WINDOWS 1002000 PROFESSIONAL RESOURCE KIT [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Customizing Folders

Windows 2000 Professional offers new options for using Windows Explorer to view folders and new ways to set your viewing preferences. Two new ways to customize folder views in Windows Explorer are as follows: choosing Folder Options from the Tools menu or using the Customize This Folder wizard.

Setting Folder Options

All the options for customizing folder views and preferences are found in Folder Options on the Tools menu. Folder Options has four tabs: General, View, File Types, and Offline Files.

You use the General tab to configure Active Desktop and Web view. You can also configure whether new windows open as you browse folders and whether you single-click or double-click to select items.

The View tab is the primary location for setting folder options. The options that are available on the View tab of the Folder Options dialog box are shown in Figure 9.3.

Figure 9.3 The View Tab of the Folder Options Dialog Box

For more information about setting options on the View tab and the File Types tab, see Windows 2000 Professional Help.

For more information about using the Offline Files tab, see "Using Offline Files and Folders" later in this chapter.

Using the Customize This Folder Wizard

The Customize This Folder wizard allows you to choose and edit folder templates, preview and set the background picture, define colors for the file name and background, and add a comment for the folder that can be viewed when an HTML template is used to display folder contents. The wizard creates a hidden Desktop.ini file and a hidden folder containing the folder settings.

Using the Customize This Folder Wizard

In My Computer or Windows Explorer, click the folder you want to customize.

Click the View menu, and then click Customize This Folder.

Using Web View with the Wizard

Enable Web view on the General tab of the Folder Options dialog box. With Web view enabled, use the Customize This Folder wizard to set the folder's background to any image file format, such as .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .tif, .dib, .png, .art, and .xif files. The background image is seen by anyone who accesses the folder.

Web view works by applying HTML templates to folder views. Some of the default folder templates are stored in %WinDir%web and are hidden files. For example, the Folder.htt file is the template that is applied to most folders. Be careful not to delete or move these files.

NOTE

---

In Windows 98, you could enable Web content for individual folders. In Windows 2000, Web content is either enabled or disabled for all folders.

Understanding Saved Views and Browsing Folders

In Windows 2000 Professional, the view you use is not always permanently saved in Windows Explorer. You can control whether the views you use are saved permanently or temporarily by using the Remember each folder's view settings check box on the View tab of the Folder Options dialog box (see figure 9.3).

By default the Remember each folder's view settings option is enabled. When you choose to leave this setting enabled, the following happens:

The changes you make to a folder's view is automatically saved when you close the folder.

The view you use to view one folder is not applied to other folders.

When you open a folder, it opens in the view you used when you last viewed it.

When you clear the check box for Remember each folder's view settings, the following happens:

When you start Windows Explorer, the first folder you view displays in the folder's saved view. Windows Explorer holds that view in temporary memory and applies it to all the folders that you visit while Windows Explorer remains open unless you manually alter the view.

As you browse to other folders (after the initial folder is opened), the saved view for each folder is ignored, and when you quit Windows Explorer, the folder view that you have been using to view multiple folders is deleted from temporary memory.

The next time you open Windows Explorer, once again, it is the saved view of the first folder you open that determines how you view multiple folders.

Some users want to have all their Windows Explorer folders set to the same view. In Windows 2000 Professional, the default setting is that any change made to a folder's view is automatically saved when you close the folder and is not applied to other folders. However, you can set all folders to the same view by using the Folder Options command as described in the following procedure.

To set all folders to the same view

In My Computer or Windows Explorer, set the view to your preference.

On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.

In the Folder Options dialog box, click the View tab.

Under Folder Views, click Like Current Folder.

IMPORTANT

---

The Remember each folder's view settings check box on the View tab of the Folder Options dialog box (see Figure 9.3) affects how the view settings of individual folders are applied and saved. For more information about the impact of clearing this check box, see "Understanding Saved Views and Browsing Folders" earlier in this chapter.

Group Policy Settings That Affect Folders

You can use Group Policy settings to control how folders are used.

Table 9.6 lists some of the Group Policy settings that affect folders and provides a brief description of each. Before you change a Group Policy setting, you should be familiar with using Group Policy and MMC snap-ins. To make changes to these settings, you must log on as a member of the Administrators group. You can find these Group Policy settings by using the Group Policy MMC snap-in and then following this path:

User ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesWindows ComponentsWindows Explorer.

Table 9.6 Group Policy Settings That Affect Folders

For additional information about Group Policy settings, including a more complete description of each setting, follow the preceding path to the Group Policy setting, right-click the Group Policy setting, click Properties, and then click the Explain tab, or refer to the Group Policy Reference on the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Resource Kit companion CD.