لطفا منتظر باشید ...
Exploring Your Computer
My Computer (Figure 5.1), a top-level folder, is the window to your computer's data structure. From it you can open all the files, folders, and disks on your computer (or network), which are categorized as follows:
Figure 5.1. The My Computer window shows the top-level folders and disks on your PC, including network drives and other storage devices. Except on factory-fresh computers, no two My Computer folders are ever quite the same.
Files Stored on This Computer lists folders for everyone with a user account on this computer. You see your personal files and folders here. All users can see the community folder named Shared Documents. If you double-click another user's folder that you don't have permissions for, you'll get an error message; see "Sharing Files" in Chapter 17.
Hard Disk Drives lists the hard drives installed on this computer.
Devices with Removable Storage lists floppy, CD, DVD, USB flash, tape, Zip, and other removable media.
Scanners and Cameras shows icons for connected digital cameras and scanners.
Depending on how your PC is configured, more categories (such as Other or Network Drives) may appear.
USB Flash Drives
USB flash drives are small devices that are similar in use to a hard drive; just plug one into a USB port, and its icon appears in My Computer (Removable Disk (F:) in Connecting Devices to Your Computer" in Chapter 8.
To see what's on your computer:
1. Choose Start > My Computer.
or
Press Windows logo key+E.
2. To see what's on a hard drive, in the Hard Disk Drives section, double-click the drive that you want to see.
or
To find a file or folder on a floppy disk, CD, USB flash drive, or other removable media, in the Devices with Removable Storage section, double-click the item you want to see. (You'll get an error message if there's no disk in the drive.)
or
To find a file or folder, in the Files Stored on This Computer section, double-click a folder.
Keep double-clicking folders to burrow to the file or folder you want. (To return to the previous folder, press Backspace or click the toolbar's Back arrow in the window's top-left corner.)
Drive Letters
Like all Windows versions, XP inherits its drive-naming conventions from DOS. Drives are named by a letter followed by a colon:
A: is the first floppy-disk drive.
B: is the second floppy-disk drive (if present).
C: is the first hard-disk drive or the first partition of the first physical hard-disk drive. This drive usually contains Windows itself.
D: through Z: are assigned to other hard-disk drives, CD/DVD drives, mapped network drives, or removable storage devices such as USB flash drives.
Windows assigns drive letters consecutively, but you can use Computer Management to change them; see "Managing Disks" in Chapter 19.
Customizing the Start Menu" in Chapter 2.
To show the My Computer icon on the desktop, see "Restoring the Old Windows Look" in Chapter 4.
To show Control Panel in My Computer, see "Using Control Panel" in Chapter 4.
You can rename Hard Disk Drives icons.
To see how much free space remains on a hard disk, right-click its icon; then choose Properties.
The My Computer folder is the master view of
Windows Explorer, or simply
Explorer, the key tool for working with files and folders on your local machine or network.
To open Windows Explorer:
Choose Start > All Programs > Accessories > Windows Explorer (Figure 5.2).
or
Right-click the Start button; then choose Explore.
or
Choose Start > Run; type explorer and then press Enter.
Figure 5.2. The right pane shows the selected folder's contents (or search results). The left pane is an Explorer bar. The Folders bar (shown here) is displayed by default, but you can use the View menu to show other bars.
During installation Windows Setup creates three top-level system folders:
Documents and Settings contains a subfolder for each user account or for each user who has logged on to a network domain. These subfolders contain the users' personal settings and documents. If you're not an administrator, you can't open other users' subfolders (see Chapter 16). The All Users subfolder stores documents and settings available or common to every user account, administrator or not.
Program Files contains all the programsMicrosoft Word, Internet Explorer, or Adobe Photoshop, for examplethat you, Windows Setup, or your PC's manufacturer installed, along with all the support files needed to run those programs. In general you shouldn't need (or want) to touch files in this folder.
Windows (or
WINNT , if you've upgraded from Windows 2000/NT) contains critical operating-system files. Look but don't touchwith the exception of the Fonts subfolder; see "Managing Fonts" in Chapter 4.
