Windows XP: The Windows Explorer
In this post, we'll create a new folder on the hard drive, but we'll use Windows Explorer to do it. To bring up the Windows Explorer, do the following:
- From your Desktop, Click the Start button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen
- Click the "All Programs" button
- From the Sub menu that pops up, click on Accessories
- The following sub menu appears. Click on Windows Explorer at the bottom:
The Windows Explorer is a great tool for finding your way around your hard drive. You can quickly locate files and folders, or browse for something in particular. Another quick way to bring up the Windows explorer is to do the following:
- Press the Windows key on your keyboard (The Windows key is located in the bottom left hand corner of your keyboard, in between the Ctrl key and the Alt key. If there is a gap between these two keys then you have an older keyboard, and the shortcut won't work. Sorry!)
- Once you've located the Windows key, keep it held down
- With the Windows key held down, press the letter "e" on your keyboard
- The Windows Explorer will appear, and should look something like the one below
If your screen is not split in two like the one above, do this:
- On the menu bar across the top that says File, Edit, View, Go, etc, select the View option by clicking on the word "View" with your Left mouse button
- A menu will drop down
- Move your mouse pointer down to "Explorer Bar"
- From the sub menu that pops up, click the word "Folders" once with your Left mouse button
- Your screen should split in two like the one above
The left hand side of the Windows Explorer screen shows different areas of your computer. In the previous image, the left part of Windows Explorer starts with Desktop. Next we have My Documents, My Computer, 3 ½ floppy, the C drive, the CD Rom Drive, Control Panel and so on right down to Recycle bin as the last option.
Click on the first option, Desktop, once with your Left mouse button. This will show you all the shortcuts you have on your Desktop, including the "My Documents" shortcut we placed there earlier. But the list of shortcuts will appear on the right hand side. And that is the main idea behind the Windows Explorer - Clicking something on the left hand side will bring up a list on the right hand side.
Click on the letter C in the left hand side of your Windows Explorer. A list of all the files and folders on your hard drive will appear on the right hand side. Like the one below, but with different folder names on your computer.
When we create a new folder, it will appear on the right hand side. But because we clicked the letter C on the left hand side, the new folder will be created in the root folder of the C drive.
The Root folder? What's that when it's at home? Well, the rectangular yellow icons on the right hand side are all folders. You can put one folder inside another. All of those folders on the right hand side, and all the single files, are inside the C Folder. The main folder on a hard drive is known as the Root Folder. This is the symbolic notation for the Root Folder on the C Drive
C:\
You can see that notation in the Windows Explorer address bar. (If you can't see an address bar, on the menu bar across the top that has File, Edit, View, Go, click the View option. On the menu that drops down, move your mouse pointer to Toolbars. From the sub menu that pops up, Click the words "Address bar" once with your left mouse button.)
The Windows Explorer address bar looks like this:
Notice how the address bar says C:\. This is the root folder of your C Drive, the folder in which all of your other files and folders are placed. Watch what happens when the folder on the right hand side called "Program Files" is double clicked with the left hand mouse button. We get this:
The address bar now says C:\Program Files. This means that there is a folder called Program Files, and this folder is on the C Drive. On the right hand side is a list of all the folders and files in the "Program Files" folder.
Now that you know how the Windows Explorer works, we'll now create our new folder.
- Click once with your Left mouse button on the letter C in the left hand pane of the Windows Explorer
- On the menu bar across the top that has File, Edit, View, Go, Click the File option once with your Left mouse button
- From the menu that drops down, move your mouse pointer to New
- A sub menu appears
- Click the word "Folder" once with your left Mouse button
A New folder will be created on your C Drive. The new folder will appear right at the bottom of all of your other folders and files, under the last one. So you might have to scroll across to see it. You can tell it's your new folder because it says, quite helpfully, "New Folder".
When you clicked "Folder", a new folder was created. But it appears right at the end of your list folders and files, in the right-hand pane of Windows Explorer. That's why you might need to scroll down or across in order to see it. But it will look like the one in the picture below:
The words "New Folder" will be highlighted. It's highlighted so that you can rename it. After all, "New Folder" is not very descriptive. So go ahead and type in a new name for your folder. Type "wpProjects". As in the image below:
If nothing happens when you try to type a new name for your folder, do the following:
- Click on your new folder, but click on the folder with your right hand mouse button
- A menu appears
- From the menu, click once with your Left mouse button on the word Rename
- Type a new name for your folder
You have now created a new folder in the root folder of your C Drive. You can use this same technique to create a new folder inside any of the folders on your C Drive. If you make a mistake and decide you don't want this new folder, you can always choose the Delete options from the menu above, instead of Rename.
But one more thing to notice about the Windows Explorer. In the left hand side, you see a lot of plus signs in a square box.
Clicking one of these plus signs will expand your selection. The image on the left below show a plus sign before it is clicked, and on the right afterwards.
The plus sign turns into a minus sign. But the plus sign indicates that there are more folders inside the one that has the plus sign. When you click the plus sign, it will expand to show you all the folders inside a main folder. You can click on any of these folders to see what is inside it.
As for the files inside the folders - try double clicking on one and see what happens. Don't worry: you won't do any harm!
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