Creating Your Own Folders
You can create your own folders at any time. For example, if you have many files in your Documents folder or some other folder, you may want to start organizing into subfolders within your Documents folder. You can create as many folders as you like and name them anything you find useful - for example, Monthly Reports or Family History Research. You can move or save any files into any folder you create.
The main trick when creating your own folders is to put them where they make the most sense. Any folder you create is a subfolder of some other folder. The first thing to do is get to that parent folder - the folder in which your new custom folder will be stored. If you're unsure where to create folders, here are some suggestions:
- If you're creating a subfolder to organize pictures, use your Pictures folder as the parent folder.
- If you're creating a subfolder to organize songs, use your Music folder as the parent folder.
- If you're creating a subfolder to organize videos, use your Videos folder as the parent folder.
- If you're creating a subfolder to organize some other type of files, use your Documents folder as the parent folder.
You can create a folder anywhere you like. For example, you can create a folder on a flash drive, memory card, or external hard drive. In those cases, the disk that is currently in the drive is like the parent folder. Make sure you put a disk in the drive before you perform the following steps:
Caution
You can create folders on CDs and DVDs as well, but not necessarily by following the steps here. You must create the folders first in File Explorer, and then when you copy those files to the CD or DVD, Windows 10 duplicates your file and folder structure on the disk.
- In File Explorer, open the parent folder for the folder you're about to create. Or open the This PC folder and then open the icon for the disk drive on which you want to create a folder.
- Do whichever of the following is easiest for you:
- Select the Home tab and click New Folder.
- Right-click an empty space below or to the right of icons in the current folder and choose New Folder.
- Type a name of your own choosing and press Enter.
The new folder appears with the name you specified. When you double-click its icon to open it, you'll find it's empty. That's because it's brand new and you haven't put anything in it yet. (Click the Back button or press Backspace to leave the folder.)
Tip:
If you're not happy with the name you gave to a folder, right-click its icon and choose Rename. Then type the new name or edit the existing name and press Enter.
You can save new files to the folder just by opening the folder from the Save dialog box.
Creating folders on the fly while saving
Sometimes you're in the middle of saving a file and suddenly think, "I should have created a new folder for this file and others like it." You don't have to cancel out of the current save operation to create a folder. Instead, navigate to the folder that will act as the parent to the new folder you want to create.
If you're using a Windows 10-style Save dialog box, right-click in the file list area of the dialog box and choose New → Folder. Or click the New Folder button on the Save As dialog box. If you're using an older-style Save dialog box, point to each toolbar button until you find the one that lets you create a new folder at the bottom of that same figure, and click it. A new empty folder appears in the main pane at the center of the dialog box. Type in a new name of your own choosing and press Enter.
Double-click the new folder's icon in the main pane of the Save As dialog box so that the name appears at the end of the Address bar or in the Save In box. Then click the Save button in the dialog box. Your file is saved in that new folder.
Personalizing your folder
You can customize a folder in several ways. Unlike the Folder Options described earlier, which apply to all folders, these settings apply to only one folder - the one whose icon you right-click to specify your settings. To get started on customization, first right-click the icon you want to customize and choose Properties. In the Properties dialog box that opens, select the Customize tab to see the options.
Tip:
You can't access the Customize tab when working from a Windows 10 library. For example, if you create a folder in your Documents folder and then open its properties, the Customize tab will be missing. However, you can open C:\Users\YourAccount\Documents, where YourAccount is your Windows account name, and then right-click the folder you want to customize and choose Properties.
Specify a folder type
All folders have a default view that defines which tools appear in the toolbar and how icons look when you first open the folder. To define a default view, click the button under "What kind of folder do you want?" and choose from the menu. But in general, you should choose an option that reflects the type of items that the folder will contain:
- General Items:
Use this option if the folder will contain multiple file types and subfolders. - Documents:
Use this type if the folder will contain mostly non-media document files (text, spreadsheets, or database data). - Pictures:
Use this if the folder will contain pictures. - Music:
Use this if the folder will contain mostly albums or other subfolders that contain songs. - Videos:
Use this if the folder will contain mostly video files.
If you want your selection to be applied to subfolders within the folder, choose Also Apply This Template to All Subfolders.
Note:
If you chose Remember Each Folder's View Settings in the Folder Options dialog box, the view you were using when you left the folder overrides the default view.
Folder pictures
Folder icons look like partially opened manila file folders because, like real-world manila file folders, computer folders are containers in which you store files (such as written documents, pictures, songs, or videos). Items listed in the folder represent files that are in the folder.
If you don't like the icon that a folder icon shows, you can change it to a picture. Click the Choose File button on the Customize tab and click the file you want the folder icon to show.
Tip:
If you can't use a particular file as a custom folder icon image because the file isn't the right type, you can take a screenshot of the open file you want to use. Save the screenshot as a JPEG file. Then use the JPEG as the folder's picture.
If you ever change your mind and want to go back to the original, click the Restore Default button in the properties sheet.
