Windows Explorer
- Select Start/Programs/Windows Explorer. This starts the Windows Explorer program. This is the program you will use to copy, move organise and delete your files. The following window will appear on your screen.
- Click the Maximise button to run Windows Explorer over your whole screen.
The Windows Explorer window is divided into two panes. The left one is the Folders pane, the right one is the Files pane.
You will see the word "Folders" in the description bar above the Folders pane.
You can scroll through one pane without effecting your position in the other pane.
The Folders pane contains all the folders that exist on your computer.
- Scroll to the top of the Folders pane. You can see the Desktop and My Computer icons.
- Follow the line from the desktop down and you will see the icons for My Computer, the Recycle bin, My Documents, Network Neighbourhood (if you are attached to a network) etc. These icons all appear on the desktop of Microsoft® Windows® 98.
- Follow the line from the desktop down and you will see the icons for My Computer, the Recycle bin, My Briefcase (if installed), Network Neighbourhood (if you are attached to a network) etc. These icons all appear on the desktop of Microsoft® Windows® 95.
- Follow the line from My Computer down and you will see icons for the A drive, the C drive, the Control Panel etc - these will be the icons you saw when you opened My Computer.
- Follow the line from the hard drive (C) down and you will see the folders you saw when you opened the hard drive icon in My Computer. The Folders pane does not show files, only folders.
- Some folders and icons will have plus or minus signs against them. This indicates that they contain more folders (subfolders). A plus means that these subfolders are not displayed in the Folders pane. A minus means that these subfolders are displayed in the Folders pane.
- Click on the minus sign against the hard drive (C). The icon will close and all the sub folders will disappear from display. The icon will now have a plus sign against it.
- Click on the plus sign to redisplay the sub folders.
- Click on the plus sign next to the Windows folder. All its subfolders will be displayed in the Folders pane.
- Click on the minus sign to close the Windows folder
- Notice that opening and closing folders in this way does not change the display of folders and files in the File pane.
The files pane displays all the files and subfolders of a selected folder.
- At present the contents of the C drive are displayed in the Files pane. Scroll through this pane. You can see all the files and folders you saw when you opened the hard disk icon in My Computer.
- To display the contents of another folder in the Files pane, click on the name of the folder. Click on the name of the folder Windows in the Folders pane.
- The contents of the Windows folder will be displayed in the File pane only. Scroll through the contents.
- Click on the file named Notepad.exe. This will run the program from the Windows Explorer window. Close the program.
- Note that in the Folders pane, the Windows folder has changed to an open folder picture. This indicates that this is the folder whose contents are being displayed in the Files pane.
- You can change the appearance of the Files pane as you did for My Computer. Select View/Small Icons and see the effect.
- Select View/Arrange Icons and try some of the arrangements in the Files pane.
- Select View/Folder Options/View and examine the dialogue box. The options are the same as for My Computer. You can make the same setting changes in Windows Explorer as you did in My Computer.
- Close the dialogue box.
- Select View/Details. This is the best view for Windows Explorer as it gives the most information about each file.
- You can change the size of the panes in Windows Explorer. Move your mouse pointer onto the grey bar between the two panes. Your pointer will change to look like a black cross.
- Click and drag on the grey bar to change the width of the panes.
- You can also change the width of the columns in the Details view using this method.