Printing Directory Listings
Explorer lacks the simple ability to print the contents of a folder (the File menu has no Print command), but you can create a file listing if you're Command Prompt-savvy (see "Using the Free Utility Programs" in Chapter 6). At a prompt, use the cd command to change to the desired directory and then type:
dir /a /o:neg /-p > list.txt
This command creates the file list.txt in the current directory. Open list.txt in Notepad (or any text editor) for a printable list of the files and folders in the directory. To change the command to suit your preferences, search for
dir and
command redirection in Help and Support Center.
Pathnames
Chapter 13).
By default Explorer opens with My Documents or Desktop highlighted, but you can modify Explorer's shortcut to highlight a folder of your choice initially.
To open Windows Explorer with a specific folder selected:
1. Right-click a Windows Explorer shortcut (in the Start menu or on the desktop); then choose Properties.
2. In the Target box, type:
explorer.exe /n, /e,
C:\myfolder
Replace
C:\myfolder with the pathname of the folder to select initially (Figure 5.3). The folder can be on a local, removable, or network drive. If
C:\myfolder contains spaces, surround it with double quotes.
Figure 5.3. This setting opens Explorer at the root of the C: drive, but it's more common to specify a personal folder such as "C:\Documents and Settings\
<your user name> \My Documents". If you see the text %SystemRoot% in front of explorer.exe, you can leave it alone or remove it, as desired.
3. Click OK.
When you double-click the shortcut, Explorer opens with the specified folder highlighted.
Tip
Another way to open Explorer in a specific folder: Choose Start > Run; type or paste the folder's pathname and then press Enter.
Windows Explorer represents your files, folders, and disks as a hierarchical structure called a
tree (shown in the Folders bar in the left pane in Figure 5.2). A fully expanded tree is unwieldy, so Explorer shows only the tree's top few levels by default. Use the mouse or keyboard to collapse and expand individual branches selectively.
To navigate folders in Windows Explorer:
To expand or collapse a branch, click the plus sign (+) or minus sign () next to a tree icon.
The selected folder's files and nested folders appear in the right pane.
Using Keyboard Shortcuts" later in this chapter.
If no plus sign appears next to an icon, that branch can't be expanded further because it has no subfolders.
If the Folders bar isn't displayed, click Folders on the toolbar (or choose View > Explorer Bar > Folders).
If the Folders bar is too narrow to show its contents, drag its right edge of the pane to widen it, or use the horizontal scroll bar at bottom to shift its contents. If you point to a partially hidden folder, a pop-up tip displays its full name.
Searching for Files and Folders" later in this chapter. Favorites lists your Internet Explorer bookmarks; see "Bookmarking Pages" in Chapter 13. History lists recently visited web pages and recently opened documents, sorted by date; see "Navigating the Web" in Chapter 13.
If you notice that a folder is missing in Windows Explorer (or that a + appears next to a folder that has no subfolders), press F5 to refresh the display.
To navigate by using the slightly different method of earlier Windows versions, turn off Simple Folder View. See "Setting Folder Options" later in this chapter.
Table 5.1. Explorer Keyboard Shortcuts
TO PRESS
Expand or collapse the selected branch
Right arrow or left arrow
Jump to parent branch without collapsing
Backspace
Jump from top to bottom of expanded branch
Alt+right arrow
Jump from bottom to top of expanded branch
Alt+left arrow
Move up visible branches
Up arrow
Move down visible branches
Down arrow
Expand all branches below selection
* (on numeric pad)
Go to a visible branch
The branch's initial letter
Cycle through visible branches with same initial letter
The initial letter repeatedly
Cycle through the icon pane, folder pane, and address bar
Tab or F6
Windows Explorer Alternatives
Windows Explorer is adequate for routine file operations, but power users may prefer an enhanced file-management tool. Third-party alternatives have built-in file search, viewing, compression, synchronization, comparison, download, and other tools. Some good ones are PowerDesk ($50 U.S.; www.v-com.com), Directory Opus ($65; www.gpsoft.com.au), and xplorer2 ($28; www.netez.com).