Changing a folder's icon
You can choose an entirely different icon for a folder. You'll likely lose the open folder effect you normally see in folder icons, so consider changing the folder's picture rather than its icon. But if you really want to change the folder's icon to something else, just click the Change Icon button. Click the icon you want to use, or use the Browse button to browse to any location that contains icon (.ico) files, and choose an icon there.
If you change the icon and then change your mind, click the Change Icon button again and click Restore Default. Don't forget to click OK or Apply after changing any settings in any dialog boxes. Your changes don't take effect until you do.
If your changes don't take effect immediately, refresh the folder. (Right-click an empty space in the folder and choose Refresh or press F5.)
Read-Only, Hidden, and Advanced attributes
When you right-click a folder icon (or file icon) and choose Properties, the General tab of the Properties dialog box shows the options. The Read-Only and Hidden options often confuse folks, so let's take a moment to discuss what those are about.
The General tab of a folder's Properties.
The Read-Only attribute can be one of the following:
- Empty:
The contents of the folder can be read (viewed and opened) by everyone who has access to the folder. - Black Square:
The contents can be read and written to (changed) by the owner of the folder (the person who created the folder). Other users with whom the folder is shared can view the contents of the folder but not change its contents. - Checked:
Everyone can view the contents of the folder, but nobody (not even the owner) can change the folder's contents.
The Hidden attribute, if checked, makes the folder's icon invisible in the folder if the Do Not Show Hidden Files and Folders option in Folder Options is selected. The folder's icon is dimmed if Show Hidden Files and Folders is selected in Folder Options.
Clicking the Advanced button on the General tab reveals the options.
The Folder Is Ready for Archiving check box is handled automatically by Windows File History (the backup feature of Windows 10), so it's unlikely you'd ever need to change that. The check box is selected if you've never backed up the folder (or file) or if its contents have changed since the last backup; that tells Windows File History to back it up again the next time you do a backup. The check box is empty if the contents of the folder or file haven't changed since the last backup; that tells Windows File History not to bother backing it up again.
The Allow Files in This Folder to Have Contents Indexed in Addition to File Properties check box, if selected, allows Windows to index the contents of files in the folder, as well as the file properties. For example, if the folder contains Microsoft Word documents, Windows indexes the contents of those documents, enabling you to search for and locate files based on words or phrases inside the documents.
The other two options in the dialog box deserve some special attention and are described next.
Compress Contents to Save Disk Space
Choosing this option tells Windows to compress everything in the folder to reduce its disk space consumption. (This works only on hard disks that use the NTFS file system.) When you open a file from the folder, it's automatically decompressed for you. So, you don't have to continually compress and decompress files yourself.
Caution
This option has nothing to do with Zip files (also called compressed folders). If your goal is to email someone a Zip file, this option doesn't help. Right-click a file (or selection of files) and choose Send To - Compressed (Zipped) Folder to create a compressed file of your selected files.
Folder and file compression is a good way to conserve disk space. But before you start compressing folders, consider some costs. The first is a time cost. Automatically compressing every file you save and automatically decompressing every file you open takes time. Furthermore, many file types already have a degree of compression built into them. Putting such files into a compressed folder may have little or no effect on the amount of disk space they consume.
On today's computers, the amount of time you need to compress and decompress a file on the fly is negligible. So, you can generally compress folders without worrying about a performance impact. However, you generally should not compress all of drive C:. Instead, compress only those folders where you store lots of documents that are taking up lots of space. If you want to turn off compression for a folder, clear the check box beside the Compress Contents to Save Disk Space option.
Encrypt Contents to Secure Data
This check box enables you to apply Encrypting File System (EFS) to the folder. EFS encrypts the contents of the folder (or a single file) to make it almost impossible to open without logging in to the computer using the account that encrypted it. EFS is not the most complete form of encryption available for PCs, but it is nevertheless an effective tool for securing data.
Note:
Companies that are concerned about data being compromised when computers are stolen often use whole-disk encryption to encrypt the computer's entire disk drive. This encryption is applied at the lowest level of the hard disk, making it nearly impossible to decrypt the contents of the computer. EFS in Windows does not provide this type of whole-disk encryption, although you can encrypt an entire disk if you want to. In reality, whole-disk encryption should be called whole-system encryption when the system is encrypted below the operating system.
First, understand that anyone who has access to your user account also has access to files in your encrypted folders. Therefore, using EFS serves no purpose if your user account isn't password protected.
If you forget the password to your user account, you lose access to all files in the encrypted folders. To play it safe, make a backup copy of your encryption key, preferably on a CD that cannot be overwritten or other disk where it can't be erased. Store that disk in a safe place, preferably in a fireproof safe.
The act of encrypting a folder is easy. Just select (check) the Encrypt Contents to Secure Data check box.
After you've encrypted a folder, you don't have to do anything else to secure its contents. When you save a file to that folder, or move a file into that folder, its contents are encrypted automatically. When you open a file, the contents are decrypted. So, working with the files in the encrypted folder is like working with any other files in any other folder.
If someone tries to open a file in the encrypted folder from another user account, he or she is denied access to the file.
Note:
For more information on encryption and backing up keys, search Windows Help for "EFS" or "certificate backup."
After all this talk of creating folders, you may be wondering how to get some of your existing files into one.
