In This Chapter

Managing files with the desktop’s File Explorer

Navigating drives, folders, and flash drives

Creating and naming folders

Selecting and deselecting items

Copying and moving files and folders

Writing to CDs and memory cards

Understanding Windows OneDrive

By leaving their paper-strewn oak desktops and moving to computers, everybody hoped things would be easier. Important papers would no longer slide behind the desk or languish in dusty drawers. Twenty years later, though, we know the truth: Computers come with just as many nooks, crannies, and hiding places as did the desks they replaced … maybe even more.

In Windows, File Explorer serves as your computerized filing cabinet. Insert a flash drive or portable hard drive into your computer, and File Explorer appears, ready for you to start rustling through folders.

You’re stuck with File Explorer whenever you need to find folders inside your computer, outside your computer on plug-in drives and digital cameras, and even in most storage spots on the Internet.

Whether you’re using a touchscreen tablet, a laptop, or a desktop PC, files and folders still rule the computing world. And unless you grasp the Windows folder metaphor, you may not find your information very easily.

This chapter explains how to use the Windows filing program, called File Explorer. (You may recognize it as Windows Explorer, its name from older Windows versions.) This chapter also explains how to use OneDrive, your Internet storage space, to store files away from your computer.

Along the way, you ingest just enough Windows file management skills for you to save and retrieve your work without too much discomfort.

Browsing the File Explorer File Cabinets

To keep your programs and files neatly arranged, Windows cleaned up the squeaky old file cabinet metaphor with whisper-quiet Windows icons. Inside File Explorer, the icons represent your computer’s storage areas, allowing you to copy, move, rename, or delete your files before the investigators arrive.

To open File Explorer, shown in Figure 5-1, and begin rummaging around inside your computer, open the Start menu’s File Explorer app. Shown in the margin, it’s near the Start menu’s lower-left corner.

You can also open File Explorer with a click on its icon (shown in the margin) on the taskbar, that strip along the screen’s bottom edge.

In previous versions of Windows, File Explorer opened to show your computer’s largest file cabinets, called drives or disks in computer lingo. Windows 10 goes one step further.

Instead of dropping you off at the drives and forcing you to dig for your files, the Windows 10 File Explorer tries to be more helpful. It simply lists your most popular folders. For example, it shows Documents, where you store most of your files, and Downloads, the holding tank for everything you download from the Internet. (You also see shortcuts to your Music, Videos, and Pictures folders.)

Below those main folders, File Explorer lists shortcuts to the items you’ve opened most recently. If you worked on a spreadsheet yesterday, for example, find it again by opening File Explorer: A link to that spreadsheet lives on the front page, ready to be reopened with a double-click.

Seeing your main storage folders and recently opened files may be all you need to start working. But if you need to see all of your computer’s storage areas, click the words This PC in the pane along the left edge. File Explorer opens to the view you’ve seen in previous Windows versions, shown in Figure 5-2.

The File Explorer images shown above will look slightly different from the ones on your PC, but you can still see the same basic sections:

• Navigation Pane: The handy Navigation Pane, that strip along every folder’s left edge, lists shortcuts to different storage spaces on your PC, on OneDrive, and on any other connected computers. (I cover the Navigation Pane in Chapter 4.)

• Folders: When opened, File Explorer lists shortcuts to your main storage folders, as well as your computing history, a list of recently accessed folders and files. Unless you’re starting a brand-new project, you can probably find your most recent work here.

• Devices and Drives: Shown in Figure 5-2, this area lists your PC’s storage areas and devices. (The term devices usually refers to gadgets plugged into your PC.) Every computer has at least one hard drive. Double-clicking a hard drive icon displays its files and folders, but you can rarely find much useful information when probing that way. No, your most important files live in your Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos folders, which appear near the top of Figure 5-2.

• Notice the hard drive bearing the little Windows icon (shown in the margin)? That means that Windows lives on that drive. And do you see the multicolored line next to the drives’ icon? The more colored space you see in the line, the more files you’ve stuffed onto your drive. When the line turns red, your drive is almost full, and you should think about deleting some unwanted files, uninstalling some unused programs, or upgrading to a larger drive.

  You may also see some detachable gadgetry attached to your computer. Here are some of the more common items:

• CD, DVD, and Blu-ray drives: As shown in Figure 5-2, Windows places a short description next to each drive’s icon. For example, CD-RW means the drive can write to CDs but not DVDs. DVD-RW means that it can both read and write to DVDs and CDs. A BD-ROM drive can read Blu-ray discs, but it can write only to CDs and DVDs. And the ever-so-versatile BD-RE and BD-R drives can read and write to Blu-ray discs, DVDs, and CDs.

