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.
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 tutorial'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.
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.
When that message appears, choose it with a click of the mouse. A second message appears, 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 and asks you to plot the future course.
Tip:
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.
Remember:
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.
A path is merely the file's address, similar to your own. When a letter is mailed to your house, for example, it travels to your country, state, city, street, and (with any luck) your apartment or house. A computer path does the same thing. It starts with the letter of the disk drive and ends with the file's name. In between, the path lists all the folders the computer must travel through to reach the file.
For example, look at the Downloads folder. For Windows to find a file stored in my Downloads folder, it starts from the computer's C: drive, travels through the Users folder, and then goes through the Andy folder. From there, it goes into the Andy folder's Downloads folder. (Internet Explorer follows that path when saving your downloaded files.)
Take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Now add in the computer's ugly grammar: In a path, the Windows disk drive letter is referred to as C:\. The disk drive letter and colon make up the first part of the path. All the other folders are inside the big C: folder, so they're listed after the C: part. Windows separates these nested folders with something called a backslash, or \. The downloaded file's name - Tax Form 3890, for example - comes last.
Put it all together, and you get C:\Users\Andy\Downloads\Tax Form 3890. That's my computer's official path to the Tax Form 3890 file in Andy's Downloads folder. Of course, on your computer, you can substitute your own username for Andy. (Microsoft account usernames usually start with the first few letters of the linked Microsoft account e-mail address.)
This stuff can be tricky, so here it is again: The letter for the drive comes first, followed by a colon and a backslash. Then come the names of all the folders leading to the file, separated by backslashes. Last comes the name of the file itself.
Windows automatically puts together the path for you when you click folders - thankfully. But whenever you click the Browse button to look for a file, you're navigating through folders and traversing along the path leading to the file.
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.
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, 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.
- 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. 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.
