In this section:
You accomplish both work and play on a computer by using computer files. For example, those files might hold the software applications you work with, the documents you create in a word processor or spreadsheet, a game, or your favorite song or movie.
Windows 8 organizes your files into folders and libraries. There are several pre-defined libraries such as Pictures and Documents, but you can add others. Within these libraries are folders containing individual files.
You use the File Explorer app to perform the following tasks:
Find files you’ve saved on your computer or on an external storage device such as a USB stick.
Create new folders and move or copy files among them.
Delete files you no longer need.
Back up files in a file history or on an external storage device so that you have an extra copy for safekeeping.
Create compressed versions of files that are smaller and easier to store and send to others.
In previous versions of Windows, File Explorer was called Windows Explorer. New to File Explorer in Windows 8 is a ribbon of tools that you can use to work with your files and folders. If you’ve used previous versions of Windows, it’s worth taking a moment to review the contents of the new ribbon. The tabs on the ribbon provide different types of tools, including the following:
On the Home tab, you can copy and paste items, organize and delete them, create new libraries and folders, and open or select files and folders.
You can use the tools on the Share tab to send files to others or to share them with other users in your computer network.
On the View tab you can look at the contents of your drive in a variety of ways, showing specifics levels of detail and sorting the contents by criteria such as name, size, or date created.
You can use the File tab to access Favorite Places, open a new File Explorer window, clear your recent items or address bar history, or modify options for how you work with folders.
The files and folders that contain files are organized into libraries. Several pre-existing libraries are provided for you, including Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos. You can move files and folders among libraries, and you can create new libraries. For example, you might want to move pictures you’ve downloaded from the Download folder into the Pictures library, or you might create a library for your artwork or one for documents associated with business clients.
Tip
Assign unique and descriptive names to libraries so that you can easily find the folders and files within them.
Note
Use libraries for broader topics; you can create folders within the Documents library for narrower topics to keep libraries to a manageable number. For example, create a folder for house-related items. Then you should populate it with “sub-folders” for Budget, Renovations, Mortgage, and Insurance. Create folders within the Documents library for narrower topics, such as Gardening Tips, Association Minutes, or Holiday Address Lists.
File Explorer offers several ways to move among the libraries and folders on a drive. You can move up to a higher level—for example, from a subfolder to a folder or from a folder to a library of folders—or move back or forward to a previously viewed item. You can also display a list of recently viewed items.
Click the Pictures library.
Click a folder.
Click the Up arrow to the left of the address bar to go up one level in the file/folder hierarchy.
Click the Back arrow to display the Pictures folder contents again.
Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the Forward button to display a list of items you’ve recently viewed in File Explorer.
Tip
With a folder open in File Explorer, you can click Properties on the Home tab and then click Properties on the drop-down menu. The window that appears will give you information about the folder, such as how many files and subfolders it contains, the date it was created, and whether the folder is shared with others.
File Explorer organizes your files within folders and libraries. Because a file can be tucked into a folder or subfolder, you might have to hunt for it. One approach is to methodically move from library to folder to file through a logical hierarchy until you find the file. Another approach is to search for the file; the search results will take you directly to the file, no matter where it’s located.
In File Explorer, you can choose among several views to see the items on your drive from different perspectives. For example, you might choose to view picture files as small icons of the pictures, or you might choose to see documents in a folder displayed in a detailed list that includes the file names, date modified, and size. The ability to display items in different layouts and grouped or sorted by certain criteria makes File Explorer an invaluable tool for navigating through the contents of your hard disk or an external storage device.
Click the Details Pane button to display details about a selected item.
Click a sorting option in the list.
Click the Group By button to display a menu of options for grouping content.
Click an item on the list to group contents.
Select a check box in the Show/Hide tools section to display file name extensions or show hidden items.
Tip
To hide an item such as a file or folder in File Explorer, click to select it, and then on the View tab, use the Hide Selected Items button to hide it from view. Select the Hidden Items check box to then display hidden files again.
Tip
The Manage tab becomes available on the ribbon when you select certain items in File Explorer such as a picture or a library. You can use the tools on the Manage tab for functions specific to the type of content. For example, if you’ve selected a picture file, you can run a slide show of all pictures or rotate the picture right or left.
Often you will want to share the documents, pictures, and other files on your computer with others. Some people might have a computer on your network at work or home, in which case you can share files with them via the network. They can then access files on the network from their own computers. Using the tools on the Share tab of File Explorer you can manage the sharing process.
Tip
To stop sharing with a group or individual, on the File Explorer Share tab, click the group or individual on the list and then click the Stop Sharing button.
The library folders in Windows 8 provide a basic set of categories for organizing files, but most people require more of a breakdown for the files they create. For example, as you create documents, you might decide to create subfolders in the Documents library for each project or client with whom you work. If you import lots of pictures into your Pictures library, you might want to break these down into folders such as Vacation, Grandkids, or Remodeling Project. The ability to create new folders and to rename files and folders is one you’ll really appreciate as time goes by.
Note
See Also
See the task Create a New Library earlier in this chapter if you have created folders that you want saved in a different category than those predefined in Windows 8.
