Changing File Attribs to Hidden Makes Unusable by Program?

[kjv1611]

Seeing this thread where BBB mentioned about setting the hidden attributes on files via the command line reminded me of a weird (weird to me) issue I ran into recently.

A friend was having a hard time sorting through and finding their QuickBooks company files, b/c with version 2011, they use so many stinking files for every company, and NONE of them are hidden. So if you sort by name in a folder, you've got multiple files showing for every company file.

For now, I set up some shortcuts, and that took care of the issue, pretty much, but it left me curious.

Here's what I originally did. I ran a few commands via the MSDOS window to change the file attributes to hidden for all those of certain types or including certain strings in their names... few diff filters to cover for ALL the many files.

Well, it looked all prettty, though I can't remember whether I tested afterwards or not.

The next day, they were unable to open any of the QuickBooks files. So I reset all the attributes via the same commands, and everything worked.

So that brings me to the question: Why would a program NOT be able to find its own files when those files are hidden, but still there? Was there something I was missing?

I don't have the exact context in front of me that I used, but can find it at home.

 

[linney]

Only guessing, but if the Quickbooks program searches for files rather than directly opening known files in a known location then that might explain why it cannot find a file that is hidden. So it might be a programming design fault, perhaps?

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, that was my guess. And so far, that appears to be what it looks like. I know I searched for questions and solutions online - Intuit's forums particularly - for ways to only show those files or else delete the other files altogether (at least that was the other requests that I saw). But the only responses were things like:
[ul][li]Sort by file type - yeah, that'll work - sorta. Except when you have multiple company files, you end up having to scroll and scroll just to get to the actual company files.[/li]
[li]Create shortcuts on desktop - I ended up creating a folder of shortcuts, and just adding a toolbar to the taskbar that pointed to the folder - worked out really well actually.[/li][/ul]

Anyway, I still wish there were a way 'round the issue. Maybe Intuit will fix it in a future version.

 

[linney]

Where are the files located and does it make any difference as to if the file location is an Indexed (searching) location?

 

[kjv1611]

Hmm, I don't know - regarding indexing or not. But they are on the Data drive/partition of the setup, and under the documents folder. Best I can remember, that location is indexed.

 

[BadBigBen]

perhaps, it is a SPECIAL permissions problem or an ownership issue...

in the later case, check to see who is the owner of the hidden files...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, I'll check if i get a chance. The user is fine with the fix of just using shortcuts, as a general rule, I think, but I'd be interested to know if there's a way to fix it. If I get a chance this weekend, I'll check, but I doubt I will, the way things are going. I'll try my best to remember to check soon if not this weekend, though. It'd be interesting to see if there's a way to get around that headache.