IceSword Displays Processes and Files Hidden from Windows Explorer

If you think that enabling “Show hidden files and folders” and disabling “Hide protected operating system files” from Folder Options will show every single hidden files/folders, then you are wrong. Recently I’ve been very busy because I am involved in a “secret” project (will be revealed here soon) that made me spent a lot of time testing a lot of different security tools.

There are some virus/trojan/rootkit that is able to hide itself completely from Windows Task Manager and believe it or not, even the famous Process Explorer and Process Hacker cannot even detect the hidden process. Other than that, when the virus is active, they can also make the file hidden until you cannot locate it using Windows Explorer. I found a tool called IceSword which has a Windows Explorer-like interface
but displays hidden processes and resources that Windows Explorer would never show.

Do note that IceSword isn’t a “click-here-to-delete-rootkits” product but a sophisticated discovery tool that can protect against sinister rootkits if used before they infect a machine. One thing I really like about IceSword is it is portable, free and can be used in Safe Mode. Normally tools that is used to detect hidden process and files (such as DeepMonitor and many more) requires a special driver installed and it won’t work in Safe Mode since third party drivers/services are not loaded in that environment.


Here’s a piece of bad news that might be a turn off to a lot of people. IceSword is a software made in China by a person called PJF. I know now even more people would stay away from Chinese software because of what IObit did but so far IceSword has a very good reputation. Scanning it in VirusTotal with 41 antivirus and only ClamAV detects it as a threat just because the program is packed/compressed with ASPack.

Anyway I’m just sharing with you on a tool which I found useful and if you’re not comfortable using it, then by all means go ahead and use GMER which is very similar to IceSword. It’s good to have an alternative in case one of it doesn’t work. Here’s a short video demo of IceSword able to detect a folder which is completely hidden from Windows Explorer even if the Folder Options is set to show hidden files and folders.

[ Download IceSword | PJF's Official Website ]