By Len Nasman, Bristol Village Computer Club Understanding Windows 7 Explorer is key to taking control of your computer. If you have ever created a file and later had a hard time finding it, or if you have downloaded picture files and want to organize them into a manageable system, Windows 7 Explorer will help. If you want to transfer files to or from flash drives or an external hard drives, Windows 7 Explorer can make the job easy. Just as Microsoft Internet Explorer provides a method of accessing the Internet in an organized fashion, Windows 7 Explorer provides a method of examining and organizing your files. This tutorial is designed to provide the basic information needed to take control of your computer files through the use of Windows 7 Explorer. Computer Files Did you know that nearly every bit of information in your computer is organized into files? The programs that run applications are stored in files. Applications are computer programs that allow you to do word processing, enhance pictures, read and write email, explore the Internet, or do anything at all with your computer. The data used to show the contents of an email message or a picture is stored in files. When you open an email message from someone, the message is copied from a file somewhere in the world to a file in your electronic mailbox. If you want to be in control of your computer, you have to learn about the computer filing system. Inside a hard drive Computer files are stored on disk drives. Disk drives take the form of hard drives, CD and DVD drives, flash drives, and, in the old days, floppy disk drives. The main storage location for computer files are hard drives, and the main hard drive in a Windows computer is identified as C:. It might help understand how computer files are organized by thinking of using electronic file cabinets. The different disk drives in the computer are kind of like different file cabinets. Each file cabinet can have several drawers, and each drawer can contain file folders where documents (or files) are stored. Also, just like it is possible to place several folders inside of a larger folder in a file cabinet drawer, you can have folders inside of folders on a disk drive. In the electronic computer file cabinet, each disk drive can be organized into folders, and a folder can contain one or more files. It is also possible to have a folder inside another folder that is inside another folder and so on. The tool that can be used to visualize how these electronic files are organized, and the tool that gives you control over all of these disk drives, folders, and files is Windows 7 Explorer. Each computer file has a particular format, or method of organizing the bits of data that make the file. When an application program (like a word processor or a graphics program) saves a file, it organizes the data in a manner specific to that program. Data is organized differently in text documents than it is in picture or graphics files. To tell one type of file format from another, a three letter extender is added to the end of the file name. For example, if you save a document using a word processing program and name the document mine, the name of the file that is saved might be mine.doc. If you create a picture using a paint program and name the picture mine, the file that is saved might be mine.jpg. When you want to retrieve your document or picture, Windows can tell from the three letter file name extension what program to use to open the file. Page 1
The Windows Desktop is the name for the computer screen. The Desktop display will contain a number of icons and has a horizontal area across the bottom of the display know as the Taskbar. Opening Windows 7 Explorer NOTE: In this document, select means to position the mouse pointer on an object and then click the left mouse button once. Now it is time for you to start exploring the features of Windows 7 Explorer. Each time you see a paragraph that starts with a check mark and is highlighted in green, you should follow the instructions. Open Windows 7 Explorer Method 1 Open Windows 7 Explorer by selecting the Taskbar icon. Open Windows 7 Explorer Method 2 Open Windows 7 Explorer by holding the Windows Key down and, while holding the Windows Key down, press the E key. The above methods result in the same thing, the Windows 7 Explorer will be open on your display. When Windows 7 Explorer is open, its window can have a variety of appearances, but will always have several common characteristics. Please review the different parts of the Windows 7 Explorer display. The Navigation pane, 1, shows a list of available drives and folders. It also shows Favorites and Libraries. Favorites and Libraries are actually shortcuts to files and folders that are on a hard drive. As you navigate around, the Back and Forward buttons, 2, allow you to revisit your displays. The Toolbar, 3, in Windows 7 Explorer is a little different from other toolbars in that it contains words rather than tool icons. The Address bar,4, keeps track of the path you followed to get to the current location. The Library pane,5, appears when a library icon is selected in the navigation pane and shows the contents of the current selected library. Page 2
Opening Windows 7 Explorer When you select a folder in the navigation pane, Column headings,6, show information about the contents. The column headings can be changed and rearranged by the user. The File list,7, shows the contents of the current selection. This list can show folders as well as files. The search box,8, provides a way to search for folders and files by entering key words. Open Windows 7 Explorer using one of the methods above. The Windows Explorer dialog box provides a number of different viewing options. To have your system look like the illustrations in this document, do the following: With the Windows Explorer dialog box open, select the Organize tool from the Toolbar. From the Organizer drop down list, toggle the Menubar, Details pane, Preview pane, and Navigation pane options ON. From the Menubar, select View and toggle the Status bar ON. By completing the previous steps, your display should look similar to the illustrations. Now we can continue reviewing the Windows Explorer dialog box. Page 3
