Win Explorer

The Explorer file manager lets you create, copy, move and delete files and folders. In its left window, Explorer displays the hierarchy of folders stored on the hard disk or other storage device. If you are completely unfamiliar with the drive-folder-file hierarchy on your hard disk, read Win Folder organization first and then come back here.

When you click on a folder in the left Explorer window, its contents appear in the right window.

You can launch two or more instances of Explorer and drag and drop between them, although you can use Cut, Copy and Paste with only one instance of Explorer running (see Win Copy/move files/folders). Following are the basic Explorer operations.

LAUNCH EXPLORER
Right click Start menu and select EXPLORE.

DISPLAY CONTENTS OF A FOLDER
Click once on the folder in the left window. Its contents will be displayed in the right window.

To open a folder into its own window (not the right side of Explorer), right click the folder in the left window and select Open.

DISPLAY NAMES OF SUBFOLDERS ("Expand the Tree")
A plus symbol (+) to the left of the folder means it contains subfolders (other folders inside). Click the + to display the hierarchy, and the plus changes to a minus (-). To close up the hierarchy ("compress the tree"), click the minus symbol (-). Alternatively, you can double click the icon to display and close up the hierarchy.

DISPLAY CONTENTS OF A SUBFOLDER
Click once on the subfolder icon in the left window, or double click on the subfolder icon in the right side.

Explorer Window

This example shows the Encyclopedia folder (\CDE) on the left. Clicking on CDE displays its contents on the right, and clicking the plus sign (+) reveals its two subdirectories beneath and changes the plus to a minus, which is appearing now. By scrolling the left window to a different folder, files and folders can be dragged and dropped (moved and copied) between the left and right window panes with only one instance of Explorer on screen.

CREATE FOLDER
In the left window, click the drive or folder icon in which the new folder will be placed and select File/New/Folder. The new folder will be created at the bottom of the right window.

DELETE FILE OR FOLDER
Right click the file or folder icon and select Delete.

RENAME FILE OR FOLDER
Right click the file or folder icon and select Rename.

SWITCH DRIVES
Click the drive icon of the drive you want to change to.

COPY AND MOVE FILES AND FOLDERS
There are several ways to copy and move files and folders using Explorer. See Win Copy/move files/folders.

SELECT MULTIPLE FILES THAT ARE NOT IN ORDER
To select several icons that are not next to each other, hold the Ctrl key down and click the icons one at a time.

SELECT MULTIPLE FILES THAT ARE NEXT TO EACH OTHER
To select several icons that are contiguous, click the first one and then hold the Shift key down and click the last one. You can also lasso them by clicking to the right of the file name on top or bottom and dragging to the diagonal corner. See Win Highlighting icons for more detail.