  Writing information to a disc is called burning. Copying information from a disc is called ripping.

• Flash drives: The icon for some flash drive brands resembles the actual flash drive. Most flash drives simply show a generic icon like the one in the margin.

• Windows doesn’t display icons for your computer’s memory card readers until you’ve inserted a card into them. To see icons for your empty card readers, open File Explorer, click the View tab, and select the Hidden Items check box in the View tab’s Show/Hide section. Repeat to hide them again.

• iPads, phones, and MP3 players: A Windows phone receives a nice icon, but Android phones, iPads, and iPhones receive a generic MP3 player icon. If you own an iPhone or iPad, you need the Apple iTunes software (www.apple.com/itunes/) that runs on the Windows desktop. Windows can’t copy songs to and from an iPod or iPad by itself. (I cover MP3 players in Chapter 16.)

• Cameras: When plugged into your computer’s USB port, digital cameras usually appear as camera icons in the File Explorer window. To import your camera’s photos, turn on your camera and set it to its View Photos mode rather than its Take Photos mode. Then right-click the camera’s icon in File Explorer and choose Import Pictures and Videos from the pop-up menu. After Windows walks you through the process of extracting the images (see Chapter 17), it places the photos in your Pictures folder.

If you plug a digital camcorder, cellphone, or other gadget into your PC, the File Explorer window often sprouts a new icon representing your gadget. If Windows neglects to ask what you’d like to do with your newly plugged-in gadget, right-click the icon to open a list of everything you can do with that item. No icon? Then you need to install a driver for your gadget, a precipitous journey detailed in Chapter 13.

If you prefer that File Explorer opens to the traditional This PC view rather than the new Quick Access view, first open any folder. Then click that folder’s File tab and choose Change Folder and Search Options. When the Folder Options window appears, open the drop-down menu along the window’s top edge and choose This PC instead of the default Quick Access.

To see inside an item listed in File Explorer, perhaps a flash drive or your digital camera, double-click it. To back out of that view, click the left-pointing arrow (shown in the margin) above the Navigation Pane.

Tip for tablets: When you read the word click, substitute tap. Similarly, right-click means touch and hold. And the term drag and drop means slide your finger along the screen as if your finger is the mouse pointer and then lift the finger to drop the item.

Getting the Lowdown on Folders

This stuff is dreadfully boring, but if you don’t read it, you’ll be just as lost as your files.

A folder is a storage area, just like a real folder in a file cabinet. Windows divides your computer’s hard drives into many folders to separate your many projects. For example, you store all your music in your Music folder and your pictures in your Pictures folder. That lets both you and your programs find them easily.

Windows gives you six main folders for storing your files. For easy access, they live in the This PC section of the Navigation Pane along the left side of every folder. Shown earlier, Figure 5-2 shows your main storage areas: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos.

Keep these folder facts in mind when shuffling files in Windows:

• You can ignore folders and dump all your files onto the Windows desktop. But that’s like tossing everything into your car’s back seat and pawing around to find your sunglasses a month later. Organized stuff is much easier to find.
• If you’re eager to create a folder or two (and it’s pretty easy), page ahead to this chapter’s “Creating a New Folder” section.
• The new Windows 10 web browser, Microsoft Edge, conveniently drops all of your downloaded files into your Downloads folder. Until you delete it, every file you’ve downloaded will be in that folder.

• File Explorer folders use a tree metaphor as they branch out from one main folder (a drive) that contains folders which contain even more folders.

Peering into Your Drives, Folders, and Other Media

Knowing all this folder stuff not only impresses computer store employees but also helps you find the files you want. (See the preceding section for a lowdown on which folder holds what.) Put on your hard hat and get ready to go spelunking among your computer’s drives and folders as well as your CDs, DVDs, and cellphones. The following sections are your guide.

Seeing the files on a drive

Like everything else in Windows, disk drives are represented by buttons, or icons. The File Explorer program also shows information stored in other areas, such as phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, or scanners. (I explain these icons in the section “Browsing the File Explorer File Cabinets,” earlier in this chapter.)

Opening an icon usually lets you access the device’s contents and move files back and forth, just as with any other folders in Windows.

When you double-click a hard drive icon in File Explorer, Windows promptly opens the drive to show you the folders packed inside. But how should Windows react when you insert something new into your computer, such as a CD, DVD, or flash drive?

Earlier versions of Windows tried to second-guess you. When you inserted a music CD, for example, Windows automatically began playing the music. Today’s newer, more polite Windows, by contrast, asks how you prefer it to handle the situation, as shown by the pop-up notification in the lower-right corner of Figure 5-3.