Expanding Listings Observe that there is a small expand tool to the left of each item in the navigation pane, Clicking on this tool will expand or collapse the entry. Try it. With Windows 7 Explorer open, select the expansion arrows beside Favorites and Libraries to shrink the listings. With Windows 7 Explorer open, select the expansion arrow beside Local Disk C: to expand the entry. The illustration shows the Computer, Local Disk (C:) entry has been expanded. The computer shown in the illustration has 4 hard drives and 6 removable drives available. Observe that each drive has a name and an associated drive letter. Drive letters are assigned by the system. If you insert a flash drive, or other removable drive, Windows will assign a new drive letter and add it to the list. The illustration uses the Small icons display option. This option can be selected from the Menubar, View pop down list. Page 4
Expanding Listings Local Disk (C:) has been selected in the File List area. Observe that the Status Bar shows the size and available space of drive C: Windows assigns drive letters, but the user can change the name of drives. Later in this document you will learn how to rename drives. The next illustration shows that Local Disk (C:) has been expanded and the Install Stuff folder has been selected in the File List area. Changing the File List Display There are several ways to display the contents shown in the File list area. Which of these you will want to use will depend on what you are working on. If you are searching for pictures or graphic images, the Icons option are handy. If you are searching for files, the Details option is better. Here is how to change the display. With Windows 7 Explorer open, select the expand tool beside drive C: to expand the entry. Observe that the Display Options tool has a small arrow on the right side. When the small arrow is selected, a pop down menu will provide several styles for displaying the contents of a drive or folder. The available styles are: Extra Large Icons, Large Icons, Medium Icons, Small Icons, List, Details, Tiles, and Content. These styles are also available by selecting the View option on the Menubar. Page 5
Select the More Options arrow and then select a style. You can also change the File List display style by using the Menubar, View tool. From the Menubar, select View and then select a File list style. Observe that in the illustration the View, Details option has been selected. Also observe that the Status bar provides a description of the Details viewing option. This is a good time to review the different viewing options by moving the cursor over the different options and making note of the Status bar description of each option. From the Menubar, select View, move the cursor over each option, and review the Status bar descriptions. Windows Explorer Display Examples. Following are illustrations where a folder named LibreOffice Writer 5 has been selected, and the Details list style is in use. The Name, Date Modified, Type,, and Size list headings are shown. In this illustration the Directory Path, or location, of the files is shown in the Address bar. The documents are in a folder named LibreOffice Writer 5. That folder Page 6
Windows Explorer Display Examples. is in a folder named Tutorials, which is stored in the disk drive named LEN8A (M:) on the example computer. If you look closely at the View Area of the Details display style, you can see a small icon (or picture) on the left side of each entry. The icon graphically shows what program is associated with each file. Once you recognize the different icons, you will know what program will automatically open the file if you double click on an entry. The Details display style example has another feature worth learning about. Observe the column headings of the File list Area in the Details display style example. The column headings are: Name, Date Modified, Type, and Size. As with many Windows programs, if you click on the Name heading, the entries will be sorted alphabetically. If you click on the heading again, the entries will be sorted in reverse order. The same is true for the other column headings. This trick can be very helpful when searching for or organizing files. The next illustration shows the same Directory Path, but the Large Icon list display style is used. The list display style can be changed to suit the application. When you are looking for images or pictures, the large or extra large style is handy. However, when you are looking for a file by name or date, the Details style is better. Now you should experiment. Since I do not know exactly what folders might be on your computer, you will have to decide what to explore. WARNING: Drag and Drop is a technique some folks use to move folders or files around. If you left click and hold the mouse button down on an entry and then move the mouse (when the left button is still down) you can accidentally move a file or folder to a new location. This is one way to lose track of where things are. Be careful to hold the mouse steady when you are selecting things. Avoid doing 'drag and drop' to move things. With Windows 7 Explorer open, select the expand tool to the left of Local Disk (C:) to expand the entries. Find a folder with an expand tool on the left and select it to expand that folder. Experiment with the different Display styles (Extra Large Icons, Large Icons, Medium Icons, Small Icons, List, Details, Tiles, and Content) and observe the display differences. Page 7
