WINDOWS EXPLORER BASICS

Prof. Yitzchak Rosenthal

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Starting Windows Explorer

To start windows explorer choose the following
from the "start" menu

start | All Programs | Accessories | Windows Explorer

You can also "right click" on the start menu button

and choose "Explore"
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Windows Explorer
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Drives, folders and files

Windows Explorer displays a hierarchy comprised
of the following items under the "My Computer"
icon:

disk drives
folders
files
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Disk Drives
Information on a computer is stored on one or more disk
drives
Each disk drive has a unique name that is comprised of a
single letter followed by a colon. For example:
A:
C:
D:
F:
etc.

Drive letter names are case-insensitive (i.e. a: and A: are

the same thing)
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standard drives
On most Microsoft Windows computers:

A: is generally the floppy disk drive

C: is generally a hard drive on the computer

other letters refer to

additional hard drives on the computer
a CD-ROM, DVD or other type of drive on the computer
a "networked" drive that is on another computer but is
accessible from the current computer
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Descriptive Names
In addition to the drive letter, Windows Explorer also
displays descriptive names for drives

These names are NOT used much. You will usually use
drive letters to identify a particular drive.

In the screenshot at the right, the following descriptive

names are used:

3 inch floppy for A: (This is a description that

Windows made up)

"Local Disk" for C: (This is also a description that

Windows made up)

"DISE_BACKUP" for D: (This is a volume name.

Volume names are assigned to a drive by the
administrator of the machine. Each floppy disk, CDROM
disc or DVD disc may have its own volume name that is
displayed when the media is inserted into the drive. If a
drive or disc was not given a volume name then windows
makes up its own descriptive name to display in
windows explorer.)
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Hierarchy
A disk drive contains many folders and files
Each folder can contain both :
files
other folders

Viewing the folder hierarchy
The left hand pane shows the
folder hierarchy. The
currently selected folder is
highlighted.by Windows
Explorer
The currently selected folder
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The right hand pane shows the contents of the folder which
is currently selected in the left hand pane. As you can see,
the contents of a folder is other folders and files. If you click
on a different folder on the left you will see the contents of
that folder on the right.
These folders and files are
stored in the folder that is
selected in the left hand
pane (i.e. NTFSDOS3)
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Expand/Collapse View
Expand or collapse the view of the
hierarchy by clicking on the + or sign
icons next to folder names.
Double click on a folder or drive to expand
AND select it at the same time

Double-
Click on to Click a
collapse collapsed
folder or
drive to
expand
Click on + to
AND
expand
select it.
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Hierarchy - example
The level of indentation indicates the position of a folder in the hierarchy
From the snapshot we can get the following information:
these folders are contained in the top (excerpt from picture on earlier slide)
level of the hierarchy on the D: drive
otherStuff
PQIMAGE
these folders are stored in the
"otherStuff" folder:
NTFS98RO
NTFSDOS3
Personal
SAVE

these files & folders are stored in the NTFSDOS3 folder

files (to see files, refer to earlier slide) : ntfsdos.exe, ntfshlp.vxd, readme.txt
folders: lowLevel
these folders are contained in the "Personal" folder
homework
letters
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Opening Files
To open a file, double click on it.
This will start the program that uses this file.

Double-click on the readme.txt file

to start the notepad program that is
used to create/modify it.
COPYING AND MOVING
FILES & FOLDERS

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Copying vs. Moving a file or folder

copying vs. moving

Copying a file or folder:

When you copy a file or folder from one location (i.e. folder) to
another you create a new copy of the item being copied (i.e. file
or folder). When you are done, separate copies of the item exist in
the original folder and the new folder.

Moving a file or folder:

When you move a file or folder it is moved from one location

(i.e. folder) to another. When you are done, there is only one copy
of the item that was moved (i.e. in the new folder).
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Copying with menu

1. Click on folder that
contains item you want to
copy

2. Right-click on a file or a
folder

3. Choose copy from

context sensitive menu.

4. Select folder where you

want to place a copy.

5. Right click in empty space

in the right hand pane

6. choose paste
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Copying with hot keys (Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V)

Same as with menu, but press hot keys instead
of choosing from menus

1. Click on folder that contains item you want to copy

2. Click on a file or a folder

3. Press Ctrl-C to copy the file

1. Select folder where you want to place a copy.

2. Press Ctrl-V to paste the file

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Moving
Same procedure as copying, except:

When using the menu method:

choose cut instead of copy from menu

When using the hotkey method:

press Ctrl-X instead of Ctrl-C
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Copying/Moving with drag & drop

How to Drag & Drop
Click on an item (i.e. file or folder) and drag it over the icon for a different folder.
Let go of the mouse button.

What will happen depends on if the two locations are one the same
or different drives
SAME DRIVE
If the new folder is on the same drive as the original folder it will MOVE the file to the new
folder (removing it from the original folder)

Hold down Ctrl key while you drag & drop to COPY the file instead of moving it. (Make
sure to release the mouse button BEFORE you release the Ctrl key).