When that message appears, choose it with a click of the mouse. A second message appears, as shown in Figure 5-4, listing every way your PC and its gang of apps and programs can handle that item.

Choose an option — Open Folder to View Files, for example — and Windows fires up File Explorer to display your newly inserted drive’s contents. The next time you plug that drive into your PC, your computer won’t bother asking; it will automatically summon File Explorer and display your drive’s folders.

But what if you change your mind about how Windows should treat a newly inserted item? Then you need to change how Windows reacts: In File Explorer’s This PC section, right-click the inserted item’s icon and choose Open AutoPlay. Once again, Windows shows the message from Figure 5-4 and asks you to plot the future course.

Adjusting the AutoPlay settings comes in particularly handy for USB thumbdrives. If your flash drive carries a few songs, Windows may want to play them, slowing your access to your flash drive’s other files. To prevent that, select the AutoPlay option, Open Folder to View Files.

• When in doubt as to what you can do with an icon in File Explorer, right-click it. Windows presents a menu of all the things you can do to that object. (You can choose Open, for example, to see the files on a flash drive, making it simpler to copy them to your computer.)

• If you double-click an icon for a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray drive when no disk is in the drive, Windows stops you, gently suggesting that you insert a disk before proceeding further.
• Spot an icon under the heading Network Location? That’s a little doorway for peering into other computers linked to your computer — if there are any. You find more network stuff in Chapter 15.

Seeing what’s inside a folder

Because folders are really little storage compartments, Windows uses a picture of a little folder to represent a place for storing files.

To see what’s inside a folder, either in File Explorer or on the Windows desktop, just double-click that folder’s picture. A new window pops up, showing that folder’s contents. Spot another folder inside that folder? Double-click that one to see what’s inside. Keep clicking until you find what you want or reach a dead end.

Reached a dead end? If you mistakenly end up in the wrong folder, back your way out as if you’re browsing the web. Click the tiny Back arrow (shown in the margin) at the window’s top-left corner. That closes the wrong folder and shows you the folder you just left. If you keep clicking the Back arrow, you end up right where you started.

The Address bar provides another quick way to jump to different places in your PC. As you move from folder to folder, the folder’s Address bar — that wide word-filled box at the folder’s top — constantly keeps track of your trek.

Notice the little arrows between the folder names. Those little arrows provide quick shortcuts to other folders and windows. If you try clicking any of the arrows, menus appear, listing the places you can jump to from that point. For example, click the arrow after Music, shown in Figure 5-5, and a menu drops down, letting you jump quickly to your other folders.

Here are some more tips for finding your way in and out of folders:

• Sometimes a folder contains too many files or folders to fit in the window. To see more files, click that window’s scroll bars along a window’s bottom or right edges. (I cover scroll bars in your field guide, Chapter 4.)

• While burrowing deeply into folders, the Recent Locations arrow provides yet another quick way to jump immediately to any folder you’ve plowed through: Click the little downward-pointing arrow next to the Forward arrow in the window’s top-left corner. A menu drops down, listing the folders you’ve plowed past on your journey. Click any name to jump quickly to that folder.

• Click the Up Arrow button, located just to the right of the Address bar, to move your view up one folder. Keep clicking it, and you’ll eventually wind up at someplace recognizable: your desktop.
• Can’t find a particular file or folder? Instead of aimlessly rummaging through folders, check out the Start menu’s Search box, which I describe in Chapter 7. Windows can automatically find your lost files, folders, e-mail, and nearly anything else hiding in your PC.
• When faced with a long list of alphabetically sorted files, click anywhere on the list. Then quickly type the first letter or two of the desired file’s name. Windows immediately jumps up or down the list to the first name beginning with those letters.

• Libraries, a sort of super folder introduced in Windows 7, vanished in Windows 8.1: Microsoft dropped them from the Navigation Pane, and they’re still missing from Windows 10. If you miss them, add them back by right-clicking a blank portion of the Navigation Pane and choosing Show Libraries.

Creating a New Folder

To store new information in a file cabinet, you grab a manila folder, scrawl a name across the top, and start stuffing it with information. To store new information in Windows — notes for your autobiography, for example — you create a new folder, think up a name for the new folder, and start stuffing it with files.

To create a new folder quickly, click Home from the folder’s toolbar buttons and choose New Folder from the Ribbon: A folder appears, ready for you to type in its name.

If the menus seem to be hiding, though, here’s a quick and foolproof method:

1. Right-click inside your folder (or on the desktop) and choose New.

   The all-powerful right-click shoots a menu out the side.

