Windows XP for Starters: The Missing Manual: Exactly What You Need to Get Started

4.2. The Folders of Windows XP

The top-level, all-encompassing, mother-ship window of your PC is the My Computer window. From within this window, you have access to every disk, folder, and file on your computer. Its slogan may as well be: "If it's not in here, it's not on your PC."

To see it, choose Start My Computer. You generally see several categories of icons (Figure 4-1):

• Hard Disk Drives . These icons, of course, represent your PC's hard drive (or drives, if you've installed or attached additional ones). Most people, most of the time, are most concerned with the Local Disk (C:), which represents the internal hard drive preinstalled in your computer. (You're welcome to rename this icon, by the way, just as you would any icon.)

• Files Stored on This Computer . This category appears only if your computer is a member of a workgroup , not if it's part of a domain network (see the box on Section 4.2.1). These folders, which bear the names of people with accounts on the PC, store links to all files and preferences for each person.

  Figure 4-1. The My Computer window, shown here on a corporate-network PC, is the starting point for any folder-digging you want to do. It shows the disk drives of your PC. If you double-click the icon of a removable-disk drive (like your CD-ROM drive, Zip drive, or Jaz drive), you receive only an error message unless there's actually a disk in the drive.

• Devices with Removable Storage . Here, Windows is talking about your floppy drive, CD or DVD drive, Zip drive, USB flash drive, and so on.

• Scanners and Cameras . This is where you see the icons for any digital cameras or scanners you've installed.

• Other . You may also see an icon for the Control Panel here.

4.2.1. What's in the Local Disk (C:) Window

You might be surprised to learn that your main hard drive window doesn't actually contain anything much that's useful to you, the PC's human companion. It's organized primarily for Windows' own benefit.

If you double-click the Local Disk C: icon in My Computerthat is, your primary hard drive's icona direly worded message lets you know that these files are hidden. "This folder contains files that keep your system working properly," it says. "You should not modify its contents." (Figure 4-2 shows a similar message.)

All of this important-sounding prose is aimed at the kind of person who, before the invention of this warning message, fearlessly or naively cruised through the important system files of their PCs, deleting and moving files until the computer was inoperable (and then calling Microsoft for tech support).

Truth is, the C: drive also contains a lot of stuff that doesn't belong to Windowsincluding your files. So when you're just looking (but not touching) the Windows system files, or when you want to burrow around in your own folders, it's perfectly OK to click the "Show the contents of this folder" link. Suddenly the C: drive's formerly invisible contents appear. They include these standard folders:

• Documents and Settings . This folder contains folders named for the different people who use this PC. In general, Limited account holders (Section 12.2.1) aren't allowed to open anybody else's folder.

  If you're the sole proprietor of the machine, there's only one account folder hereand it's named for you, of course. If not, there's a folder here for each person who has an account on this PC.

• Program Files . This folder contains all of your applicationsWord, Excel, Internet Explorer, your games , and so on. But that isn't the impression you get when you first open the folder (Figure 4-2).

  Fortunately, making them appear on your screen is easy enough: simply click the words "Show the contents of this folder." They appear just below the "These files are hidden" message, and also in the task pane. (The Local Disk (C:) drive window works the same way.)

  Figure 4-2. Top: The C: drive and the Program Files folder start out looking empty.

  Bottom: Here's what Microsoft Word actually looks like75 little software crumbs in your Program Files Microsoft Office Office10 folder. Only one of these icons (the one called WINWORD) is the actual program. But dont try to move it, or any of its support files, out of this folder.

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  Tip: It's OK, however, and even encouraged, to drag a program icon onto your Start menu or Quick Launch toolbar, which leaves the program in the folder where it belongs while giving you a handy way to launch it.

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• Windows (or WINNT , if you upgraded your machine from Windows 2000). Here's another folder that Microsoft wishes its customers would simply ignore. One exception: the Fonts folder contains the icons that represent the various typefaces installed on your machine. You're free to add or remove icons from this folder.

4.2.2. Your Account Folder

Everything that makes your Windows XP experience your own sits inside the Local Disk (C:) Documents and Settings [Your Name ] folder. This is where Windows stores your preferences, documents, pictures and music, and so on.

In general, the only action you'll perform that involves this folder is periodically backing up the Local Disk (C:) Documents and Settings [Your Name] folder My Documents folder.