Display File Extensions Understanding the different types of files requires that you know about file extension for files. For some reason in Windows, Microsoft decided that users did not need to know about file extensions and chose to hide the file name extension in the default Windows 7 Explorer settings. Since I consider this to be important information, I will show how to turn the display of file name extensions on. With Windows 7 Explorer open, from the Menubar select View, Details. With Windows 7 Explorer open, from the Menubar select Tools, Folder Options. Select the Folder Options General tab. Review the General options. Next, we will be sure the Hide extensions for known file types is off. Select the Folder Options View tab and, toggle the check marks as shown. Toggle the Hide extensions for known file types option OFF. With the Folder Options View tab selected, click the Apply to All Folders button. Click the Yes button in the Folder Views pop up box. Then select the Apply button. With the Folder Options Search tab selected, observe the various options. Then select the OK button. Creating New Folders Windows 7 Explorer provides options for creating new folders and copying and pasting files and folders from one location to another. When Windows was originally installed on your computer, a number of folders were automatically created. Also, the installation of most programs results in the creation of more folders. Folders created or used by applications programs are referred to as default folders. That is; when you save a file from one of these programs it will be placed in the default folder for that program (unless you take control and specify your own folder). With Windows 7 Explorer open, select the expand tool to the left of Local Disk (C:) to expand the entries. Scroll down the list of entries and expand the folder named Users. Page 8
Creating New Folders Expand the user folder and then expand the folder with your name on it. (This assumes that your computer has been identified with your name during the Windows install process.) In the user folder, expand the My Documents folder. The My Documents folder contains folders that were created by installing Windows and other programs. Observe that just below Desktop entry in the Windows 7 Explorer there is another My Documents entry. This is actually a shortcut to the user My Documents folder. If your computer was set to have more than one user log on, each user will have a folder in the Users folder. If you have more than one user log on, each user will have their own folder named My Documents. Since the computer knows who is logged on, it knows which My Documents folder to use as the default for each user. The illustration shows that the user named Len has folders that were installed in the My Documents folder by programs like Audacity and Calibre Library. The Address bar in the illustration shows the Path to the selected folder. Creating New Folders You can create and name a new folder and place it anywhere you would like within the electronic computer filing system. Here is how to create a new folder. First, open Windows 7 Explorer. In this exercise, the new folder will be located in the main directory of the hard drive. Page 9
Select (highlight) the location C: for the new folder. Check the Address bar to confirm that drive C: is selected. Select New Folder, from the Toolbar. When you select the New Folder tool, the default new folder name will be New Folder and it will be highlighted. To change the name of the new folder, type the new name without clicking the mouse cursor anywhere. Remember, you can always right-click on a folder name and select Rename from the context menu. Type A Practice Folder as the new folder name. Select A Practice Folder, and set the list style to Details. If you want to change or edit a folder name, right click on the folder and select Rename from the pop up context menu. The A Practice Folder should now be near the top of the drive C: list. Remember that the Details list style allows you to sort the name column forward or reverse by selecting the Name column heading. Page 10
Creating New Folders Using A Folder To Store Documents OK, you have created a new folder. How can you put documents in it? We will use a program called Word Pad, that comes with Windows, for this exercise. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, Word Pad. Type something silly in Word Pad. In Word Pad, select the arrow on the right side of the tool in the upper left corner of the display to open the options menu. Hover the mouse cursor over the Save As option, then select Rich Text Document. You can use the arrow key in the Address Bar area, or select an Address Bar entry, to change to a different folder. Adjust the Address Path so that A Practice Folder is selected, then enter a silly document file name and select the Save button. Use Windows Explorer to verify that your new file is in the A Practice Folder. Page 11