2. Choose Folder.

   When you choose Folder, shown in Figure 5-6, a new folder quickly appears, waiting for you to type a new name.

3. Type a new name for the folder.

   A newly created folder bears the boring name of New Folder. When you begin typing, Windows quickly erases the old name and fills in your new name. Done? Save the new name by either pressing Enter or clicking somewhere away from the name you’ve just typed.

   If you mess up the name and want to try again, right-click the folder, choose Rename, and start over.

• Certain symbols are banned from folder (and file) names. The “Using legal folder names and filenames” sidebar spells out the details, but you never have trouble when using plain old letters and numbers for names.

• Shrewd observers notice that in Figure 5-6 Windows offers to create many more things than just a folder when you click the New button. Right-click inside a folder anytime you want to create a new shortcut or other common items.

• Cautious observers may remark that their right-click menu looks different than the one shown in Figure 5-6. There’s nothing wrong; programs often add their own items to the right-click menus, making the menu look different on different PCs.

Renaming a File or Folder

Sick of a filename or folder name? Then change it. Just right-click the offending icon and choose Rename from the menu that pops up. Windows highlights the file’s old name, which disappears as you begin typing the new one. Press Enter or click the desktop when you’re through, and you’re off.

Or you can click the filename or folder name to select it, wait a second, and click the name again to change it. Some people click the name and press F2; Windows automatically lets you rename the file or folder.

• When you rename a file, only its name changes. The contents are still the same, the file is still the same size, and the file is still in the same place.

• To rename large groups of files simultaneously, select them all, right-click the first one, and choose Rename. Type in the new name and press Enter, and Windows renames that file. However, it also renames all your other selected files to the new name, adding a number as it goes: cat, cat(2), cat(3), cat(4), and so on. It’s a handy way to rename photographs.

• Renaming some folders confuses Windows, especially if those folders contain programs. And please don’t rename your main folders: Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music, or Videos.

• Windows won’t let you rename a file or folder if one of your programs currently uses it. Sometimes closing the program fixes the problem. Other times, you need to restart your PC. That releases the program’s clutches so you can rename it.

Selecting Bunches of Files or Folders

Although selecting a file, folder, or other object may seem particularly boring, it swings the doors wide open for further tasks: deleting, renaming, moving, copying, and performing other file-juggling tricks discussed in the rest of this chapter.

To select a single item, just click it. To select several files and folders, hold down the Ctrl key when you click the names or icons. Each name or icon stays highlighted when you click the next one.

To gather several files or folders sitting next to each other in a list, click the first one. Then hold down the Shift key as you click the last one. Those two items are highlighted, along with every file and folder sitting between them.

Windows lets you lasso desktop files and folders, as well. Point slightly above the first file or folder you want and then, while holding down the mouse button, point at the last file or folder. The mouse creates a colored lasso to surround your files. Let go of the mouse button, and the lasso disappears, leaving all the surrounded files highlighted.

• You can drag and drop armfuls of files in the same way that you drag a single file.
• You can also simultaneously cut or copy and paste these armfuls into new locations using any of the methods described in the “Copying or Moving Files and Folders” section, later in this chapter.
• You can delete these armfuls of goods, too, with a press of the Delete key. (They all drop into the Recycle Bin and are available for emergency retrieval.)

• To quickly select all the files in a folder, choose Select All from the folder’s Edit menu. (No menu? Then select them by pressing Ctrl+A.) Here’s another nifty trick: To grab all but a few files, press Ctrl+A, and while still holding down Ctrl, click the ones you don’t want.

Getting Rid of a File or Folder

Sooner or later, you’ll want to delete a file that’s no longer important — yesterday’s lottery picks, for example, or a particularly embarrassing digital photo. To delete a file or folder, right-click its name or icon. Then choose Delete from the pop-up menu. This surprisingly simple trick works for files, folders, shortcuts, and just about anything else in Windows.

To delete in a hurry, click the offending object and press the Delete key. Dragging and dropping a file or folder to the Recycle Bin does the same thing.

The Delete option deletes entire folders, including any files or folders stuffed inside those folders. Make sure that you select the correct folder before you choose Delete.

• After you choose Delete, Windows tosses a box in your face, asking whether you’re sure. If you’re sure, click Yes. If you’re tired of Windows cautiously questioning you, right-click the Recycle Bin, choose Properties, and remove the check mark next to Display Delete Confirmation Dialog. Windows proceeds to delete any highlighted items whenever you — or an inadvertent brush of your shirt sleeve — press the Delete key.

• Be extra sure that you know what you’re doing when deleting any file that depicts a little gear in its icon. These files are usually sensitive hidden files, and the computer wants you to leave them alone. (Other than that, they’re not particularly exciting, despite the action-oriented gears.)

