windows 11, cant see hidden files in folder

[The_Doc_Man]

I dont fully understand but this is the line of code that uses windows media player to play the song
Shell "C:\Users\sagen\Documents\me\wmplayer /play /close " & filetoplay

If you can verify that the .JPG files are album covers related to what you are playing, this seems relevant:

Stop Album Art from displaying in WMP - Microsoft Q&A

I use WMP quite a bit, loading music to my MP3 and just listening. Up until a few days ago, I had it just how I wanted it: only displaying the columns I wanted, and single lines for each song. My computer did a major Windows Update ("Feature Update…

learn.microsoft.com

You can also ask Google Gemini this question: How do I prevent Windows Media Player from downloading album art

You will see that in fact, WMP is probably downloading cover-art .JPG files, which surely sounds like your problem. I'm going to say that your "how does this happen?" question probably has been satisfied.

 

[Gasman]

Huh?

1. Type the command rmdir /s /q followed by the full path of the folder you want to delete. For example: rmdir /s /q "C:\Users\YourUser\Documents\MyFolder".
   • Press Enter to execute the command.
   • 
     
   • The /s flag deletes the directory tree (the folder and all its contents), and /q runs the command in quiet mode without prompting for confirmation for every file.

 

[isladogs]

You can normally delete a non-empty folder without special commands, but not if any files are in use and therefore locked.

Whilst I agree about how cover art gets added, the presence of those files shouldn't prevent the folder being deleted directly from File Explorer unless the .mp3 files are currently in use

 

[smiler44]

Well check if they are first. Then if that is the case we will work from there.

They do indeed look to be Album Covers, all seem to the cover from Jodi Mitchel Hits album
The files do seem to be a little greyed out but not totally greyed out.


smiler44

 

[Gasman]

They do indeed look to be Album Covers, all seem to the cover from Jodi Mitchel Hits album
The files do seem to be a little greyed out but not totally greyed out.


smiler44

That generally means they are hidden.
Try the command that @arnelgp showed you in a command window.

 

[smiler44]

That generally means they are hidden.
Try the command that @arnelgp showed you in a command window.

I can get to the command prompt but cant change/do not know how to change this line C:\users\sagen> to get to the folder I want. Please can you advise me what to do?
thanks

smiler44

 

[Gasman]

If it is on the C drive then just type

cd PathToYourFolder

If not, then change drive first with D: or the drive letter it is

 

[Cotswold]

In a DOS box type HELP DIR and that will show all of the valid switches

 

[Isaac]

The normal rule is that a simple command to delete a folder will fail because Windows wants to preserve files. If you ask Google Gemini, it says



Some of the CMD-prompt utilities have special options to delete a non-empty folder. That's what I was saying. And also saying that if you CAN delete a non-empty folder, then all the files must already be marked for deletion.

That's just not correct, though. A simple delete WILL delete an entire folder, full of files, with no extra prompting.
And remind me not to use Gemini

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Thinking about it, there are conditions to consider. It may be that if you have Full Control permissions over the folder AND its contents, or if you are the owner of the folder and its contents, or if you are running from an admin account, the one-step (or at most, two-step) delete of folder AND file content might be possible. It is definitely a thing controlled by permissions, so I stand by the statement at least conditionally depending on permission issues. The three cases I mentioned all relate for ways to do that deletion. For those of us with home computers for testing, we usually ARE admins, which is one of the ways around the issue.