WINDOWS EXPLORER BASICS

1
WINDOWS EXPLORER BASICS

• Prof. Yitzchak Rosenthal

2
Starting Windows Explorer

• To start windows explorer choose the following
  from the "start" menustart All Programs
  Accessories Windows Explorer
• You can also "right click" on the start menu
  button and choose "Explore"

3
Windows Explorer
4
Drives, folders and files

• Windows Explorer displays a hierarchy comprised
  of the following items under the "My Computer"
  icon
• disk drives
• folders
• files

5
Disk Drives

• Information on a computer is stored on one or
  more disk drives
• Each disk drive has a unique name that is
  comprised of a single letter followed by a colon.
  For example
• A
• C
• D
• F
• etc.
• Drive letter names are case-insensitive (i.e. a
  and A are the same thing)

6
standard drives

• On most Microsoft Windows computers
• A is generally the floppy disk drive
• C is generally a hard drive on the computer
• other letters refer to
• additional hard drives on the computer
• a CD-ROM, DVD or other type of drive on the
  computer
• a "networked" drive that is on another computer
  but is accessible from the current computer

7
Descriptive Names

• In addition to the drive letter, Windows Explorer
  also displays descriptive names for drives
• These names are NOT used much. You will usually
  use drive letters to identify a particular drive.
• In the screenshot at the right, the following
  descriptive names are used
• 3 ½ inch floppy for A (This is a
  description that Windows made up)
• "Local Disk" for C (This is also a description
  that Windows made up)
• "DISE_BACKUP" for D (This is a volume name.
  Volume names are assigned to a drive by the
  administrator of the machine. Each floppy disk,
  CDROM disc or DVD disc may have its own volume
  name that is displayed when the media is inserted
  into the drive. If a drive or disc was not given
  a volume name then windows makes up its own
  descriptive name to display in windows explorer.)

8
Hierarchy

• A disk drive contains many folders and files
• Each folder can contain both
• files
• other folders

9
Viewing the folder hierarchy

• The left hand pane shows the folder hierarchy.
  The currently selected folder is highlighted.by
  Windows Explorer

• The right hand pane shows the contents of the
  folder which is currently selected in the left
  hand pane. As you can see, the contents of a
  folder is other folders and files. If you click
  on a different folder on the left you will see
  the contents of that folder on the right.

These folders and files are stored in the folder
that is selected in the left hand pane (i.e.
NTFSDOS3)
The currently selected folder
10
Expand/Collapse View

• Expand or collapse the view of the hierarchy by
  clicking on the or sign icons next to folder
  names.
• Double click on a folder or drive to expand AND
  select it at the same time

Double-Click a collapsed folder or drive to
expand AND select it.
Click on to collapse
Click on to expand
11
Hierarchy - example

• The level of indentation indicates the position
  of a folder in the hierarchy
• From the snapshot we can get the following
  information
• these folders are contained in the toplevel of
  the hierarchy on the D drive
• otherStuff
• PQIMAGE
• these folders are stored in the "otherStuff"
  folder
• NTFS98RO
• NTFSDOS3
• Personal
• SAVE
• these files folders are stored in the NTFSDOS3
  folder
• files (to see files, refer to earlier slide)
  ntfsdos.exe, ntfshlp.vxd, readme.txt
• folders lowLevel
• these folders are contained in the "Personal"
  folder
• homework
• letters

(excerpt from picture on earlier slide)
12
Opening Files

• To open a file, double click on it.
• This will start the program that uses this file.

Double-click on the readme.txt file to start
the notepad program that is used to
create/modify it.
13
COPYING AND MOVING FILES FOLDERS
14
Copying vs. Moving a file or folder

• copying vs. moving
• Copying a file or folderWhen you copy a file
  or folder from one location (i.e. folder) to
  another you create a new copy of the item being
  copied (i.e. file or folder). When you are done,
  separate copies of the item exist in the original
  folder and the new folder.
• Moving a file or folderWhen you move a file or
  folder it is moved from one location (i.e.
  folder) to another. When you are done, there is
  only one copy of the item that was moved (i.e. in
  the new folder).

15
Copying with menu

1. Click on folder that contains item you want to
   copy
2. Right-click on a file or a folder
3. Choose copy from context sensitive menu.
4. Select folder where you want to place a copy.
5. Right click in empty space in the right hand pane
   
6. choose paste

16
Copying with hot keys (Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V)

• Same as with menu, but press hot keys instead
  of choosing from menus
• Click on folder that contains item you want to
  copy
• Click on a file or a folder
• Press Ctrl-C to copy the file
• Select folder where you want to place a copy.
• Press Ctrl-V to paste the file

17
Moving

• Same procedure as copying, except
• When using the menu method choose cut
  instead of copy from menu
• When using the hotkey method press Ctrl-X
  instead of Ctrl-C

18
Copying/Moving with drag drop

• How to Drag Drop
• Click on an item (i.e. file or folder) and drag
  it over the icon for a different folder.
• Let go of the mouse button.
• What will happen depends on if the two locations
  are one the same or different drives
• SAME DRIVE
• If the new folder is on the same drive as the
  original folder it will MOVE the file to the new
  folder (removing it from the original folder)
• Hold down Ctrl key while you drag drop to COPY
  the file instead of moving it. (Make sure to
  release the mouse button BEFORE you release the
  Ctrl key).
• DIFFERENT DRIVES
• If new folder is on a different drive than the
  original folder it will COPY the file to the new
  folder (leaving two copies, one in each folder)
• Hold down Shift key while you drag drop to MOVE
  the file instead of copy it. (Make sure to
  release the mouse button BEFORE you release the
  shift key).