The Save As dialog box looks similar to the dialog box used by Windows 7 Explorer. Many Windows programs use the same standard Save As dialog box. So, this exercise has demonstrated how to use the Save As process with other software. Creating New Folders As You Work Perhaps you will find yourself in the middle of creating a new document and have not already prepared a new folder to use with the Save As option. Fear not! You can create new folders just when you need them. If you look at the Save As dialog box example, you will see that the New Folder option is available. Next, a new folder named Another Practice Folder will be created directly from the Save As dialog box. Keep in mind that a new folder will be created In the currently active folder. If in the next steps A Practice Folder appears in the Save In text box when a new folder is created. the new folder will be in side the A Practice Folder. Open Word Pad and type some new text. In Word Pad, select the arrow on the right side of the tool in the upper left corner of the display to open the options menu. Hover the mouse cursor over the Save As option, then select Rich Text Document. Verify that A Practice Folder has been selected. From the toolbar in the Save As dialog box, select New Folder. Name the new folder Another Practice Folder. Double click on the Another Practice Folder to make it active. Enter Another Practice Document as the file name and then select the Save button. When you use the New Folder tool, the new folder will be created in the current location. Be sure to check the Address bar before you create a new folder. Windows 7 Explorer provides several folder management options. When you right click on an entry, a context menu pops open that provides a list of options. Page 12
Creating New Folders As You Work Open Windows 7 Explorer. Adjust the Address bar to show Another Practice Folder. Right click on the Another Practice Document entry. This opens a pop up context menu. The context menu includes options to rename, delete, or copy files (or folders). Use Windows 7 Explorer To Copy Files Here is an example process for copying a folder (with files) to a flash drive, or an external disk drive. Open Windows 7 Explorer. Navigate to A Practice Folder and right click on it. From the Context menu, select Copy. Navigate to a flash drive, memory card, external drive, or different system hard drive. Right click on the desired location and select Paste from the Context menu. You can use the same procedure to copy folders and/or files from one place on any drive to a different place on that drive, or to any location on any other drive. This gives you the power to organize your files any way you like. Page 13
Adjusting The Windows 7 Explorer Display Earlier, you saw how to change how folders and files are displayed in Windows 7 Explorer. In this section, you will see how to change display column contents and sizes. Open Windows 7 Explorer. Expand the Libraries folder and then expand Pictures, Public Pictures, Sample Pictures. From the Menubar, select View, Details. Your display should look similar to the one shown here. Next, we will practice copying files to a new folder. Left click on the first picture file in the list. Hold the Shift key down and then left click on the last file on the list. This should highlight the files from the first selection to the last selection. The next step shows how to select or deselect files Hold the Ctrl key down and then left click on the Koala file. When you hold the Ctrl key down, you can toggle the selection of a particular file on and off. Next, the files will be copied to the clipboard. Right click on one of the selected files and then select Copy from the Context menu. Use Windows 7 Explorer to navigate to the C: drive. With the C: drive highlighted, select New Folder from the Toolbar. Name the new folder A Practice Picture Folder. Right click on A Practice Picture Folder and select Paste from the Context menu. Change the display style to Large Icons. Page 14
Adjusting The Windows 7 Explorer Display When the Preview Panel is turned on, the size of the panel can be adjusted by moving the mouse cursor to the edge of the panel (where the cursor will turn into a double arrow) and dragging the panel edge. The selected entry will appear in the Preview Panel. Toggle the Preview Panel on. Drag the border of the Preview Panel to a new location. The Large Icon display option works very well for pictures. However, when you are more interested in file information, the Details display option is useful. Change the display style to Details. Observe that the Preview Panel still shows a graphic image of the selected entry. Since we want to view more information about the files, the Preview Panel will be toggled off. Toggle the Preview Panel off. Observe the column headings. Recall that you can sort any column in ascending or descending order by clicking on the column heading. Try it. Click on the Name column heading and check the column list. Then click the Name heading again and observe the result. The column headings can be turned on or off. Right click in the columns heading row and observe the pop up context menu. You can toggle any of the items on the context menu list on or off. You can also change the order of columns by dragging a column heading horizon- Page 15
tally to a new location. The column width can be adjusted the same way the Preview Panel width was adjusted. The illustration shows that the columns have been rearranged and the entries have been sorted by Size. If you want to remove the practice files and folders created for this tutorial, right click on them in Windows 7 Explorer and select Delete from the Context menu. What About Libraries? Windows 7 introduced the concept of Libraries. If you open Windows 7 Explorer and expand the Libraries entry, you will see a list that includes Documents, Music, New Pictures, and Videos. These folders are automatically installed with Windows. They contain shortcuts to files that can be anywhere on your system. A Picture entry, for example, might be in a folder on drive C: or it might be on some other drive in the system. The problem I have with this is that if I want to move my picture files from one place to another, I want to move the actual files, not shortcuts to files. Therefore, I avoid the use of Libraries and create my own folders in locations I control to store my files. This version was created August 23, 2017 Page 16