Get or set file\directory attributes using Powershell

This is just “reminder post” for me if I will need to use it in future…

I wanted to create hidden folder using Powershell – in fact, it’s not very hard:

$(MkDir “Martin Zugec”).Attributes = ‘Hidden’

.Attributes is FileAttributes enumeration, so you use same syntax when you want to create files. Below are available values:

Archive	Applications use this attribute to mark file\folder for backup or removal
Compressed	Is compressed
Device	N/A – in future maybe ;) Looks promising :)
Directory	“File is directory” :)
Encrypted	Encrypted
Hidden	Hidden
Normal	If no other attributes are applied
NotContentIndexed	Skip for indexing
Offline	File\Folder is offline
ReadOnly	File\Folder is read-only
ReparsePoint	Contains reparse point. Reparse point is user data associated with this entry – one example where reparse points are used is when you mount folder into another.
SparseFile	Sparse files are usually large files whose data are mostly zeros. To be honest, I never saw sparse file as far as I know – even fake huge files (FSUtil File CreateNew) are not sparse files.
System	System file
Temporary	If file is marked as temporary, file system will try to keep all the data in memory for quicker access instead of flushing data back to harddisk. Of course temporary file should be deleted as soon as possible if not needed ;)

If you want to change attribute of existing folder\file, it’s also very easy:

$(Get-Item “Martin Zugec”).Attributes = ‘Hidden’