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| How To . . . Use Windows Explorer |
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System Exploration February 2001 • Vol.7 Issue 2 Page(s) 67-68 in print issue |
How To . . . Use Windows Explorer | ||
 HREF="/editorial/fullsize.asp?guid=&image=00487117.jpg&caption="> Windows Explorer has significantly evolved from its roots as the File Manager in the early versions of the Windows PC platform. The Windows Explorer component in Windows Me has included many of the features found in Microsoft Internet Explorer. To open Windows Explorer, click Start, Programs, Accessories, and Windows Explorer. You can also right-click Start and click Explore from the pop-up menu to launch Windows Explorer. To make it even easier to access, place a shortcut on your Desktop. Click Start, Programs, Accessories, highlight Windows Explorer, right-click it, and select Send To, Desktop.  The View. WinMe organizes your files and folders in a hierarchical structure on your hard drive (since Windows 95, Microsoft has used the term "folders" instead of the term "directories"). Windows Explorer presents a two-pane window of its structure as a "tree" consisting of folders and subfolders containing your files. The left pane is known as the Explorer Bar. By default, it's set as the Folders Bar, displaying the folders on your PC or LAN (local-area network). If you don't have the two-pane view, click View on the Windows Explorer menu bar, select Explorer Bar, and click Folders to activate the left pane. You also can change what displays in the Explorer Bar by selecting another option from the View menu. Click Search and the Explorer Bar turns into the Search Bar, a resource for scanning your PC (or LAN) for specific files and folders. You can even search for a file containing identifiable text. Click Favorites so that the Explorer Bar transforms the Favorites Bar, and you'll see an unmistakable resemblance to the IE browser interface. Click History to make the Explorer Bar a History Bar, and its resemblance to IE becomes even more apparent. The ability to change the Explorer Bar into its Search, Folders, and History counterparts is also available from the Standard Buttons toolbar (the main toolbar). For now, let's go back to the Folders Bar to tell you about what Windows Explorer can do.
By default, Windows Explorer does not show all the files on your PC. It doesn't show files with certain extensions, and it doesn't show the extensions of registered file types. An extension is the group of three or four letters that follow the period in a file name, such as Iceberg.jpg or Index.html. The file extensions help WinMe maintain associations between files and applications. To display all the files and file types, click Tools on the Windows Explorer menu bar, then click Folder Options. Select the View tab, click the Show Hidden Files And Folders option, and clear the checkbox next to Hide File Extensions For Known File Types by clicking it. Click OK. Working With Explorer. Using the two-pane view, you can use Windows Explorer to access, copy, delete, move, rename, run, or view the files and folders on your PC (click My Documents or My Computer), LAN (click My Network Places), and even the Internet. There might be two ways to initiate some of the commands for any given file: by right-clicking the file to display a pop-up menu or using the Standard Buttons toolbar. To display the Standard Buttons toolbar, click View, Toolbars, and Standard Buttons. When you hold the mouse pointer over a Standard Buttons icon for a short time, a pop-up flag will identify what the button does. If you want to activate the button labels, click View, Toolbars, and Customize. At the bottom of the resulting dialog box, click Show Text Labels from the drop-down list next to Text Options. Click Close. Accessing a file is as simple as double-clicking the file in the right pane. The application that it is associated with it will automatically launch, opening a window for you to work on the file. To copy a file, select the file in the right pane, hold down the right mouse button, drag the file to a folder in the left pane, and click Copy Here from the pop-up menu that appears. A second way to copy a file is to select the file, click the Copy To button from the Standard Buttons toolbar, and then select the target folder in the Browse For Folder dialog box that displays on-screen. Click OK. In the Browse For Folder dialog box you can also, if needed, click New Folder, type a name in the field provided, and the file you selected will be copied into the New Folder.
Moving a file is similar to copying. Select the file in the right pane, hold down the right mouse button, drag the file to a folder in the left pane, and click Move Here from the pop-up menu that appears. An alternative is to click the Move To button on the Standard Buttons toolbar after selecting the file, then select a target folder or create a New Folder in the Browse For Folder dialog box that displays, and click OK. If you want to delete a file, just right-click the file in the right pane and select Delete from the pop-up menu. Click Yes in the Confirm File Delete window, and WinMe will delete the file from the folder it was in. Another way is to click the Delete icon on the Standard Buttons toolbar after you highlight the file. This will also delete it from the folder. (Remember, in order to delete a file permanently, right-click the Recycle Bin on the Desktop, and select Empty Recycle Bin from the pop-up menu.) You can rename a file by right-clicking it in the right pane and selecting Rename from the pop-up menu. Next, type the new name and press ENTER. Click the Undo button on the Standard Buttons toolbar immediately afterward if you want to undo a Copy, Move, Delete, or Rename action. If you want to display preview images of files in a folder, click the folder to highlight it in the left pane and move the mouse pointer to a blank area in the right pane. Right-click, select View, and then click Thumbnails. Thumbnail images of each file in the folder will display in the right pane. Choosing the thumbnail option is particularly handy if you have folders containing several graphics. By using the same pop-up menu, you can also display files as Large Icons, Small Icons, a List, or with added Details (detailing a file's name, size, type, and date modified). Internet Interaction. On an Internet-connected PC, WinMe allows you to view Web pages through Windows Explorer due to the addition of its new features that integrate HTML-viewing capabilities. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the language, or code, used to write electronic documents that can display on the Internet and be viewed on a PC through a Web browser such as IE or Netscape Navigator (in the Netscape Communicator suite). To view a Web page, just type in a URL (universal resource locator; Web address) in the Address field, such as http://www.smartcomputing.com, press ENTER on your keyboard, and Windows Explorer will display the Web page in the right pane, while simultaneously reconfiguring itself with the IE interface. Also, whenever you're in the Windows Explorer mode and click the Search button on the Standard Buttons toolbar, the left pane becomes a Search Bar where you can click Internet at the bottom and initiate a search on the Internet. Simply click one of your search results from the list, and Windows Explorer transforms its interface into that of IE and displays the associated Web page in the right pane. To return to the Windows Explorer interface, click the Back button on the Standard Buttons toolbar above until you see the Folders button appear again. Click the Folders button to return to the Windows Explorer view of your PC (or LAN) in a hierarchical structure of files and folders. The Back and Forward buttons are convenient because you can easily use them to move between Web pages on the Internet and the folders/files on your PC (or LAN). In fact, if you click the History button on the Standard Buttons toolbar, you can even display a "history" of your journeys for the last few days or weeks. Click the day or week in question, click the link you're curious about, and return to the part of your PC, LAN, or the Internet where you were working during that time period. WinMe makes this all possible. It enables Windows Explorer to reach beyond the confines of just your hard drive and access the vastness of the Internet.  by Steven Sweet
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