• Icons with little arrows in their corner (like the one in the margin) are shortcuts, which are push buttons that merely load files. (I cover shortcuts in Chapter 6.) Deleting shortcuts deletes only a button that loads a file or program. The file or program itself remains undamaged and still lives inside your computer.
• As soon as you find out how to delete files, trot off to Chapter 3, which explains several ways to undelete them. (Hint for the desperate: Open the Recycle Bin, right-click your file’s name, and choose Restore.)

Copying or Moving Files and Folders

To copy or move files to different folders on your hard drive, it’s sometimes easiest to use your mouse to drag them there. For example, here’s how to move a file to a different folder on your desktop. In this case, I’m moving the Traveler file from the House folder to the Morocco folder.

1. Align the two windows next to each other.

   I explain this in Chapter 4. If you skipped that chapter, try this: Click the first window and then hold the key and press the → key. To fill the screen’s left half, click the other window, hold the key, and press the ← key.

2. Aim the mouse pointer at the file or folder you want to move.

   In my example, I point at the Traveler file.

3. While holding down the right mouse button, move the mouse until it points at the destination folder.

   As you see in Figure 5-7, I’m dragging Traveler file from the House folder to the Morocco folder.

   Moving the mouse drags the file along with it, and Windows explains that you’re moving the file, as shown in Figure 5-7. (Be sure to hold down the right mouse button the entire time.)

   Always drag icons while holding down the right mouse button. Windows is then gracious enough to give you a menu of options when you position the icon, and you can choose to copy, move, or create a shortcut. If you hold down the left mouse button, Windows sometimes doesn’t know whether you want to copy or move.

4. Release the mouse button and choose Copy Here, Move Here, or Create Shortcuts Here from the pop-up menu.

When dragging and dropping takes too much work, Windows offers a few other ways to copy or move files. Depending on your screen’s current layout, some of the following onscreen tools may work more easily:

• Right-click menus: Right-click a file or folder and choose Cut or Copy, depending on whether you want to move or copy it. Then right-click your destination folder and choose Paste. It’s simple, it always works, and you needn’t bother placing any windows side by side.

• Ribbon commands: In File Explorer, click your file or folder, click the Ribbon’s Home tab at the top, and then click the Copy To (or Move To) button. A menu drops down, listing some common locations. Don’t spot the right spot? Then click Choose Location and click through the drive and folders to reach the destination folder, and Windows transports the file accordingly. Although a bit cumbersome, this method works if you know the exact location of the destination folder.

  I explain more about the Ribbon in Chapter 4.

• Navigation Pane: Described in Chapter 4, this panel along File Explorer’s left edge lists popular locations: drives, networks, OneDrive, and oft-used folders. That lets you drag and drop a file into a spot on the Navigation Pane, sparing you the hassle of opening a destination folder.

After you install a program on your computer, don’t ever move that program’s folder. Programs wedge themselves deeply into Windows. Moving the program may break it, and you’ll have to reinstall it. However, feel free to move a program’s shortcut. (Shortcut icons contain a little arrow.)

Seeing More Information about Files and Folders

Whenever you create a file or folder, Windows scrawls a bunch of secret hidden information on it, such as the date you created it, its size, and even more trivial stuff. Sometimes Windows even lets you add your own secret information, including reviews for your music files or thumbnail pictures for any of your folders.

You can safely ignore most of the information. Other times, tweaking that information is the only way to solve a problem.

To see what Windows is calling your files and folders behind your back, right-click the item and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. Choosing Properties on a song, for example, brings up bunches of details, as shown in Figure 5-8. Here’s what each tab means:

• General: This first tab (far left in Figure 5-8) shows the file’s type (an MP3 file of the song “Getting Better”), its size (6.42MB), the program that opens it (in this case, the Music app), and the file’s location.

  Want a different program to open your file? Right-click the file, choose Properties, and click the Change button on the General tab, shown in Figure 5-8. A list of your computer’s available music players appears, letting you choose your preferred program.

• Security: On this tab, you control permissions, which are rules determining who can access the file and what they can do with it. System administrators earn high wages mostly for understanding this type of stuff.

• Details: True to its name, this tab reveals arcane details about a file. On digital photos, for example, this tab lists EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data: the camera model, f-stop, aperture, focal length, and other items loved by photographers. On songs, this tab displays the song’s ID3 tag (IDentify MP3), which includes the artist, album title, year, track number, genre, length, and similar information.
• Previous Versions: After you set up the Windows File History backup system, this tab lists all the previously saved versions of this file, ready for retrieval with a click. I cover File History in Chapter 13.

