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Chapter 6: The Windows Explorer Nikolina Đermanović

Chapter 6: The Windows Explorer

The Windows Explorer icon

Introduction

Microsoft Windows Explorer is a graphical file management utility for the Windows operating system (OS). Windows Explorer was introduced with Windows 95 and later renamed File Explorer. Each time that a computer user accesses a disk or opens a folder containing files, they are using the Windows/File Explorer utility.

File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface for accessing the file systems.

How to use Windows Explorer:

Step 1:

Open the Start menu. Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen, or press the ⊞ Win key.

On Windows 8, instead hover your mouse in the upper-right corner of the screen, then click the magnifying glass icon.

Step 2:

Type file explorer into Start. You should see a folder icon appear at the top of the Start window.

In the Start menu type file explorer

Figure 1 Open Start Menu and search for file explorer

Step 3:

Click on the icon File Explorer. It's the folder-shaped icon at the top of the Start window. Doing so will open File Explorer. With File Explorer open, you can "pin it" to your taskbar which will allow you to launch File Explorer with a single click. Right-click the File Explorer icon at the bottom of the screen, then click Pin to taskbar.

Click on the icon

Figure 2 Open File Explorer

Step 4:

Consider different methods for opening File Explorer. A few different ways of opening File Explorer include the following:

· Click File Explorer Icon on the taskbar. Press ⊞ Win+E.

· Right-click Start Image titled Windows start and click File Explorer.

· Click Start Image titled Windows start, then click the folder-shaped icon Image titled Windows start explorer on the left.

Open the File Explorer

Figure 3 Click on a folder icon

Displaying Subfolders

If you’ve used previous versions of Windows, you know that a folder name would have a plus sign next to it if that folder contains documents or subfolders.

With Windows 10, if a folder contains subfolders, that folder name will instead have a small right-pointing triangle next to it.

· No triangle next to a folder name means the folder has no subfolders.

· Right-pointing triangle next to a folder name means that the folder has subfolders.

· Down-pointing triangle next to a folder name means that subfolders are currently displayed for that folder.

To view a folder’s subfolders, click on the right-pointing triangle next to the folder. The right-pointing triangle will turn into a down-pointing triangle, and the subfolders will be displayed, as shown below.

Figure 4 View of folder’s subfolders

To hide a folder’s subfolders, click on the down-pointing triangle of that folder so that the subfolders will no longer be displayed. (For more information, see Displaying Subfolders.)

Accessing Your Files and Folders

There are number of ways you can naviagate to your files and folders in File Explorer:

· Using the Address bar (located at the top of File Explorer). The Address bar shows the full path of your current location.

· Forward and Backward buttons

· From the Folders pane

· Using the Search function (searches file names and file and folder contents in the current folder to find items containing your search term)

Using the Address Bar

The Address bar, which is located at the top of File Explorer as shown below, displays the path of the currently selected folder.

File Explorer drop-down menus are available for each subfolder in the Address bar. So you can easily go backward or forward in the folder path by clicking on the right-pointing arrow next to a folder and selecting a subfolder from the drop-down menu.

Use Address bar to find specific folder and subfolder

Figure 5 Address bar

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