Your account folder actually holds much more than this, but the rest of the folders are hidden, reserved for use by Windows itself. The hidden folders include: Application Data (which your programs may use to store user -specific settings and files), Local Settings (Internet Explorer's history list and cache file, for example), NetHood (shortcuts for the icons in your My Network Places window), My Recent Documents (document shortcuts, the ones that show up in the optional My Recent Documents submenu of the Start menu), and SendTo, which is described later in this chapter.

4.2.3. Navigating My Computer

Most of the time, you can get where you're going on your computer using the commands, programs, and folders listed in the Start menu. But when you need to find something that isn't listed therewhen you need to burrow manually through the labyrinth of folders on the machineWindows offers two key methods of undertaking a folder quest.

First, you can open the My Computer window, as described at the beginning of this chapter. From there, you double-click one folder after another, burrowing ever deeper into the folders-within-folders.

As you navigate your folders, keep in mind the power of the Backspace key. Each time you press it, you jump to the parent window of the one you're now looking atthe one that contains the previous folder. For example, if you're perusing the My Pictures folder inside My Documents, pressing Backspace opens the My Documents window. (Backspace also works in most Web browsers, functioning as the Back button.)

Likewise, the Alt key, pressed with the right and left arrow keys, serves as a Back and Forward button. Use this powerful shortcut (instead of clicking the corresponding buttons on the Standard toolbar) to "walk" backward or forward through the list of windows most recently opened.

4.2.4. Navigating with Windows Explorer

The second method of navigating the folders on your PC is called Windows Explorer for long-time Windows veterans , a familiar sight. (Note that some people use the term "Windows Explorer" to refer to everyday folder windows. In this book, the term refers exclusively to the split-window view shown in Figure 4-3.)

Using this method, you work in a single window that shows every folder on the machine at once. As a result, you're less likely to lose your bearings using Windows Explorer than burrowing through folder after folder, as described above.

You can jump into Explorer view using any of these methods:

• Shiftdouble-click any disk or folder icon.

• Right-click a disk or folder icon (even if it's in the Start menu) and choose Explore from the shortcut menu.

• Click Folders on the Standard toolbar.

• Choose View Explorer Bar Folders.

• Choose Start All Programs Accessories Windows Explorer.

• Choose Start Run, type explorer , and then press Enter.

No matter which method you use, the result is a window like the one shown in Figure 4-3.

As you can see, this hierarchical display splits the window into two panes. The left pane displays only disks and folders. The right pane displays the contents (folders and files) of any disk or folder you click. You can manipulate the icons on either side much as you would any other icons. For example, double-click one to open it, drag it to the Recycle Bin to delete it, or drag it into another folder in the folder list to move it elsewhere on your machine.

This arrangement makes it very easy to move files and folders around on your hard drive. First, make the right pane display the icon you want to move. Then, set up the left pane so that you can see the destination folder or diskand drag the right-side icon from one side to the other.

4.2.4.1. When the panel is too narrow

As shown in Figure 4-3, expanding a folder provides a new indented list of folders inside it. If you expand folders-within-folders to a sufficient level, the indentation may push the folder names so far to the right that you can't read them. You can remedy this problem with any of the following actions:

• Adjust the relative sizes of the window halves by dragging the vertical bar between them.

• Position your mouse pointer over a folder whose name is being chopped off. A tooltip balloon appears to display the full name of the folder.

• Use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the left pane to shift the contents.

4.2.4.2. Viewing folder contents

To see what's in one of the disks or folders listed at the left side of the Explorer window, you can use either of these techniques:

• In the left pane, click a folder or disk; the contents appear in the right pane. To expand the listing for a disk or folder, double-click its name, double-click its icon, or single-click the + button beside it.

• Right-click a folder in the left pane and select Open from the shortcut menu. A new window opens, displaying the contents of the folder you clicked. (To open a program or document appearing in either side of the window, double-click it as usual.)

The right-side pane of the Explorer window behaves exactly like any folder window. Don't forget that you can change it to an icon view or list view, for example, using the View menu as usual.

4.2.4.3. Keyboard shortcuts

If you arrive home one day to discover that your mouse has been stolen, or if you just like using the keyboard, you'll enjoy the shortcuts that work in the Windows Explorer window, as shown in Table 4-1.

Table 4-1. Windows Explorer Keyboard Shortcuts

You can also press the letter keys to highlight a folder or file that begins with that letter, or the up and down arrow keys to "walk" up and down the list.