Normally, these tidbits of information remain hidden unless you right-click a file or folder and choose Properties. But what if you want to see details about all the files in a folder, perhaps to find pictures taken on a certain day? For that, switch your folder’s view to Details by following these steps:

1. Click the View tab on the Ribbon along the folder’s top edge.

   A menu appears, listing the umpteen ways a folder can display your files.

2. In the Layout group, select Details, as shown in Figure 5-9.

   The screen changes to show your files’ names, with details about them stretching to the right in orderly columns.

Try all the views to see which view you prefer. (Windows remembers which views you prefer for different folders.)

• If you can’t remember what a folder’s toolbar buttons do, rest your mouse pointer over a button. Windows displays a helpful box summing up the button’s mission.

• Switch among the different views until you find the one that fits what you’re trying to accomplish, be it to see a particular photo’s creation date or see thumbnails of every photo in a folder.
• Folders usually display files sorted alphabetically. To sort them differently, right-click a blank spot inside the folder and choose Sort By. A pop-up menu lets you choose to sort items by size, name, type, and other details.

• When the excitement of the Sort By menu wears off, try clicking the words at the top of each sorted column. Click Size, for example, to reverse the order, placing the largest files at the list’s top.

• Feel free to add your own columns to Details view: Right-click a column header you don’t need, and a drop-down menu appears, letting you choose a different criteria. (I always add a Date Taken column to my photos, so I can sort my photos by the date I snapped them.)

Writing to CDs and DVDs

Most computers today write information to CDs and DVDs by using a flameless approach known as burning. To see whether you’re stuck with an older drive that can’t burn discs, first remove any discs from inside the drive. Then from the desktop, double-click the taskbar’s File Explorer icon and look at the icon for your CD or DVD drive.

Because computers always speak in secret code, here’s what you can do with the disc drives in your computer:

• DVD-RW: These drives both read and write to CDs and DVDs.

• BD-ROM: These can read and write to CDs and DVDs, plus they can read Blu-ray discs.

• BD-RE: Although these have the same icon as BD-ROM drives, they can read and write to CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs.

If your PC has two CD or DVD burners, tell Windows which drive you want to handle your disc-burning chores: Right-click the drive, choose Properties, and click the Recording tab. Then choose your favorite drive in the top box.

Working with Flash Drives and Memory Cards

Digital camera owners eventually become acquainted with memory cards — those little plastic squares that replaced the awkward rolls of film. Windows can read digital photos directly from the camera after you find its cable and plug it into your PC. But Windows can also grab photos straight off the memory card, a method praised by those who’ve lost their camera’s cables.

The secret is a memory card reader — a little slot-filled box that stays plugged into your PC. Slide your memory card into the slot, and your PC can read the card’s files, just like reading files from any other folder. Some tablets, laptops, and PCs include built-in memory card readers.

Most office supply and electronics stores sell memory card readers that accept most popular memory card formats: Compact Flash, SecureDigital High Capacity (SDHC), Micro-SecureDigital High Capacity (SDHC), Micro-SecureDigital Extended Capacity (SDXC) and a host of other tongue twisters. Some computers even come with built-in memory card readers on the front of their case.

The beauty of card readers is that there’s nothing new to figure out: Windows treats your inserted card just like an ordinary folder. Insert your card, and a folder appears on your screen to show your digital camera photos. The same drag-and-drop and cut-and-paste rules covered earlier in this chapter still apply, letting you move the pictures or other files off the card and into your Pictures folder.

Flash drives — also known as thumbdrives — work just like memory card readers. Plug the flash drive into one of your PC’s USB ports, and the drive appears as an icon (shown in the margin) in File Explorer, ready to be opened with a double-click.

• First, the warning: Formatting a card or flash drive wipes out all its information. Never format a card or flash drive unless you don’t care about the information it currently holds.

• Now, the procedure: If Windows complains that a newly inserted card isn’t formatted, right-click its drive and choose Format. (This problem happens most often with brand-new or damaged cards.)

OneDrive: Your Cubbyhole in the Clouds

When you’re sitting in front of your computer, you naturally store your files inside your computer. There’s really no place else to put them. When you leave your computer, you can bring along important files by stashing them on flash drives, CDs, DVDs, and portable hard drives — if you remember to grab them on the way out.

But how can you access your files from any computer, even if you’ve forgotten to bring along the files? How can you grab your home files from work, and vice versa? How can you view an important document while traveling?

