Here's a shell mod I've been using for quite a long time. I don't remember when I started using it but I've always had it in some form on a CD or floppy or webserver etc. Basically it is a shell extension for explorer that adds a hidden file toggle and file extension toggle. See picture:

Obviously you can guess what they do from the picture. Hide/Unhide hidden files and Hide/Unhide extensions.

I wrote an installer (just a simple batch script) just extract the files and double-click on the file called 'installer' and it will copy the 2 files to system32 and then register them.