Enable “Show Folder And Search Option” If Disabled By A Virus In Windows

Friday, November 25, 2011

In Windows, NoFolderOptions policy hides the folder options from control panel and even disables the Show Folder and Search options from the command under Tools Menu in Windows Explorer. If your computer is not a part of an office environment or any other organizational network than you might be having a risk of a virus which disables these options as a part of infection. This policy in the registry also hides the file extensions to known file types so that the virus may infect your system in stealth. To enable this option, follow these simple steps.

The Show Folder And Search Option is grayed out like this:

To enable it follow one of these methods, it is always advisable to backup your registry before making any changes if your not familiar with backing up of registry, you can learn it from here.

Using Registry Editor

Click Start menu button and type regedit in the Search bar.
If User Access Control window pops up to ask for permission, click Continue.
When Regedit.exe is launched navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

And navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

Delete the NoFolderOptions value (if found any) from the above locations and exit the Registry Editor.

Using Group Policy Editor

Group Policy Editor is as vital component as Registry Editor but unfortunately is not available in Windows XP Home Edition and Windows Vista Home Editions, for all other editions of Windows XP and Windows Vista, you can use the registry editor method to remove the Policy setting.
Launch Group Policy Editor by Clicking Start menu and type GPEDIT.MSC in the Start menu search bar.
Or you can type GPEDIT.msc in Run dialog box.