AppData Folder - Hidden vs Unhidden

[keith.milkove]

I have Vista Business SP2 in my Laptop with a 32-bit operating system. Here is some helpful background information. Two weeks ago my Laptop was infected by a virus. The virus has been removed. It's not clear to me as to whether it caused problems that I have failed to correct. Unfortunately, in removing the virus I got a little frisky and definitely created some new problems. For instance, I may have corrupted a file called ntuser.dat.LOG1 located in my personal user account located at C:\Users\<my account name>. I don't believe I actually corrupted it, but I feel compelled to mention it as a possibility. I also issued a command from the AppData Folder to hide all folders and files contained within it. In hindsight, as far as I can tell this big mistake created a litany of headaches. It changed the appearance of my Quick Launch, my Start Menu, and the All Programs Menu. It also prevented my Windows Media Player and QuickTime Player from being able to run wmv files. I have succeeded in reversing all these problems by carefully removing the hidden attribute from the folders and files I inadvertently changed. OK, so much for background information... Let me now present my question. In the process of resolving all the above problems, I activated the Guest account and also created a new user account. In both cases I noticed that the AppData folder for the account did not possess a "hidden" folder attribute. On the other hand, my original account that I was using when I got infected by the Virus does have the AppData folder set up as a hidden folder. I did some checking in this forum and elsewhere on the Internet. All the postings I have read, consistently claim that the AppData folder in Windows Vista should be a hidden folder. Please note that I intentionally created the second user account this past week just to see if the AppData folder would be created as hidden or unhidden. So here is my question... Is it normal to have the AppData folder for Vista Business created in a new user account as an "unhidden" folder? Or could something be messed up with my Laptop? Could someone that has Vista Business in the user community do me a small favor and create a new user account and then check to see if the new AppData folder is hidden or unhidden? The folder will be located in the path C:\Users\<new account name>\ . In order to view hidden files and folders in each separate user account you open one of your folders in that account and go to the menu bar and select Tools => Folder Options... => Select the "View" Tab => Select the "Show hidden files and folders" button. Don't forget to change this selection back to "Do not show hidden files and folders" after you complete this check for me. Thanks ahead of time for your help.

Sincerely,
Keith