Navigating Folders & Using Icons

This section explains how to find your way around the operating system and work with folders & files.

The File System

Finding things on a computer can be confusing. While the visual metaphors help, the organization might be a bit confusing. To see things a bit more clearly, open a folder and click on the "Folders" button.

You will notice that the task management area at left has changed to something like this:

Notice that the Desktop is at the top. According to the computer, this is the "highest" location you can go to. But notice that the Desktop is above the "My Computer" level. The Desktop is not 'bigger' than the computer, it is not located outside the computer; the computer is not "in" the Desktop. This is the computer's way of organizing things to make it seem more natural to you. When you start the computer, the first thing you see is the Desktop; therefore, they put it at the top. "My Computer" is often an icon visible on the Desktop.

In "My Computer," you will see (1) your volumes including hard drives, CD, DVD, Removable drives, etc., (2) The Control Panel (usually), and (3) Network and other Shared folders & documents. Notice that the basic volumes appear even if they are empty; the Floppy and CD/DVD volumes will be visible even if there is no floppy or CD.

Let's take a closer look at that folder list. Notice the little boxes with a "+" sign on the left; if you click on it, it will "open" the folder, showing you the folders inside. If you click on one of the volume or folder icons, the full contents will appear in the window to your right. Go ahead and click the "+" for "My Computer," and then expand the computer's HDD, called "Local Disk (C:)". You'll see some folders, especially these three:

• Documents and Settings
• Program Files
• WINDOWS

"WINDOWS" contains the OS--don't go in there and fool around! You could damage the system if you don't know what you're doing. "Program Files" contain all of the applications. If you need to find a program but it doesn't appear in your Start Menu, it can often be found here. However, again, don't fool around with anything you don't understand, you might damage them. Finally, there is the folder called "Documents and Settings."

Let's talk about User Accounts for a moment. For example, let's say your family--father, mother, sister, and brother--all use the same computer. Every person wants their own area. Maybe your father wants the Desktop image to be something he likes, but you and your sibling want different images. Maybe you want your email to be separate, so no one else in the family can see it. You all want your own section of the computer where you can have all the documents and settings to be special for you. This can be done by creating "User Accounts." You can create new accounts in the Control Panel, by clicking on the "User Accounts" icon.

Each account is given a folder in the "Documents and Settings" folder. That's why you see more than one folder in there. Each one is a user account. Each user folder will have its own folder system. When you open that up, it looks like this:

Each account has several areas:

• Cookies: keeps information such as passwords and browsing history for web pages
• My Documents: the "My Documents" folder which you can see in the Start Menu and usually on the Desktop
• Start Menu: keeps information about items in the Start (Windows) Menu
• Desktop

That last folder, the Desktop, is the real Desktop; the "Desktop" at the top of the chain is just a combination of (1) the Desktop down in the user account and (2) the Desktop in the "All Users" account (which has items that all users share together).

Navigating

If you want to move from one place to another, using the "Folders" sidebar is one way. Usually, however, people simply move directly through the folders. There are two ways of doing this: (1) moving "up" and "down" the directories, or (2) going "forward" or "back" in the "history" of your browsing.

The first way is the most common. To go "down" or "into" the next folder lower in the chain, just double-click on the folder. To go "up" the chain into the next highest folder, you can (1) click on the "Up" directory button in the toolbar, or just hit the "Backspace" key on your keyboard.

The second way is similar to what you do in a web page browser: you can go "Back" or "Forward" through the windows you have already navigated so far using the first way.

You might also notice that when you click on a folder inside a folder window, the new folder window opens up inside the old folder's window. You never have two folders at the same time unless you go somewhere else to open up another window. This is also similar to the web page browser. Microsoft made this change in Windows 98, as Internet browsing was becoming a familiar standard.

If you don't like this, you can hold down the "Control" key when you open a folder icon. That will open the folder in a new window. Go ahead and try it.

Alternately, you can change the basic settings. In any folder window, go to the "Tools" menu and select "Options." Here, you can select the option to "Open each folder in its own window." In that mode, holding down the "Control" key will do the reverse--open the new folder in the same window.

Viewing Icons

When you view a File & Folder window, there are several ways to see the icons in it. In the window's toolbar, look for the icon that looks like a small window with six tiny icons in it. When you click on that button, you will see this menu:

Here is a sample folder in all five views:

	Thumbnail
	Tile
	Icon
	List
	Details

Selecting and Moving Icons

There are many ways to select and movie icons. Everyone knows that if you click on an icon, you select it--the icon becomes dark, meaning that any action you take will be directed at that icon. If you double-click the icon, you will open it. If you click and drag the icon, you can move it to a new location.

Here are a few advanced moves:

Drag-and-drop: if you click and drag an icon and then move it so the cursor is above a folder icon, you may notice that the folder icon darkens. This indicates that if you let go of the cursor button, the dragged file will "drop" into the folder, and it will move from its original location to the folder.

Cut/Copy & Paste: You can cut, copy, and paste files and folders the same way you can do with data in a program. Copy and paste will make an extra copy of the file; Cut and paste will move the file.

Sometimes you want to move, delete, or otherwise affect several files and folders at once. There are several ways to select more than one file at a time:

Click-and-drag to select: To do this, you must begin with the cursor over a blank area. Click and drag the cursor over the desired icons. You will notice a translucent rectangle forms from the start point to the end point, and any icons within the rectangle become selected.

Click-Control-Click: Usually, when you click on one icon and then on a second one, the first icon is de-selected. However, if you hold down the Control key while clicking on new icons, the first one stays selected, and you start adding the new ones. Control-clicking on a selected icon deselects it. This also works with the "Click-and-drag to select" option above; if you click-and-drag and then Control-click-and-drag, you can select multiple groups of icons.

Click-Shift-Click: If you click on one icon to select it, and then hold down the Shift key and click on another icon, then all icons between them are selected.

Control-A: Doing the "Control+A" keyboard shortcut will select all icons in a directory.

Once you have selected multiple icons, they will all move together; a click-and-drag will move all at the same time.