Microsoft’s solution to that problem is called OneDrive. It’s your own private file storage space on the Internet, and it’s built into Windows 10. With OneDrive, your files are available from any computer with an Internet connection. You can even grab them from phones or tablets from Apple, Android, Blackberry, or Windows: Microsoft offers a free OneDrive app for all of them.

If you change a file on OneDrive, Microsoft automatically changes that file on all of your computers and devices. That way, your OneDrive folder automatically stays up-to-date on every device.

Windows 10 makes OneDrive easily accessible by building it into every folder. However, you still need the following things in order to put OneDrive to work:

• Microsoft account: You need a Microsoft account in order to upload, view, or retrieve your files from OneDrive. Chances are good that you created a Microsoft account when you first created your account on your Windows PC. (I describe Microsoft accounts in Chapter 2.)
• An Internet connection: Without an Internet signal, either wireless or wired, your web-stashed files remain floating in the clouds, away from you and your computer.
• Patience: Uploading files takes longer than downloading files. Although you can upload small files fairly quickly, larger files such as digital photos or movies take much longer to upload.

For some people, OneDrive offers a safe Internet haven, sometimes called the “cloud,” where they can always find their most important files. For others, OneDrive brings another layer of complication, as well as another possible hiding place for that missing file.

The following sections explain how to access OneDrive directly from any folder on your computer, as well as by visiting with a web browser. You also find out how to change OneDrive’s settings to make sure its huge storage capacity doesn’t hog all of your computer’s storage space.

Choosing which OneDrive folders should sync with your PC

Windows 10 places OneDrive in every folder’s Navigation Pane, where it’s easily accessible. There, OneDrive works like any other folder but with one exception: Files and folders you place inside your OneDrive folder are also copied to your OneDrive storage space on the Internet.

That can create a problem: Today’s smaller phones, tablets, and laptops don’t include much storage space. OneDrive, by contrast, can hold lots of files. Some smaller computers, usually tablets, don’t have enough room to keep a copy of everything you’ve packed away on OneDrive.

Windows 10 offers a solution: You can pick and choose which folders should live only on OneDrive, and which should also be mirrored — also known as synced — so they live on your computer, as well.

The files that you choose to sync will be automatically updated between your computer and the cloud. On the cloud, your files serve as a backup, as well as a way for you to access them from your phone, tablet, or PC.

Files that aren’t synced live only on OneDrive. If you need them, you can access them by visiting OneDrive on the Internet, as I describe later in this section.

When you first click the OneDrive folder on a new PC, Windows makes you choose which files and folders should live only on OneDrive, and which should also live as copies on your PC.

To decide which OneDrive folders should live on both your PC and OneDrive, follow these steps:

1. From the taskbar, click the File Explorer icon and click the OneDrive icon in the folder’s left edge.

   Since this is the first time you’ve set up OneDrive on the computer, OneDrive displays an opening screen.

2. Click the opening screen’s Get Started button, and, if asked, sign in with your Microsoft account and password.

   Only Local account holders will need to sign in; Microsoft account holders already sign in when they sign into their user account. (I describe how to convert a Local account into a Microsoft account in Chapter 14.)

   OneDrive asks if you want to change where your OneDrive files will be stored on your PC.

3. If you want to change where to store your OneDrive files, click the Change button. Otherwise, click the Next button.

   If you’re using a desktop PC with plenty of storage space, just click the Next button. OneDrive will store all of your OneDrive files on your C drive, which normally has plenty of room.

   Small tablets, by contrast, contain very limited storage space. To add more storage, many tablet owners buy a memory card and slide it into their tablet’s memory slot. If you’ve bought and inserted a memory card into your tiny tablet, click this window’s Change button and tell OneDrive to save its files on your tablet’s memory card instead of the default C drive.

4. Choose which folders to sync to your PC.

   OneDrive lists all of your OneDrive folders, shown in Figure 5-10.

5. Select the files and folders you’d like to keep synced between your PC and OneDrive, then click the Next button.

   OneDrive gives you two options:

   • Sync All Files and Folders in my OneDrive: Unless you have a reason not to, select this option to keep all of your OneDrive files mirrored on your PC’s or tablet’s memory card. Most desktop PCs won’t have a problem with this option, and it’s the most trouble-free way to access OneDrive.
   • Sync Only These Folders: Select this option on tablets or PCs with very little storage. If you select this option, place a check mark next to the folders you want to remain both on your PC and OneDrive.

6. Click Done to save your changes.

   At the Fetch Your Files From Anywhere screen, shown in Figure 5-11, click Done.

You don’t need to sync the same set of folders on each of your computers. For example, you can choose to sync only the essentials on your small tablet — perhaps just your photos. On a desktop PC with large storage, you can choose to sync everything.

