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Amazing Notepad Trick To Create Hidden Text Files Without Using Any Third Party Software

Submitted by Deepesh Agarwal on Fri, 10/10/2008 - 14:22
Notepad Tricks
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Hiding Text

Hidden TextToday I will be sharing a pretty unknown trick to create hidden text files using nothing but Notepad, you can use this simple trick to hide plain text data without using any third-party utility or simply use it to impress your friends showing your geekness, the text files created using the method below won't show anywhere in DOS or Windows irrespective of the hidden and system display file-settings, the files created using this can only be accessed if you know the correct file-name used while creating the file.

Simple follow the steps below to create hidden text file:

  1. Launch Windows command prompt from Start Menu -> Run -> Type cmd and press Enter.
  2. Using DOS commands navigate to the desired folder.
  3. Now type in notepad VisibleFile.txt:HiddenFile.txt and hit Enter, you can change VisibleFile.txt and HiddenFile.txt to names of your choice (notice the : between both file-names), You will be prompted to Create a New file click Yes as shown below.
    4. Notepad Trick
  4. Now enter data you want to hide, save the file and close notepad.
  5. Visit the file-save location, you will see your VisibleFile.txt file (non-hidden) there, you can open the file and enter any text of your choice as any other normal text file.
    6. Invisible Text File
  6. The hidden file HiddenFile.txt will not be visible under Windows Explorer or DOS.
  7. To open and read/write your hidden file, type in the command notepad VisibleFile.txt:HiddenFile.txt (change filenames with your own used during Step 3 above) at DOS command prompt and hit Enter.
    8. Hidden Text File


Do note that if the visible file (VisibleFile.txt) is deleted your hidden file (HiddenFile.txt) will also get deleted.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 10/10/2008 - 15:18

this is great, keep up the excellent job :)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 10/11/2008 - 08:25

Never seen this Awsome!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/12/2008 - 03:24

i regularly follow your content ,you are doing great job keep it up,,

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/12/2008 - 04:36

as always great tip, thanks for sharing, time to show off to my friends.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/12/2008 - 04:37

works fine, thanks...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 10/13/2008 - 07:26

i'm running on windows xp sp 2 and the trick doesn't work for me, rather than it shows a message box with a tect of:

The filename, directory name or volume label syntax is incorrect.

And i wonder why the title of your cmd.exe is different than other native cmd.exe titles (even though it can easily be change using 3rd party programs or programming it yourself...like what i can do)

but never mind...i'm just asking

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 10/13/2008 - 09:40

Looks like you are simply using NTFS file streams.
It also is probably the reason some people "couldn't make it work". You must store the file on an NTFS partition.

As for discovering file streams (which do not show up otherwise of course), you can use a sysinternals tool called "Streams". Get it at:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897440.aspx

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 10/18/2008 - 01:47

Is this just a stupid pet trick or does it have a purpose?

Submitted by Deepesh Agarwal on Sat, 10/18/2008 - 13:46

for some this can be handy at times or as I said in the post use this to simply show-off :D

Submitted by Deepesh Agarwal on Sat, 10/18/2008 - 13:46

for some this can be handy at times or as I said in the post use this to simply show-off :D

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 11/10/2008 - 22:03

typical american, kinda makes me wonder how people like you get dressed in the morning. lol
the tip is awesome though..

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 10/18/2008 - 20:21

The purpose is to store special kinds of data about a file, but they aren't used as much. Vista will show them to you via the dir command if you specify the /R (I think) switch.

http://www.heysoft.de/nt/ntfs-ads.htm

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/19/2008 - 01:19

Off the top of my head it could a good way to store private information such as pin numbers maybe... I dunno

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 10/19/2008 - 17:53

CHINA GO NIEN NIEN NIEN!!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 17:22

This little "trick" requires NTFS. It's a feature in NTFS that was designed primarily for compatibility with other operating systems, such as Apple's HFS.

In NTFS it's called Alternate Data Streams. Other operating systems refer to these as resource forks. It's a method for storing additional information about a file system object. For instance, a file's icon or thumbnail could be stored in the resource fork, or as they mention in the Wikipedia article below, you could break a document into the actual text data and the data about how to present the text such as formatting and alignment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_Data_Streams

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 21:25

right click -> properties -> hidden

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 13:54

Well, I can only commend the effort involved in not just finding out about using NTFS streams but implimenting them into something usable. Yes, you can download a tool from sysinternals and yes, you need an NTFS partition for it to work but.....

If the internet has now turned into such a sad place where people can only comment on inadequacies instead of complimenting efforts then I think we should all go back to using 56k modems as the bandwidth is quite litterally wasted !

It does make me wonder why the negative minds don't start populating the net with useful stuff .... i.e. not critisizms :)

Nice one Admin. I will commend your efforts even if a percentage of the above can only critisize !

Keep up the good work and disregard those geeks with too much time on there hands !

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 10/22/2008 - 13:03

Very much agreed to what you said.

Keep up the great working, admin.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/11/2008 - 12:09

Next time you find yourself "wasting our bandwidth" berating someone's post, at least activate one of your few remaining brain cells and use a spell checker.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 23:22

I think its cool.
gj

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 15:37

Cunning

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 20:10

Why don't you use a lockable thumb drive? Then you could lock more than just text.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 10/29/2008 - 19:01

nice trick =))...

Str187

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 03/18/2009 - 10:31

can any one tell me how can i copy the content of notepad without open . i have aroun 600 notepad out of which i need a single line .

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 05:17

good work.....

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 01:53

it can't be done.. don't know why..

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 10:36

Its too good

I like That

Submitted by saroncarson on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 13:08

Hmm…it’s quite tricky… Although I’m not sure whether it’s going to properly or not. I have tried this method and I successfully hide my file. My friends were quite impressed to see my work. But unfortunately I couldn’t retrieve the text file. Now my friends are making fun of me and telling that I’ve lost my magical power!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 09:25

how to show my partition

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 12/01/2009 - 04:01

python

outputstr=""
fileh = open('filename.txt','r')
filec = fileh.readlines()
for line in filec:
outputstr=outputstr+line
fileh.close()

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/20/2010 - 10:16

Kindly tell me how we add number for example 250 before large file containing numbers for e.g. 5680000,5680001,5680002etc....I need just to put 250 before these numbers and I have 300,000 numbers .Please help .Thk u

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/30/2010 - 06:39

How can we send this hidden file to the printer?

Submitted by Nano1 (not verified) on Fri, 10/22/2010 - 20:29

I like it for what it's worth. A potential shortcoming is when you try to copy the text file to a thumbdrive, for example. Windows gives you a warning that the extra info may be lost if copying continues, and it reveals the name of the hidden file:

>>hiddenfile.txt$DATA

So, don't put all your deep, dark secrets in one of these.

Submitted by soni meet (not verified) on Thu, 09/27/2018 - 05:06

How To Hide Data In Notepad?
Here is amazing tips for How To Hide Data In Notepad?

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