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Friday, June 30 |
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Windows Explorer Tips
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You access Windows Explorer a great deal, so why not create a shortcut to it on your desktop? Click Start, Find (or Search), choose Files or Folder, type EXPLORER in the box and press Enter. Click the Explorer icon in the Find list box that shows "Type as Application" to select it. Click the File menu in the Find dialog box, and choose "Create Shortcut." Drag the Explorer icon in the Find list that shows "Type as Shortcut to the desktop and release the mouse button. Close the Find box. Now you can access Explorer" without having to go through your Program menu.
Now you can have Explorer launch from a different folder than the C: drive. Right-click on your brand-new Explorer shortcut, select Properties, and open the Shortcut tab. Edit the entry in the Target field to read: C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /E, where is whichever folder you want to see first when Explorer launches.
It's probably simplest for most of us to have Explorer open to the C: drive; however, the default in most versions of Windows 9x/ME (just C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE) has Explorer opening to My Documents. If you're like me and prefer to have Explorer open to the C: drive, here's how. Right-click on your Explorer shortcut, as above, select Properties, and open the Shortcut tab. Edit the entry in the Target field to read: C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /E,/SELECT, C: . This does the trick. Rather have Explorer open to the Desktop? In 95 and 98, have the shortcut read: C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /E,ROOT , and in Millennium, have it read: C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /E,/SELECT,/ROOT, . For Win 2K and XP, it's a bit simpler. If you want Windows Explorer to open to the folder C:\My Documents, for example, right-click the Windows Explorer shortcut that you use to run the program and choose "Properties." At the Windows Explorer Properties dialog box, click the Shortcut tab. Click in the Target entry box, and then press End. Add to the end of the existing line "/E, C:\My Documents". The complete line in the Target entry box should now be: %SYSTEMROOT%\EXPLORER.EXE /E, C:\My Documents The /E switch tells Windows Explorer to open in the two-pane Explorer mode and the C:\ tells it to open in folder C:\. If you wish to have Explorer open in the C:\ drive, leave off "My Documents." If you omit the /E switch, Windows Explorer opens in a single-pane view.
In Windows 98, My Computer and Windows Explorer don't volunteer much information about your files, folders, or hard drive. Most of the time, they merely list file and folder names in alphabetical order. Here are a couple ways to see all the gory information about files, folders, and disk drives. While holding down Alt, double-click on any file, folder, shortcut, or icon on your desktop. A box opens on-screen and reveals its properties: its size, name, creation date, and the date it was last saved. You also find a list of its attributes: technical information about the file's various technical switches. If you click on a shortcut, however, the properties box only tells you information about the shortcut. To see information about the real thing -- the file, folder, or drive that the shortcut points to -- click on the properties box's Shortcut tab and click on the Find Target button. That sequence brings the real thing to the screen.
It's not hard to make Explorer open successive folders in a single window: In any Explorer window, select View, Options; select the Folder tab; choose "Browse Folders Using A Single Window," and then click OK. Or, if you have IE 4.x installed--or had it installed and then upgraded to a later version of IE--select View, Folder Options; select Custom, "Based On Settings You Choose;" click the Settings button; select "Open Each Folder In The Same Window," and click OK. There's also a handy shortcut that goes with this procedure: just hold down Ctrl as you double-click a folder icon (inside an already-open window), and Windows will do the OPPOSITE of what you've asked. So, for example, if you've selected "Open Each Folder In The Same Window," holding down Ctrl will force Windows to open the folder in a separate window--and vice versa.
To create a locked folder in Windows, launch Explorer and navigate to the directory one level above the folder you want to lock. Click Run in the Start menu, type the word COMMAND, and press Enter. A command window will open in the folder displayed by Explorer. Say you're naming the folder "Private"; enter the command REN PRIVATE PRIVATEX, but instead of typing X, hold down the Alt key and type 255. To unlock the folder from the command prompt, enter REN PRIVATE PRIVATEX (again replacing X with Alt-255). When the folder is locked, Windows won't be able to open it, though it will be visible as Private. This tip was useful even under ancient DOS versions, and it still works in Windows 95, 98, and ME, but not in Windows 2000 and XP. If you attempt to open the locked folder in Explorer, you'll get a message telling you the folder is not accessible; the folder was moved or removed. Of course, you know better. If you attempt to rename it, you'll get a different message, like Cannot rename file: File system error (1026). Note that to enter ASCII character 255 you must hold down the Alt key, tap the numbers 2-5-5 on the numeric keypad, and then release the Alt key. You can't use the top-row number keys for this procedure.
