Quick tips For Windows Explorer

Quick Tips For Windows Explorer

• Open Windows Explorer
• Browse Through Your Computer With Windows Explorer
• View The Contents Of A Flash Drive
• Create A New Folder
• Rename A File Or Folder
• Delete A File Or Folder
• Move A File From One Folder To Another
• Save A Document To A Flash Drive
• Save A BUBBS Email Attachment
• Save A Picture Or Linked File On A Web Page
• Extract The Contents Of A Zip Archive
• Create A Zip Archive
• Attach A Document To A BUBBS Email

Open Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer) is used to view the contents of your computer so you can manage your files and folders, including a flash drive if you have plugged one in.

To get to Windows Explorer, click on Local Drives. Other Windows desktops will have icons such as My Computer and Local Networks. These take you to Windows Explorer using a different starting point.

Browse Through Your Computer With Windows Explorer

The whole computer can be understood as a tree-structure of folders, folders within folders, and files within those folders. The "top" of the tree is the Desktop:

If the Folders pane (a pane is an open area of a window) is not visible on the left when you are in Windows Explorer, click on the Folders button in the row of buttons. When you click on a folder name in the Folders pane, it becomes highlighted and its contents appear in the area on the right. In the picture above, the folder My Documents is selected, and its contents, both folders and files, are being displayed in the Contents pane on the right.

In the Folders pane, the to the left of a folder means you can click there to show that folder's subfolders beneath it. The means you can click there to keep from showing its subfolders beneath.

View The Contents Of A Flash Drive

1. Insert the Flash drive into a USB port on the computer. (If the computer opens a window asking you how to open the Flash drive, select Open Folder to View Files and skip the remaining steps.)

2. Click on Local Drives on the Desktop:

   

3. Click on the icon for your Flash drive:

   

4. When you have finished using your flash drive, to avoid possible loss of data, click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the lower right hand section of the Taskbar and then select Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device.

   

   

Create A New Folder

1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder in which your new folder will be created, using the and buttons in the Folders pane. Click on that folder so that it is highlighted in the Folders pane and its contents are displayed in the Contents pane on the right.

2. In the Contents pane, right-click on a blank area, left-click New in the popup menu, and left-click Folder.

3. Type in a name for the new folder and press Enter.

Rename A File Or Folder

1. Locate the file or folder to rename in either the Folders pane or the Contents pane.

2. Right-click on the file or folder, and left-click Rename:

   

3. Type in a new name, and press Enter.

Delete A File Or Folder

1. Locate the file or folder to rename in either the Folders pane or the Contents pane.

2. Right-click on the file or folder, and left-click Delete:

   

   NOTE: Files on removable media such as Flash drives and network storage such as Digitallocker are NOT placed in the Recycle Bin. When you delete files they really are gone, so be careful when deleting.

Move A File From One Folder To Another

In Windows Explorer, you can simply drag files and folders to move them.

1. Using using the and buttons in the Folders pane, make sure the Destination Folder where you want to move the file to is visible.

2. In the Folders pane, click to highlight the Source Folder where the file is currently located. (The contents of the folder, including the file you want to move, are shown on the right.)

3. Drag the file from the Contents pane over to the Destination Folder in the Folders pane.

NOTE: If you drag a file to a destination on the same drive (ie. Flash drive, Digitallocker, or local hard drive), the file is moved to the destination folder, and the original file no longer exists in the source folder.

If you drag a file to a destination on a different drive, the file is copied to the destination folder, and the original still remains in the source folder.

Save A Document To A Flash Drive

When you wish to save a document to your Flash drive from an application such as Microsoft Word, click on My Computer (or Local Drives) and access Digitallocker from there. Browse to the folder you wish to save the document in and click on the Save button.

Save A BUBBS Email Attachment

To save an email attachment which has arrived through BUBBS, right-click on the file name beside Attachments and left-click on Save Attachment. Browse to the folder you wish to save the document in and click on the Save button.

Save A Picture Or Linked File From A Web Page

To save a picture which is on a web page, right-click on the picture and left-click on Save Picture As. Browse to the folder you wish to save the document in and click on the Save button.

To save the contents of a linked file (whatever would open if you clicked on that link, including text, pictures, a web page, etc.), right-click on the link and left-click on Save Target As. Browse to the folder you wish to save the document in and click on the Save button.

(If your browser is Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, click Save Image As and Save Link As instead.)

Extract The Contents Of A Zip Archive

1. In Windows Explorer, browse to the folder where the ZIP archive is located.

2. Right-click on the ZIP archive, left-click Extract All, then click Next, then Next, then Finish, and you should see all the extracted files in the same folder where the ZIP archive is.

Create A Zip Archive

1. In Windows Explorer, select the files or folders you want to copy into a new ZIP archive.

2. Right-click on one of the selected files, left-click Send To..., and then left-click Compressed (zipped) Folder. (If the new ZIP archive does not appear after a few seconds, press F5 to refresh.)

   OR

   The computers in Biola's computer labs also have ZipGenius installed. You can also create a Zip archive by right-clicking on one of the selected files from step 1 and left-clicking ZipGenius followed by Add to ... (Do not use Compress to 7-zip as this produces a non-standard archive.)

   

3. Rename the new ZIP file, since the name automatically chosen by the computer may not be a good one.

Attach A Document To A BUBBS Email

1. In BUBBS, create a new email message and fill in the Subject and To fields and type a message in the body if needed.

2. Click on the Attach button , browse to the folder where the document to be attached is located, and click the Open button .

3. To send the message, click the Send button .