Show Hidden Files or ShowHiddenFiles (was ChangeVisibility) enables you to change the visibility flag for files in all versions of OS X. It's easy to use, with a simple GUI. Much easier than using Terminal if you have to change file and folder visibility frequently. Macs offer a way to hide files and folders, just like other operating systems. But Mac OS X hides these options and doesn’t make it as easy as it is on Windows and Linux. To hide a file or folder, you’ll need to set the “hidden” attribute for it. The Finder and other Mac apps will then ignore and not display this file or folder by default.
Learn how to spoof your MAC address with a MAC address hider.
Learn how to hide your MAC address (courtesy Christiaan Colen / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Best App To Hide Folders On Macbook
Why learn to hide MAC address for your computer and protect your privacy? It is interesting to note how our Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) is increasingly under attack. A quick check on Wikipedia gives you a long list of over 20 different pieces of data which can be (and are) used to identify, locate, profile and target you.
Although it’s of scary, I guess we all have become used to the threat of our privacy being compromised. Long gone are the days when the only way persons were identified was by their face, fingerprints, or handwriting.
By the way, for cynics who may scoff at the need for privacy as simply an excuse to do illegal activities, they should know that there is a community of law-abiding citizens who do prefer privacy. In fact, what seems more unethical is that there is an entire industry ranging into the billions of dollars involving the sale and resale of our personal information – not to mention the wholesale spying of governments into every bit (literally) of our online data.
Our Privacy Under Increasing Attack
Our lives creep ever closer to what is depicted in futuristic dystopian movies. Check or yourself. Go to Facebook ads and check out how easily you can specifically target an audience. If this is the sort of targeting available to Joe and Jane Blo, imagine how specific the big & powerful players can target you? It’s no stretch to imagine they can target right down to the level of specific individuals.
You have probably noticed how Google can suggest a particular item for you to buy or when Facebook and LinkedIn suggest that you send a friend or connection request to a particular person. Of course, this is all just the tip of the iceberg.
As you become more informed, you will discover many more potential ways in which your privacy can be compromised or is already compromised—that is the reality. For starters, ensure that you read https://www.cogipas.com/top-10-essential-internet-privacy-tips/.
Tracking and Profiling is Getting More Sophisticated & Moving Away from IP Addresses
Most people know that the IP address of our devices can give away our location and a whole bunch of other information. That is just one important reason why we recommend using a trusted VPN service as a basic privacy measure.
- see What’s My IP Address?
However, another way in which individuals and their online activities can be identified is through the manipulation of the MAC address on their devices. The stark reality of this was highlighted by the famous whistle-blower Edward Snowden who disclosed that NSA tracks persons via their devices’ MAC addresses.
The startup company Renew tested this successfully by tracking mobile devices in and around London. This is why Apple has started introducing a system of generating random MAC addresses on their iOS devices.
What is a MAC Address?
The MAC acronym actually stands for Media Access Control. It is a unique identification code which is hard-wired or hard-coded into your computer’s and other mobile devices’ Network Interface Card (NIC) hardware. The NIC is needed by your devices when connecting to a network whether it is wired (Ethernet) or wireless (Wi-Fi). The MAC address is usually in the form of six sets of two-digit characters, separated by colons. A typical MAC address may look something like 00:0a:98:9d:65:16.
Please note that there is a different MAC address for each network interface. And so, a laptop computer that has an Ethernet port and a Wi-Fi radio will have different MAC addresses for the wired and the wireless network interfaces.
MAC addresses are 48 bits in length and the first 24 bits contain a unique set of characters known as the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) or vendor ID. This identifier or ID uniquely identifies the manufacturer of the networking hardware. The following are the OUI for some manufacturers:
Belkin: 00-30-BD
Cisco: 00-40-96
Dell: 00-14-22
Nortel: 00-04-DC
Some manufacturers of larger networking hardware may use more than one set of Organizationally Unique Identifiers (OUI).
With your MAC address, you become identifiable on a network. As a matter-of-fact, there are some schools and companies which require that persons accessing their wifi provide their MAC address. With that information (and, may I say, under normal conditions), network administrators can use MAC filtering and prevent unauthorised entry to their network even if the unwanted device was issued a different IP address by DHCP.
Network administrators also use MAC addresses for diagnosing network issues since they don’t change (under normal circumstances) in comparison to dynamic IP addresses which may change.
Can I Block my MAC address?
Well, the answer to this question may have a YES-NO kind of answer. As for the NO-part of the answer, every device on a network has to present a MAC address and so access to a MAC address cannot be blocked. The situation can be compared to the postal system. For persons to get their mail, they need to use an address. Without an address, the postman will not know where to leave a package. In a similar way, devices on a network have to present a MAC address so that their data packets can be routed to them. However, that MAC address need not be the original hard-coded MAC address that the device was manufactured with. And so, in this context, YES we can hide (or if you prefer block) our original MAC address by using another MAC address. This pseudo-MAC address may be a random one that is changed by the user or generated by computer software or it could be one that is spoofed from another device which has access to the network. In this way, a computer system may be manipulated so that the MAC address reported by the operating system does not match the permanent physical MAC address. This is beneficial for addressing privacy concerns when doing things like using a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Management apps for mac. IMPORTANT: This method of switching the MAC address is not permanent. The computer will restore the permanent physical MAC address after it is rebooted.
NOTE: Apart from the MAC address on your computer’s network adapters, there is also a MAC address for your router. Therefore, if you are operating your own home network, you may have to change your router’s MAC address as well as your computer’s MAC address. You will be able to change the MAC address on your router using your router’s web interface.
Software which can spoof your MAC Address
The following is a list of software tools which may be used to change your computer’s MAC address. The list includes tools for both Windows and Mac systems.
