacker can take control of these connected devices and use them to initiate a DDoS attack on any website. Since the things of Internet of Things are distributed throughout the globe, it is hard to charge anyone with hacking.

With Windows 10 coming into the picture, along with, the enhanced Micro .NET (that’s what I will call it until it has a formal name announced) things will change as the operating system has focused on security that will be much better than other operating systems in the market as of now. It will be harder for hackers to break into things of Internet of Things.

While Microsoft has been building its own Internet of Things and they stress on security, the other programmers creating their own Internet of Things can now use a lightweight graphical interface to prompt and let the users change the passwords easily.

Windows 10 For IoT: Summary
The future of IoT looks more promising and focuses on the security of connected devices. Windows 10 promises better Internet of Things with one of its edition focusing solely on the functioning and security of the devices used in all households.

To sum up in one line, Windows 10 is all set up to build up a major portion of Internet of Things with its new Windows 10 Operating System and the micro .NET framework as people will prefer the combination for simple UI and enhanced security features.