19
Select Multiple Items (Shift-Click)

• To copy or move multiple items at the same time
  you must select them as a group.
• To select multiple files or folders
• click on the first one
• Hold down the shift key and click on the last one
  (dont let go of the shift key until you click
  on the 2nd item)
• all files/folders in between will be selected
• You can then copy or move all the selected items
  at once using any of the methods described above
  (i.e. menu, hot-key, dragdrop).

20
Select Multiple Items (Ctrl-Click)

• Press the Ctrl key while clicking an item to
  select or unselect individual items.
• This is different from the Shift-Click technique
  described on previous slide since Shift-Click
  selects ALL the items between the first and the
  last.
• You can use Shift-Click to select a whole range
  and then use Ctrl-Click to unselect the items you
  dont want in the selection.
• You can then copy or move all the selected items
  at once using any of the methods described above
  (i.e. menu, hot-key, dragdrop).

21
Renaming and deleteing files and folders
22
Renaming

• To rename a file or folder, right-click on the
  name in the right pane of windows explorer and
  choose rename.
• Then type in the new name and press ENTER.

23
Deleting

• To delete a file or folder
• right-click on the name in the right pane of
  windows explorer and choose delete. OR
• select it by clicking on it once in the right
  hand pane of windows explorer then ...
• Press the Delete key on the keyboard.

24
Shortcuts vs. Files
25
Creating a shortcut

• Press the Alt key while draggingdropping a file
  to create a shortcut to that file.
• While you dragdrop, the cursor will show an
  arrow next to it
• You can also create a shortcut by right-clicking
  in a blank area on the right side of Windows
  Explorer and choosing new shortcut from the
  menu.

26
Recognizing Shortcuts

• The new item will be a shortcut. To show it is
  a shortcut it will have an arrow next to its
  icon.

27
What is a shortcut

• A shortcut is a second name for an existing file.
• If you double-click on the shortcut you will see
  the original file.
• Any changes that you make to the file by either
  double-clicking on the original file name or the
  shortcut is actually being made to the SAME
  underlying file. You will see the new version
  when you open the file through either the
  original name or the shortcut.
• This is DIFFERENT than a copy. A copy creates a
  2nd copy of a file. Changes to one copy will NOT
  affect the other copy.

28
CHANGING THE VIEW
29
Changing the default view settings

• The contents of the right hand pane can be
  displayed using different views.
• Choose the view you want from the view menu.
• Each view displays the information in the right
  pane in a slightly different format

• 5 possible views
• Thumbnails
• Tiles
• Icons
• List
• Details
• Choose view you want.

30
Icon View
Icon view Icons display in right pane.
31
Details View
Details view Details display in right pane
(name, size, type, date modified)
32
Details View sorting, resizing columns

• Sorting Click on any column heading to sort by
  info from that column. Click twice to sort in
  opposite order. Use this to find big/small files
  or files that were recently modified or modified
  on a specific date
• Resize Column To make any column wider (or
  narrower), click on the column separator in the
  heading and drag it to the right or left. Double
  click the column separator to make the column
  exactly the right size.

To resize the column, click and drag (or double
click) the column separator
click here to sort by size
33
Data Size Units

• Common Sizes
• 1 Byte
• basic unit of size. Rough rule of thumb one byte
  can store one character. Maybe more or less
  depending on the file format.
• 1 KiloByte (KB)
• 1024 bytes
• Same as 210 bytes
• sometimes is approximated as one thousand bytes
• 1 MegaByte (MB)
• 1024 KB
• Same as 1,048,576 bytes
• Same as 220 bytes
• sometimes is approximated as one million bytes
• 1 GigaByte (GB)
• 1024 MB
• 1,073,741,824 bytes
• 230 bytes
• sometimes is approximated as one billion bytes

• Large Sizes
• 1 TeraByte (TB)
• 1024 GB
• 1,099,511,627,776 bytes
• 240 bytes
• sometimes is approximated as one trillion bytes
• 1 PetaByte (PB)
• 1024 TB
• 1,125,899,906,842,620 bytes
• 250 bytes
• sometimes is approximated as one quadrillion
  bytes
• 1 Exabyte (EB)
• 1024 PB
• 9,223,372,036,854,780,000 bytes
• 260 bytes
• sometimes is approximated as one quintillion
  bytes

34
Saving View Settings

• If you change the view settings then by default
  they will only apply to the current folder.
• To save the view settings for all folders do the
  following
• Choose the following menu choice
• tools folder options
• Press the "view" tab
• Press the "apply to all folders" button

35
Other Topics

• Other view settings
• filename extensions
• file names
• full path
• relative path
• compressed folders (i.e. .zip files)

36
APPENDICES
37
MORE ABOUT DISK DRIVES
38
Fixed drives vs Removable Media drives

• There are two types of drives
• Fixed Drives
• for example a hard drive
• Removable media drives
• for example a floppy disk drive, CDROM drive or
  DVD drive

39
Disk Drives and Media

• Examples of Disk Drives
• Hard Disk drive (fixed drive)
• Floppy disk drive (removable media drive)
• CDROM drive (removable media drive)
• DVD drive (removable media drive)
• Examples of Disk Drive Media
• floppy disk
• CDROM disc
• DVD disc