- Technitium MAC Address Changer https://technitium.com/tmac/
- NoVirusThanks MAC Address Changer http://www.novirusthanks.org/products/mac-address-changer/
- SMAC MAC Address Changer http://www.klcconsulting.net/smac/#Download
- Change MAC Address http://lizardsystems.com/change-mac-address/
- MacAppStuff Spoof MAC for Mac http://download.cnet.com/MacAppStuff-Spoof-MAC/3000-2144_4-75289372.html
- ChangeMAC for Mac http://download.cnet.com/ChangeMAC/3000-18508_4-169342.html
- MAC Change http://download.cnet.com/MAC-Change/3000-2085_4-10343579.html
Spoofing your MAC Address in Windows
Although there is software designed specifically to spoof MAC addresses, spoofing is possible without the use of additional software. It can be done safely within the Windows operating system -- and it is legal too. The following sets out how you may spoof your MAC address within Windows — of course, you do so at your own risk.
STEP 1: Locate the Device Manager
For Windows 8.1 and higher, you may press Windows Key + X before clicking Device Manager.
For Windows 7, you may type “Device Manager” in the Search box which comes up when you press the Windows key. Click Device Manager or press enter to open the console.
STEP 2: Identify the network interface that you wish to modify or spoof.
Identify “Network Adapters” from the list of devices. Double-click it to reveal all available network interfaces. Right-click the one you wish to modify and then click Properties.
STEP 3: Change the MAC address
Open the Properties window, click the Advanced tab and then select Network Address from the options listed. If you don’t see this option then your network driver doesn’t have this feature.
Switch the option from “Not Present” to “Value”. You may see “0000000000” in the Value box. Remove this entry and then insert your new MAC address without any additional spaces or characters. Press OK.
Spoofing your MAC Address on Apple’s Mac OS X
Although the Mac OS X allows you to see the MAC address for each network interface via its System Preferences, it does not allow users to change it from that point. However, users may change it by using a single command.
Press Command + Space, type “Terminal”, and press the Enter key to open a Terminal window. You will need to run the command below. Remember to replace en0 with the correct network interface name and replace xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx with your desired MAC address.
sudo ifconfig en0 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
Generally speaking, the network interface will be en0 or en1 based on whether you are modifying the Wi-Fi or Ethernet interface. If unsure of the network interface name, run the ifconfig command to view all interfaces.
REMEMBER: This method of switching the MAC address is not https://vibeyellow636.weebly.com/blog/mac-can-t-delete-app. permanent. The computer will restore the permanent physical MAC address after it is rebooted.
Computers are mostly personal and sometimes contain much privacy. This tutorial will tell you how to hide folders from the desktop of your MacBook, iMac or Mac Mini so that you can make them invisible for your collegues, friends or familiy members who may use your Mac.
Here will show you how to hide any folder from the desktop with the FonePaw Hidata app. You can simply drag and drop a folder into the Hidata app to create a secret folder on your Mac.
Also, this article will cover how to hide icons from Mac desktop, including the icon of hard disk.
1. How to hide folders on Mac
Mac daily productivity app. FonePaw Hidata is a secure and easy-to-use application for Mac to quickly hide the private files or folders that you do not want others to view or access. Let's see how to use it.
Download Hidata on your Mac from here. It is compatible with macOS Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan and more.
![Best App To Hide Folders On Mac Best App To Hide Folders On Mac](/uploads/1/3/3/8/133894858/842123836.jpg)
How To Hide Folders Mac
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Set up password for Hidata
After the installation, you will be required to set a password for Hidata when trying to use the app. The password is needed every time you try to open the app or access the hidden folders inside it, so keep the password in mind. Besides, you can leave a password hint that only you can understand and that reminds you of the password if you forget.
Access Hidata
After setting up the password, you can access Hidata by clicking the icon on the desktop or from the menu bar on the top. Everytime when you try to access the app, you must enter the password.
Hide folders on Mac
On the homepage of the app, there are three folders(All Files, Documents, Media, Others) to organize hidden files to three categories. To hide a folders from Mac desktop, click one of the categories and drag the folder from desktop to the app. The folder will disappear from desktop immediatly. And it is also hidden from Finder, Spotlight, etc. The only way to access the hidden folder is to enter Hidata with the password you have set.
Create secret folder on Hidata
Right click on the left column and select Add Folder, you can create a new folder on Hidata and name it as you like.
Clicking the folder, you can add new files into it by:
- Dragging files into the selected area;Clicking + icon in the center of a dotted-line rectangle and navigating to the files you want to add.
- Once the files are added to Hidata, the files are hidden automatically from your Mac.
View or unhide folders
Select the folder you just hide, you can view the files in it. When you click the file, you can preview the files of the hidden folder on the right. To open the files, you can toggle the button beside the files to unhide them temporarily so that the macOS can recognize the files again.
Note: Clicking the Hidata on the menu bar will first prompt a simple and small-sized window for you to quickly hide/show the files on the desktop. You can enter into the app by clicking the home icon on the top right. The magnifier icon beside the file can help you locate the file in the MacBook.
2. How to hide desktop icons on Mac
With too many icons on your desktop, your deskop will be messy. Here are tips for hide desktop icons on Mac.
- How to delete app on mac appstore. Create several folders in the Finder and move the files you want to hide from desktop into the folders. By the way, you can classfy these files into different folders.
- To hide the hard disk icons, click the 'Finder' on the menu bar and select 'Preferences'. On the 'General' tab, uncheck boxes next to hard disks in which you created folders.
Hide Folders Software Windows 10
After exiting 'Finder', you'll see the hard disk icons disappear on your desktop.Hiding the icons from desktop doesn't make the files or folders invisible from Finder. To keep your files/folders secret, Hidata is recommeneded. With this app, you don't have to worry about your secret folders or files on the Mac any more.