Quickest way to see hidden files on Windows?

I have a bunch of folders in my Documents library that were automatically generated by various programs. In order to reduce clutter, I have made these folders hidden, because 99% of the time I don't want to see them. However, there are times where I do want to see them--what is the fastest way for me to temporarily "unhide" them? (By "fastest" I mean much faster than going into the Control Panel and manually changing the visibility option.)

Often times I don't know the exact names of the folders, so just typing their names into the location bar doesn't work. Also, I know there are ways to work around this problem, like making links to these folders, but I would really prefer a direct answer to my question.

I found a nice little AutoHotKey Script at How-To-Geek.com which allows you to simply press "Win + H" to toggle showing Hidden Files. I use it myself and it works extremely well on my Windows 7 PC. And because it's small on memory (508 Kb), I have run at Windows start-up.

Have look at it: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/keyboard-ninja/keyboard-ninja-toggle-hidden-files-with-a-shortcut-key-in-windows/

If anyone comes here looking for a native way to do this in Windows 8+, you can do this:

ALT V H H

inside any explorer window.

You can use a simple vbs script that will toggle between showing & hiding your hidden files and folders.

I've tested this method on Windows 7 32-bit only.

' Script to toggle Windows Explorer display of hidden files,
' super-hidden files, and file name extensions
Option Explicit
Dim dblHiddenData, strHiddenKey, strSuperHiddenKey, strFileExtKey
Dim strKey, WshShell
On Error Resume Next
strKey = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced"
strHiddenKey = strKey & "\Hidden"
strSuperHiddenKey = strKey & "\ShowSuperHidden"
strFileExtKey = strKey & "\HideFileExt"
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
dblHiddenData = WshShell.RegRead(strHiddenKey)
If dblHiddenData = 2 Then
    WshShell.RegWrite strHiddenKey, 1, "REG_DWORD"
    WshShell.RegWrite strSuperHiddenKey, 1, "REG_DWORD"
    WshShell.RegWrite strFileExtKey, 0, "REG_DWORD"
Else
    WshShell.RegWrite strHiddenKey, 2, "REG_DWORD"
    WshShell.RegWrite strSuperHiddenKey, 0, "REG_DWORD"
    WshShell.RegWrite strFileExtKey, 1, "REG_DWORD"
End If

Edit: I've converted the script above to a batch file that will toggle between showing and hiding hiddenfiles & file extentions in win 7. See below.

@ECHO OFF
set regpath=HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
set regvalue=Hidden
set regdata=2
reg query "%regpath%" /v "%regvalue%" | find /i "%regdata%"

IF errorlevel 1 goto :hide
    Reg add "%regpath%" /v Hidden /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
    Reg add "%regpath%" /v HideFileExt /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
    Reg add "%regpath%" /v ShowSuperHidden /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
    goto :end
:hide
    Reg add "%regpath%" /v Hidden /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f
    Reg add "%regpath%" /v HideFileExt /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
    Reg add "%regpath%" /v ShowSuperHidden /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
:end

The quickest way might be to change the registry setting directly. Make two REG files, one for each setting, and run those. You could write a small batch file that would speed things up even more by running the REG files with no confirmations. Here's a REG file that disables showing hidden files:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"Hidden"=dword:00000002

And one for showing hidden files:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"Hidden"=dword:00000001