Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Understanding Files, Folders, and Libraries

Files associated with programs and tools, as well as the files you create to contain your information, are stored in a hierarchical structure of folders on hard disk drives and other storage devices (such as CDs, DVDs, or USB flash drives). You can look at a representation of this storage structure by displaying the contents of the available drives in Windows Explorer.

Tip This graphic displays the contents of the Downloads folder in Details view. You change the way folders and files are depicted in the Content pane by selecting a view from the Views list.

Each drive is identified by a letter, and in some cases by a description. Your computer's primary hard drive (the one where the operating system is installed) is almost always identified by the letter C. (By tradition, the letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives, which have been superseded by higher-capacity storage media and seem to be becoming quite rare.) If your computer has additional hard drives, they are assigned the next sequential letters, followed by any removable media drives.

Tip You can't assign a specific drive letter to a local drive in Windows Explorer, but you can name each drive. You can assign a letter to a local drive in the Disk Management console, and you can assign a drive letter to a shared network folder or drive when you connect to it.

In Windows Explorer, you can display a collection of related files and folders in a library. Libraries are virtual folders that aren't physically present on the hard disk but that display the contents of multiple folders as though the files were stored together in one location. The top-level view of a library displays the files and folders stored at the top level, called the root, of all the folders included in the library.

The Documents library displays all the folders that are included in your personal Documents folder and the public Documents folder, as well as the files and folders stored in the root of those folders.

The default Windows 7 installation includes four standard libraries-Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos. Each of these libraries includes your corresponding personal folder and the corresponding public folder. In addition to the standard libraries, you can create your own libraries, and a folder can belong to more than one library. For example, suppose you are working on a Fall Promotion project for a client, Contoso Pharmaceuticals. If you create one library that displays all the folders of your current projects and another library that displays all the folders associated with Contoso, you can include the Fall Promotion folder in both libraries.

File Types

There are many different types of files, but they all fall into these two basic categories:

• Files used or created by programs These include executable files and dynamiclink libraries (DLLs). Some of these files may be hidden (not shown in a standard folder window view) to protect them from being inadvertently changed or deleted.
  Tip When files are hidden you can't select or delete them, or delete the folder structure they're stored in; a folder might appear empty, but if it contains one or more hidden files, you cannot delete it. You can choose to display and work with hidden files, folders, and drives by clicking that option in the Folder Options dialog box.
• Files created by you These include documents, worksheets, graphics, text files, presentations, audio clips, video clips, and other things that you can open, look at, and change by using one or more programs.

The files installed with a program and those it creates for its own use are organized the way the program expects to find them, and you shouldn't move or remove them. However, you have complete control of the organization of the files you create (such as documents and worksheets), and knowing how to manage these files is essential if you want to be able to use your computer efficiently.