Sometimes it’s useful to change the name of a file or folder. For example, you might create a file called Household Budget to keep track of this year’s expenses. But next year, when you create a new Household Budget file that you decide to name 2014 Budget, you might want to go back and rename Household Budget to 2013 Budget. It’s simple to change the name of a file or folder to help you stay organized.
With File Explorer open, locate the file or folder you want to rename and click to select it.
Click the Home tab.
Click the Rename button.
Enter a new name for the file or folder and press Enter.
Tip
You cannot give two files in the same folder the same name, so when you rename a file or folder, make the new name unique. For example, if you are renumbering files named Project 1, Project 2, and Project 3 because you’re about to create a new Project 1 file, you can’t change Project 2 to Project 3 while another file with that name exists. In this case, you would rename Project 3 to Project 4 first; then rename 2 to 3 and 1 to 2 before adding a new Project 1.
The way you organize files on your computer is seldom static. For example, files for this year’s receipts get moved into an Old Receipts file; or you decide it would be handy to have a copy of your home inventory in both your insurance and budget folders; and so on. To deal with these changes, you need to know how to move a file from one folder to another and how to place a copy of a file in another folder. These procedures are easy to perform by using a Drag and Drop method.
Open File Explorer.
Locate the file you want to move by using one of the methods in the Finding Files and Folders with File Explorer section, described earlier in this chapter.
Drag the file to another folder in the left pane of File Explorer.
Release your mouse button, and the file has been moved.
Note
Try This!
If you want to move a file to a folder that isn’t visible in the left pane—for example, to a folder on an external drive or network—after selecting the file, on the Home tab, click the Move To button, and then click Choose Location on the menu that appears. In the Move Items dialog box that is displayed, locate a drive and folder destination and then click the Move button.
Open File Explorer.
Use one of the methods described in the Finding Files and Folders with File Explorer section earlier in this chapter to locate the file you want to copy.
Press Ctrl and drag the file to another folder in the left pane of File Explorer.
If you want to save space on your drive or take several files and squeeze them together into a file that is smaller than the combined file sizes so that you can send them as an email attachment, you can compress the files. The compressed, or zipped, files you create are perfect for archiving sets of documents or sending content more quickly across the Internet. The easiest way to create a compressed file is to select files already contained in the same folder.
Locate the files you want to compress by using File Explorer.
Click the first file.
Press and hold Shift and then click the last file in a sequence of adjacent files; or press and hold Ctrl and then click non-adjacent files, one by one.
Right-click the selected files, click Send to, and then click Compressed (Zipped) Folder.
Enter a name for the folder and press Enter.
When you want to use the individual files in a compressed file, you can extract them back to their original, uncompressed state. When you extract files, Windows offers to create a new subfolder for the uncompressed file in the same folder where the compressed file is stored.
It’s good practice to save your work. You can use a few methods to do this. You can turn on the File History feature, which saves libraries, your desktop settings, contacts, and favorites to a hard disk. You can also burn files to a disc by using the File Explorer Share tab.
Insert a USB stick, or attach an external hard disk to your computer.
Display the desktop.
Press Windows logo key+X.
Click the Control Panel option on the menu that appears.
In the System And Security section, click Save Back Up Copies Of Files With File History.
Click the Turn On button to turn File History on.
Place a writable disc in your CD/DVD drive.
On the Start screen, click File Explorer.
Locate and select the content you want to save.
Click the Share tab.
Click to select Like A USB Flash Drive or With A CD/DVD Player (as you might if you’re burning a music file to the disc).
Click Next. Windows formats your disc and burns the file(s) to it.
Tip
You can also simply copy files to another drive by using the Copy and Paste buttons on the Home tab of File Explorer, or by clicking and dragging selected files and folders between two File Explorer windows.
Note
See Also
See the Copy a File to Another Folder task earlier in this chapter for more information about copying files from one place to another.
An important part of managing files on your computer is to know when to get rid of files that you no longer need. Deleting unneeded files gets rid of clutter and makes it easier to find what you want as well as frees up hard-disk space. It’s a good idea to back up files before deleting (see the preceding task). However, if you delete a file and then decide you need it back, you do have a window of time in which you can retrieve it from the Recycle Bin. (That window is determined by how much content the Recycle Bin can hold; when it fills up, older files are deleted.) This section provides the procedures both for deleting files and for retrieving files.
In File Explorer, locate the file or folder you want to delete.
Click the item to select it.
On the Home tab, click the Delete button.
Tip
If you click the Cut button instead of the Delete button, the file is moved to the Windows Clipboard. You can go to another folder in File Explorer and use the Paste button to paste the file into that location. If you don’t paste the file anywhere, it will eventually disappear from the Clipboard, and you can’t get it back.
Tip
To permanently delete files from your computer, you can use the Empty Recycle Bin button in the Recycle Bin to remove all contents. However, remember that although files might be gone from the Recycle Bin and unavailable to you, they might still be on your hard disk. If you are giving away or selling your computer, consider wiping your hard disk clean to protect your data by using software such as WipeDrive or DataEraser.
