"Windows 10 folders with dot before names have no names"

hello10 · 29 Oct 2018

I encountered this issue in several occasions. If I created a folder named Test.123, only Test was shown, 123 was hidden. I also had a sub-folder in my main drive mysteriously with no name. After the fix, it turns out the folder has a name beginning with a dot.

The tip using regedit here works for me.

Berton · 29 Oct 2018

The tip may be good but by Default file extensions are not shown but a simple change in File Explorer will cause them to be shown without having to edit the Registry [which can be dangerous to Windows if wrong thing is done]. It's not a new thing with Win10.

It's also possible the ./period and maybe another character will precede file names when working with files from a Macintosh computer, mine did.

hello10 · 29 Oct 2018

Berton said:

The tip may be good but by Default file extensions are not shown but a simple change in File Explorer will cause them to be shown without having to edit the Registry

In my case, the file explorer had already been set to show hidden files, folders, and drives, as well as extensions of known file types - note the known - but only the regedit edit changed it.

Anyone could try creating a folder name with dot (or dots) and see what happens.