DIFFERENT DRIVES
If new folder is on a different drive than the original folder it will COPY the file to the new
folder (leaving two copies, one in each folder)

Hold down Shift key while you drag & drop to MOVE the file instead of copy it. (Make sure
to release the mouse button BEFORE you release the shift key).
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Select Multiple Items (Shift-Click)

To copy or move multiple
items at the same time you
must select them as a group.
To select multiple files or
folders
1. click on the first one

2. Hold down the shift key and

click on the last one
(dont let go of the shift key
until you click on the 2nd item)

3. all files/folders in between will

be selected
You can then copy or move
all the selected items at once
using any of the methods
described above (i.e. menu,
hot-key, drag&drop).
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Select Multiple Items (Ctrl-Click)

Press the Ctrl key while clicking an
item to select or unselect individual
items.

This is different from the Shift-Click

technique described on previous slide
since Shift-Click selects ALL the
items between the first and the last.

You can use Shift-Click to select a

whole range and then use Ctrl-Click
to unselect the items you dont want
in the selection.

You can then copy or move all the

selected items at once using any of
the methods described above (i.e.
menu, hot-key, drag&drop).
Renaming and deleteing files and
folders

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Renaming
To rename a file or folder, right-click on the name
in the right pane of windows explorer and choose
rename.
Then type in the new name and press ENTER.
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Deleting
To delete a file or folder

right-click on the name in the right pane of windows

explorer and choose delete.

OR

select it by clicking on it once in the right hand pane of

windows explorer then ...
Press the Delete key on the keyboard.
Shortcuts vs. Files

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Creating a shortcut
Press the Alt key while
dragging&dropping a file
to create a shortcut to
that file.
While you drag&drop, the
cursor will show an arrow
next to it
You can also create a
shortcut by right-clicking
in a blank area on the right
side of Windows Explorer
and choosing new |
shortcut from the menu.
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Recognizing Shortcuts
The new item will be a
shortcut. To show it is a
shortcut it will have an
arrow next to its icon.
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What is a shortcut
A shortcut is a second name for an existing file.
If you double-click on the shortcut you will see the original
file.
Any changes that you make to the file by either double-
clicking on the original file name or the shortcut is actually
being made to the SAME underlying file. You will see the
new version when you open the file through either the
original name or the shortcut.
This is DIFFERENT than a copy. A copy creates a 2nd copy
of a file. Changes to one copy will NOT affect the other
copy.
CHANGING THE VIEW

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Changing the default view settings

The contents of the right hand pane can be displayed using different views.
Choose the view you want from the view menu.
Each view displays the information in the right pane in a slightly different format

5 possible
views:
Thumbnails
Tiles
Icons
List
Details
Choose view
you want.
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Icon View
Icon view: Icons display in right pane.
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Details View
Details view: Details display in right pane (name, size, type, date modified)
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Details View sorting, resizing columns

Sorting: Click on any column heading to sort by info from that column. Click
twice to sort in opposite order. Use this to find big/small files or files that were
recently modified or modified on a specific date
Resize Column: To make any column wider (or narrower), click on the column
separator in the heading and drag it to the right or left. Double click the column
separator to make the column exactly the right size.
To resize the column,
click and drag (or
double click) the
column separator

click
here to
sort by
size
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Data Size Units

Common Sizes Large Sizes
1 Byte 1 TeraByte (TB)
basic unit of size. Rough rule of thumb: one byte 1024 GB
can store one character. Maybe more or less
depending on the file format. 1,099,511,627,776 bytes
240 bytes
1 KiloByte (KB) sometimes is approximated as one trillion bytes
1024 bytes
Same as 210 bytes 1 PetaByte (PB)
sometimes is approximated as one thousand 1024 TB
bytes 1,125,899,906,842,620 bytes
250 bytes
1 MegaByte (MB) sometimes is approximated as one quadrillion
1024 KB bytes
Same as 1,048,576 bytes
Same as 220 bytes 1 Exabyte (EB)
sometimes is approximated as one million bytes 1024 PB
9,223,372,036,854,780,000 bytes
1 GigaByte (GB) 260 bytes
1024 MB sometimes is approximated as one quintillion
1,073,741,824 bytes bytes
230 bytes
sometimes is approximated as one billion bytes
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Saving View Settings

If you change the view settings then by default they
will only apply to the current folder.
To save the view settings for all folders do the
following:
Choose the following menu choice
tools | folder options
Press the "view" tab
Press the "apply to all folders" button
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Other Topics
Other view settings
filename extensions
file names
full path
relative path
compressed folders (i.e. .zip files)
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APPENDICES
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MORE ABOUT DISK DRIVES

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Fixed drives vs Removable Media drives

There are two types of drives
Fixed Drives
for example a hard drive
Removable media drives
for example a floppy disk drive, CDROM drive or DVD drive
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Disk Drives and Media

Examples of Disk Drives
Hard Disk drive (fixed drive)
Floppy disk drive (removable media drive)
CDROM drive (removable media drive)
DVD drive (removable media drive)
Examples of Disk Drive Media
floppy disk
CDROM disc
DVD disc