How to Explore and Customize Your Computer

To accomplish a task in windows, you need to interact with a folder or a file. A file is a named collection of some information such as a program, a set of data used by a program or a user crated document. A folder is a container that contains other files or folders. It is shown in windows as an icon displaying a file folder. Folders are a means of organizing files and folders on a disk.

Microsoft Windows Explorer is a program that enables you to view and manage the folders and folders on your computer. If your machine is a part of a group of computers of network, you can also connect to resources that are shared over tae network from the Windows Explorer. To open the Windows Explorer click Start => All Programs => Accessories => Windows Explorer. The following figure shows the Windows Explorer window.

As can be observed from the figure, the window consists of :

v  Folders Pane

v  Contents Pane

v  Toolbar

Folders Pane

The Folder pane displays all the folders in a hierarchical structure as shown in the above figure. A plus sing (+) icon attached to a folder icon is an indication that the folder contains other levels of folders. If you click on the plus sign, the folder tree will expand to show other folders in the hierarchy and the plus sigh will change to a minus sing.

Some of the main folders that appear in this pane are:

v  My Documents – This is your personal folder. It contains specialized personal folders like. My Pictures, My Videos and My Music. Windows XP creates personal folders for every user on the computer. When each their is more that one person using the computer, each personal folder is identified by the user’s name.

v  Shared Documents – Windows also provides  a Shared Documents folder for files you want to share with other users. The Shared Documents folder also contains Shared Pictures and Shared Music folders. These folders are for pictures and music you want to share with other people who use your computer.

v  My Network Places – This link can be used to view all the shared folders on your machine or on another machine.

Contents Pane

For each folder selected in the Folders pane, the contents pane displays the files and sub folders contained in it. For example, if the selected folder is Studentguide, the second panel will display the files and folders contained in that folder. The view of the contents pane can be modified bay selecting one of the following options from the view menu :

v  Title – This view displays the files and folders in the windows explorer as icons. The icons are larger than those on icon view.

v  Icons – This view displays your files and folders as icons. The file name is displayed under the icon.

v  List – This view displays the files and folders in a list. In the list, the names of the files are preceded by small icon depicting the type of file.

v  Details – This view list the contents of the open folder with detailed information about the files, including name, type, size, and date modified. This view also enables you to see the files and folders in groups

Note: The show in Groups option also changes the view of the folders. It is available in the submenu of Arrange Icons By of the view menu submenu, which enables you to group your files by any detail of the file, such as name, size, type, or date modified, This option is only enabled in the Titles, Icons and Details views.

Toolbar

The toolbar of the Explorer window displays buttons which act as shortcuts to menu items.

The toolbar contains following buttons:

Back

You can use this button to move from the current contents to those that were previously displayed. For example, if you are currently viewing the contents of the G:\WinXP folder and you move to view the E:\Stella folder, you can use the Back button to move back to the G:\WinXP folder. Thus, this option helps in quick navigation by remembering the relative path that you traverse in the folder hierarchy.

Forward

This button works similar to the Back button with the difference that is moves you to the next location in the traversal hierarchy.

Up

The Up button displays the contents of the folder that is one level above in the folder hierarchy.

Search

The Search button provides a shortcut to the Search Companion. Search Companion makes it easy to search for files folders, printers, people and other computers on your network and it’s a convenient starting point for searching for information on the internet. Search Companion also has an indexing service that maintains an index of all the files on your computer, thus quickening he search process.