Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Selecting files and folders

To select files and folders so you can do stuff to them - stuff like copy, move, open, or print - select the file or folder icons (the small pictures identifying the folder or file). Most of the time, you click the file and folder icons in the windows to select them. Windows 7 lets you know when an icon is selected by highlighting it in a different color (normally, a light blue unless you change the Windows appearance settings).

Remember If you change the click options in the Folder Options dialog box so that singleclicking opens an item (see "Changing how you select and open items" earlier in this part for details), remember that instead of clicking a folder or file icon to select it (which succeeds only in opening the item), you just hover the mouse pointer over it.

When you need to select more than one file or folder in a window, you have a choice of things to do:

• To select all the items in an Explorer window (including all drive, file, and folder icons located within it), press Ctrl+A or click the Organize button on the window's toolbar and then choose Select All from its drop-down menu.
  If the Classic menus are displayed in the Explorer window, you can also choose Edit → Select All on the window menu bar. If not, press Alt+EA.
• To select multiple folder or file icons that are located all over the place in the window, hold down the Ctrl key as you click each folder or file icon. (The Ctrl key adds individual icons to the selection.) If you use single-clicking to open items, you need to hover over each item as you hold down the Ctrl key (no easy feat).
• To select a series of folder or file icons that are all next to each other in the window, click the first one in the series and then hold the Shift key as you click the last icon in the series. (The Shift key adds all the icons in between the first and last one you click to the selection.) If you use single-clicking to open items, you need to hover over the first item until it's selected and then hold the Shift key as you hover over the last icon in the series. (If you think pressing Ctrl and hovering is hard, wait till you try pressing Shift and hovering.)
• If the Classic menus are displayed, you can reverse the icon selection in a window so that all the icons that aren't currently selected become selected, and all those that are currently selected become deselected by choosing Edit → Invert Selection. If not, you can press Alt+EI.

Tip Note that the Invert Selection menu command is really useful when you want to select all but a few folders or files in a window: First, use one of the aforementioned methods to select the icons of the files you do not want selected; then choose Edit → Invert Selection (Alt+EI). All the files in the window are selected except for those few you selected in the first place.