You can experience a "disk full error" if you attempt to store a large number of small files on a disk, even if the total amount of data you are storing is only a fraction of the available disk space. Many users aren't aware that the number of files in the root folder of any disk is limited. For example, a floppy disk's root folder will hold 112 files, while a hard disk can hold 512. The solution to this potential problem is to store all your files in one or more folders.
Some 2K/XP users find themselves unable to delete files or folders. Here's where you folks should go for help: the KB article "You Cannot Delete a File or Folder" at support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320081. The article describes a situation for those who may not be able to delete a file or a folder on an NTFS file system volume.
Select a branch in Explorer that you want to expand and press the * key on the numeric keypad. If you selected Desktop, all directories will expand; if you selected a particular drive, all of that drive's folders will expand. Collapse them again by pressing the minimize button (the minus) on the top folder, then pressing F5.
If you're in Windows Explorer, you're in a folder, and you want to move one level up (back towards the root drive), you could click the Up One Level icon, or you could just tap the Backspace key.
Or make WinEx sort your folders by size. Select Details from the View menu and click the Size button to see the files listed in size order, biggest first. Click the Size button again to see them in reverse order, smallest first.
WinEx doesn't like to show folder sizes, although it will show individual file sizes. This can be annoying. There are two ways to force Explorer to own up. One is to right-click on the folder and select Properties from the drop-down next to "Size," or put the mouse pointer over the folder and wait for a tool tip to appear and magically give you the folder size. Remember, subfolders' sizes are counted in a folder's size. If you want a better option, you need to use something like Space Dolphin's free Folder Size Shell Extension 3.2, available from space.dolphin.free.fr/Windows/dfolder.html. This software lists the size of the folder next to the folder name. It works with Windows 9x and is partially supported with Windows 2k/XP.
If you've got a lot of folders open in WinEx, you can close all of them, or at least most of them, by holding down the Shift key as you click the Close box (the X in the upper right corner). Doing this closes that folder and any others above it in the folder hierarchy.
Create a locked folder by going into Windows Explorer and navigating to the directory one level above the folder you want to lock (i.e. if you want to lock C:\PROGRAM FILES\LOCKME then navigate to C:\PROGRAM FILES\). In the Start menu, open Run and type COMMAND. A command window will open in the folder displayed by Explorer. Enter the command REN LOCKME LOCKMEX, but instead of typing the final X, hold down the Alt key and type 255. To unlock the folder from the command prompt, enter REN LOCKMEX LOCKME, again replacing the X with Alt+255. When the folder is locked, Windows won't be able to open it, though it will display the folder name.
When you need to drag & drop objects from one Explorer window to another, it's nice to have both of them side by side. Instead of jockeying the windows manually, you can fire up two (or more) instances of the Windows Explorer, right-click on your taskbar, and select either 'Tile Windows Horizontally' or 'Tile Windows Vertically' from the menu. You've got two nicely positioned Explorer windows ready for business. When you're finished manipulating those files and folders, you can right-click on your taskbar again and select 'Undo Tile' from the menu.
Here are some Explorer shortcuts (Internet Explorer uses some of the same shortcuts):
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F1: Help
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F2: Rename currently selected items
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F3: Find files in currently selected folder
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F4: Drop-down list for disk drives
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F5: Refresh current folder display
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F6: Switch focus to different parts of window, a la Tab
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F10: Switch focus to menu bar
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Shift+F10: Open context menu (also opened by right-clicking mouse)
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Shift+right-click (on a file or folder): Opens different context menu allowing you to alter file view, rearrange icons, or create a new file or folder
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F11: Toggle full-screen ("kiosk") mode on and off (not in Win 95 unless you've got the IE4 Desktop Update)
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* (asterisk): Expands all the subfolders of a selected drive.
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Ctrl+W: shuts down Explorer altogether (also works with a My Computer window)
source: www.toejumper.net
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posted by ^%&^
@ 1:57 PM
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