Every disk, folder, file, application, printer, and networked computer, on or attached to your PC, is represented on your screen by an icon and a name. To avoid spraying your screen with hundreds of thousands of overlapping icons, Windows organizes them into folders, and put those folders into other folders, and so on, until only a handful of icons actually appears on your screen.
This folders-in-folders scheme works beautifully at reducing screen clutter, but it means that you've got some hunting to do whenever you want to open a particular icon. You've got to open folder after folder until you corner your quarry.
Making this navigation process easy and understandable is one of the primary design goals of Windows—and of this chapter.
Tip
To create a new folder to hold your own icons, right-click where you want the folder to appear (on the desktop or in any desktop window except My Computer), and choose New→Folder from shortcut menu. The new folder appears, its temporary "New Folder" name highlighted. Type a new name for the folder and then press Enter.
Windows offers two key ways to navigate your folders:
My Computer. Using this scheme, you double-click one folder after another, leaving a trail of open windows behind you, burrowing ever deeper into the folders-within-folders.
Windows Explorer. You do all of your navigating in a single window, where all the folders appear in a vertical list that looks something like an outline.
Each method has its advantages, as described in this section; you'll probably settle on using one or the other most of the time.
When you double-click the My Computer icon in the upper-left corner of the screen, you see icons that represent the disk drives attached to, or installed inside, your computer (see Figure 5-1, top). By double-clicking one of these icons, you open a window that lists the folders and files on it (Figure 5-1, bottom). Frequently, you have to open folders within folders (subfolders) to find the actual icon you're looking for.
Figure 5-1. Top: The My Computer window is the starting point for any folder-digging you want to do. It shows the "top-level" folders: the disk drives of your PC, plus shortcuts of other drives on the network that your administrator may have set up here. If you double-click the icon of a removable-disk drive, such as your CD-ROM drive, Zip drive, or Jaz drive, you get only an error message unless there's actually a disk in the drive. Bottom: The contents of a typical hard drive (C: drive) after you've clicked the "View the entire contents of this drive" link (not shown).
Tip
As you navigate your folders, keep in mind the power of the Backspace key. Each time you press it, you jump to the parent window of the one you're now looking at—the one that contains it. For example, if you're perusing a folder inside My Documents, pressing Backspace opens the My Documents window.
Likewise, the Alt key, pressed with the right and left arrow keys, serves as a Back and Forward button. Use this trick to "walk" backward or forward through the list of windows you've most recently opened.
For example, if you double-click your C: drive icon, here are three of the most important folders you'll find:
Documents and Settings. This folder contains a subfolder for each person who's been authorized to use this PC. Each folder stores the preferences of the account holder: what's on his desktop, what his Start and Favorites menus look like, and what's in his My Documents folder. (The My Documents icon on the desktop is only a shortcut to this folder [see page 29], which is where your files are actually stored.)
It also contains a folder called All Users; anything in its Desktop, Documents, Favorites, and Start Menu folders show up on everyone's desktop, My Documents folder, Favorites, and Start menu. Unless you have administrative rights, you'll be able to open only your own folders in Documents and Settings.
Program Files. This folder contains all of your applications—Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, your games, and so on.
WINNT. This most hallowed folder contains Windows itself, the thousands of little files that make Windows Windows. Most of these folders and files have cryptic names that appeal to cryptic people. In general, the healthiest PC is one whose WINNT folder has been left alone.
One of the most efficient means of seeing what's on your hard drive is the Windows Explorer window. Because many Windows veterans prefer the Explorer browsing scheme to My Computer, Microsoft provides at least five ways to open it:
Choose Start→Programs→Accessories→Windows Explorer.
Right-click a disk or folder icon and choose Explore from the shortcut menu.
Shift-double-click any disk or folder icon.
Choose Start→Run, type explorer, and then press Enter.
Press the Windows-logo key+E.
As shown in Figure 5-2, the hierarchy of folders appears on the left. Because you get to see every folder on the machine at once, you're less likely to lose your bearings using Windows Explorer than when simply burrowing through folder after folder as described in the previous section.
Figure 5-2. If you look closely, you can see that one of the folders in the left column is open. The contents of the open folder are displayed in the right-hand pane. You use the scroll bars on either side to move up and down through the listing.
In the left pane, each folder may have a + or – button next to it. A + button next to a folder means that it contains subfolders; click the + button to expand the list of subfolders. At this point, the plus sign turns into a – sign, which you can click to collapse the folder listing.
Slide the scroll bar for the left pane all the way to the top. If you expand My Computer, you'll see that the disks associated with your PC (hard drives, floppy, CD-ROM, and so on) appear under My Computer. At the top is the folder called Desktop. In the Explorer's terms, the Desktop is the top of the hierarchy (see Figure 5-2), with My Documents, My Computer, and other pieces connected to it.
Tip
You may find it easier to move around a number of files or folders if you open two copies of the Explorer. Just right-click two different icons (or the same one twice), and choose Explore from the shortcut menu each time.
Then, to arrange the Explorer windows so you can access them easily, right-click the Taskbar and select Tile Windows Horizontally, Tile Windows Vertically, or Cascade Windows. Windows adjusts the size and position of both incarnations of the Explorer window (and any other open windows) so that they're fully visible.
To see what's in one of the disks or folders listed at the left side of the Explorer window, you can use any of these techniques:
Click a folder in the left pane of the Explorer; the contents appear in the right pane.
Double-click a folder in the left pane, or click the + button next to its name. The branch expands in the left pane.
Right-click a folder in the left pane and select Open from the shortcut menu. A new window opens, displaying the contents of the folder you clicked. (To open a program or document that appears in either side of the window, double-click it as usual.)
The right-side pane of the Explorer window behaves exactly like any folder window; don't forget that you can change it to an icon view or list view, for example, using the View menu as usual.
If you arrive home one day to discover that your mouse has been stolen, or if you just like doing things with the keyboard, you'll enjoy the shortcuts that work in the Explorer window:
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left-arrow |
Collapses the highlighted folder—or, if it's already collapsed, highlights its "parent" folder. |
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right-arrow |
Expands a highlighted folder, or if it's already expanded, highlights the first folder inside it. |
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F6 or Tab |
Highlights the other half of the window. |
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Alt+left arrow |
Highlights whatever folder you last highlighted. |
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Backspace |
Highlights the "parent" disk or folder of whatever you've got highlighted. |
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Ctrl+Z |
Undoes whatever you just did in this Explorer window. |
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A, B, C… |
Highlights the first visible file or folder in the left-pane hierarchy that matches the letter you typed. Type the same letter again to highlight the next matching icon. |
You can also press the letter keys to highlight a folder or file that begins with that letter, or the up and down arrow keys to "walk" up and down the list.
As shown by the D: drive in Figure 5-2, clicking the + button to expand a folder gives you a new indented list of folders inside it. If you expand folders within folders to a deep enough level, the indentation may push the folder names so far to the right that you can't read them. You can remedy this problem with any of the following actions:
Adjust the relative sizes of the window halves by dragging the vertical bar between them.
Position your mouse pointer over a folder whose name is being chopped off. A tooltip appears to display the full name of the folder.
Use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the left pane to shift the contents.