Files and folders are the heart and soul of a computer. This article explains everything a mere mortal needs to know about handling files and folders. It explains how to create, name, select, and delete them. It describes the different ways to view folders, share them with others, and even privatize them to keep snoops and future biographers at bay. Finally, this article tells how to recover a file or folder you deleted accidentally. Using Windows Explorer Computer geeks refer to the way Windows interacts with people as the human interface. As far as I’m concerned, that jargon’s more than a little presumptuous. We poor, downtrodden Windows victims should refer to peoplemachine interactions as the stupid computer interface. About time to put the horse before the cart, sez I.

Now that we have the terminology turned right-side-out, you can easily understand where Windows Explorer fits into the Grand Scheme of WinThings. Windows Explorer lies at the center of the stupid computer interface. When you want to work with Windows ask it where it stuck your wedding pictures, show it how to mangle your files, tell it (literally) where to go you usually use Windows Explorer. If you choose Start -> My Documents or Start -> My Computer or Start -> My Pictures or My Music or My Network Places, Windows Explorer jumps to your command like an automated bird dog, pointing at whatever location you selected. When you run a search with Start -> Search, Windows Explorer takes the reins. Windows Explorer takes a snapshot of your hard drive and presents that snapshot to you. If the contents of the disk change, the snapshot is not automatically updated, which can be a real problem. Say you’re using Windows Explorer to leaf through the files in My Documents. You suddenly realize that you need to write a letter to your Aunt Emma, so you start Word and write the letter, saving it in My Documents. If you switch back to Windows Explorer, you may not be able to see the letter to Aunt Emma: The snapshot may not be updated. Disconcerting. To force Windows Explorer to update its snapshot, you can close it down and start it again, or you can press F5. The following are some Windows Explorer high points:

 -  The name of the current folder appears in the title bar. If you click once on a file or folder, details for the selected file or folder appear in the Details box in the lower-left corner. If you double-click on a folder, it becomes the current folder. If you double-click on a document, it opens. (For example, if you double-click on a Word document, Windows fires up Word and has it start with the document open and ready for work.)

 -  Almost any actions that you want to perform on files or folders show up in the File and Folder Tasks list in the upper-left corner of Windows Explorer. Provided you know the secret, that is! You have to click once on a folder to select it before the list of folder actions becomes visible; and you have to click once on a file to select it before you can see the list of file actions. So if you’re trying to copy a file, and you don’t see Copy File in the list of File and Folder Tasks, click the file you want to copy first. When you do, Copy This File shows up in the list of Tasks.

 -  You can open as many copies of Windows Explorer as you like. That can be very helpful if you’re scatterbrained like me . . . er, if you like to multi-task, and want to look in several places at once. Simply choose Start -> My Documents (or My Computer, whatever), and a totally independent copy of Windows Explorer appears, ready for your finagling. Creating Files and Folders Usually, you create new files and folders when you’re using a program; you make new Word documents when you’re using Word, say, or come up with a new folder to hold all of your offshore banking spreadsheets when you’re using Excel. Programs usually have the tools for making new files and folders tucked away in the File -> Save and File -> Save As dialog boxes. Click around a bit and you’ll find them. But you can also create a new file or folder directly in My Documents quite easily, without going to the hassle of cranking up a 900-pound gorilla of a program:

1. Move to the location where you want to put the new file or folder. For example, if you want to stick a new folder called Revisionist Techno Grunge in your My Music folder, choose Start -> My Documents and double-click on the My Music folder. (If you want to show off, you could just choose Start -> My Music, which does the same thing.)

2. Right-click a blank spot in your chosen location. By “blank” I mean “don’t right-click on an existing file or folder,” okay? If you want the new folder or file to appear on the desktop, right-click any empty spot on the desktop. 4. Windows creates the new file or folder and leaves it with the name highlighted, so that you can rename it by simply typing. Creating new folders is fast and easy. If you choose Start -> My Music, rightclick an empty location in the My Music folder, choose New -> Folder, immediately type Revisionist Techno Grunge, and hit Enter, you become the proud owner of a new folder called Revisionist Techno Grunge, located inside the My Music folder. Selecting Files and Folders Before you can copy, move, or delete files or folders, you have to select them.

 -  Selecting various items: Hold down the Ctrl key and click the files or folders one at a time.

 -  Selecting neighboring items: Click the first file or folder and, holding down the Shift key, click the last.

 -  Selecting a group of items: Click a blank space in the window and drag to lasso the items and form a box around the group.

 -  Selecting all the items: Choose Edit -> Select All or press Ctrl+A. Suppose you want to remove one or two items after you’ve selected them all. In that case, Ctrl+click the ones you want to remove.

 -  Selecting all but one or two items: Click the items you don’t want and then choose Edit -> Invert Selection. This is a great technique to use when you want to select all but one or two items in a folder with many items. Some views are better than others when the time comes to select files. The Shift+click method, for example, works best in List and Details view. The Click+drag method works best in Tiles and Icons view. Later in this article, “Different Ways of Viewing Folders and Files” explains how to change views in My Computer and Windows Explorer. Modifying Files and Folders Modifying files and folders is easy rename them, delete them, move or copy them if you remember the trick: Click once and wait. The whole world’s in a rush. When I’m learning something new, I tend to try a lot of different things all at once, and that plays havoc on computers. They’re only human, ya know?

When it comes to working with files and folders, it’s important that you wait for the computer to catch up with you. In particular, when you’re trying to rename, move, copy or delete a file, click once and wait while the computer figures out what you can do and shows you the legal choices in the File and Folder Tasks area. If you double-click on a file, Windows interprets your action as an attempt to open the file and start working on it. Double-click on a Word document, for example, and Word springs to life with the document loaded, ready to rumble. Click once and wait is, far and away, the easiest way to rename, move, copy, delete, e-mail, or print a file. It’s also the least error-prone, because you can see what you’re doing, step by step. Different Ways of Viewing Folders and Files By opening the View menu in Windows Explorer or My Computer and making a choice, you can see files and folders in different ways. Following are the views you can choose from:

 -  Thumbnails: Shows small versions (called thumbnails) of graphics files, along with a few surprises: tiny pictures of the first slide in PowerPoint presentations, small pictures of enclosed graphic files on file folders, even album cover art on identified My Music albums.

 -  Tiles: Gives large icons but makes no attempt to show you a small version of picture files. Documents are identified by what application “owns” them and how big they are.

 -  Icons: Trims down the large size of the Tiles but sacrifices document details.

 -  List: Simply lists filenames. This view is a good choice for looking at folders with lots and lots of files.

 -  Details: Shows filenames, sizes, and types. In most folders, the Details list also includes the date when the file was created, but for music and pictures, artist names and titles appear. In Details view, you can sort the list of files by clicking on one of the column headings name, size, and so on. You can right-click on one of the column headings and click More to change what the view shows (get rid of Type, for example, and replace it with Author).

 -  Filmstrip: Shows thumbnails of pictures across the bottom of the screen, with a Play button below the selected picture.