If you want to access a OneDrive folder that’s not synced on your PC, you have two options: Change OneDrive’s settings to sync that desired folder, or visit OneDrive on the Internet and access the file there. (I describe how to do this later in this section.)

Changing your OneDrive settings

As your needs change, you may want to tweak your OneDrive settings, perhaps changing which OneDrive folders should also live on your PC.

To revisit your OneDrive settings and change them, if necessary, follow these steps:

1. From taskbar’s notification area, right-click the OneDrive icon and choose Settings.

   You may need to click the little upward-pointing arrow in the notification area to see the OneDrive icon (shown in the margin). I cover the taskbar’s notification area — the tiny icon-filled area to the taskbar’s far right — in Chapter 3.

   OneDrive’s Settings dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 5-12.

2. In the Settings dialog box, click the Choose Folders tab and then click the Choose Folders button.

   The Sync Your OneDrive Files to This PC window opens, listing all of your OneDrive folders, as shown earlier in Figure 5-10.

3. Make any changes, and click the OK button.

   OneDrive begins syncing your files and folders according to your changes.

Microsoft starts you off with 15GB of OneDrive storage space, but you can increase that by taking advantage of promotional offers, or paying a monthly fee.

To see your amount of available OneDrive storage space, right-click the OneDrive icon in your taskbar and choose Manage Storage from the pop-up menu. When your browser takes you to your online OneDrive settings page, sign in with your Microsoft account. The online OneDrive settings page then lists your amount of storage space available, as well as how to increase it.

Opening and saving files from OneDrive

When you first sign into Windows 10 with a new Microsoft Account, Windows stocks your OneDrive with two empty folders: Documents and Photos.

To see the two folders, open any folder. Don’t have a folder open? Then click the File Explorer icon (shown in the margin) on the taskbar. OneDrive is listed in the folder’s Navigation Pane along the left edge. Click the word OneDrive, and OneDrive’s contents spill out into the folder’s right side. You can see the two empty folders, named Documents and Photos, shown in Figure 5-13. If you already have a OneDrive account, you see your OneDrive folders, instead.

You have nothing new to learn with OneDrive; its folders work like any other folder on your computer:

• To view the contents of a OneDrive folder, double-click it. The folder opens to show its contents.
• To edit a file stored in a OneDrive folder, double-click it. The file opens in the program that created it.
• To save something new inside a OneDrive folder, save it to a folder inside OneDrive — its Documents folder, for example. Don’t just save it to the Documents folder on your PC.
• To delete something from OneDrive, right-click it and choose Delete. The item moves to your desktop’s Recycle Bin, where it can be retrieved later if necessary.

No matter what changes you make to your files and folders in your computer’s OneDrive folder, Windows 10 automatically changes the Internet’s copies to match.

Later, when you visit OneDrive through your iPad or Android phone app, your up-to-date files will be waiting for you to peruse.

• By storing a shopping list on OneDrive, you can add needed grocery items while sitting at your PC. Then, when you’re at the store, you can view that up-to-date shopping list on your phone. (Microsoft makes OneDrive apps for iPhones and Android phones, as well as phones from Blackberry and Windows.)

• Want to copy a few favorites to your OneDrive folder? I describe how to copy and move files between folders earlier in this chapter.

• Many people keep a few desert island discs on OneDrive. Whenever you have an Internet connection, the Windows 10 Music app, covered in Chapter 16, automatically lists and plays any music you store on OneDrive. (The old school Media Player program, by contrast, plays only the music stored physically on your PC.)

Accessing OneDrive from the Internet

Sometimes you may need to access OneDrive when you’re not sitting in front of your computer. Or, you may need to reach a OneDrive file that’s not synced on your PC. To help you in either situation, Microsoft offers OneDrive access from any Internet browser.

When you need your files, drop by any computer, visit the OneDrive website at http://OneDrive.live.com and, if asked, sign in with your Microsoft account name and password. The OneDrive website appears, shown in Figure 5-14.

After you sign into the OneDrive website, you can add, delete, move, and rename files, as well as create folders and move files between folders. You can even edit some files directly online. (OneDrive even contains a Recycle Bin for retrieving mistakenly deleted files.)

It’s much easier to manage your files directly from the folder on your computer. But if you’re away from your computer, the OneDrive website provides a handy fallback zone.

Also, the OneDrive website provides something your OneDrive folder doesn’t: It lets you share files by e-mailing people links to them, making it a handy way to share folders.

If you find yourself using OneDrive regularly, take note that Microsoft offers free OneDrive apps for Apple, Android, and Windows smartphones and tablets. OneDrive simplifies file sharing among all of your gadgets.