... Basic Computer Skills ...

Windows' Explorer Window

Now assuming you have not rearranged your Start Menu (and as a beginner, I'd be surprised if you did), to open (or launch or run) Windows Explorer, click the Start Button, move the mouse pointer up to Programs and then across to near the bottom of the list to Windows Explorer and click it. The Explorer window will appear, and a block indicating that it is running will also appear in the active area of the Task Bar. The window consists of its title bar at the top, highlighted in blue indicating that it is the active window ... menu pads File, Edit, View, etc. immediately under the title bar, a tool bar with some quick click boxes in it below the menu pads, an address line below that, and then the two window panes. Note the left pane which contains the components of the system and will show folders, and the right pane will show the folders and files of what is selected in the left pane.

I recommend that the view of the Windows Explorer window be changed to show the details of the files, so that you can tell what type of objects you are looking at and what their sizes and dates of last modification are ... Pull down the View menu pad (click View) and then, in the center part of the menu, click Details. I would also recommend other changes in the view ... so pull down the View menu pad again, and select Folder Options at the bottom of the list. In the Folder Options sub window, click the View tab near the top of the window. In this sub window, put a checkmark (click the box) in front of "Display the full path in title bar", and then remove the checkmark (by clicking it) in front of ... "Hide file extensions or known file types". Now click OK at the bottom of the sub window.

Each pane of the Windows Explorer window has both horizontal and vertical scroll bars. These scroll bars have an arrow at each extreme end and a box (called the elevator) in the bar which moves when you scroll ... Try the arrows and see what happens. Try grabbing the elevator box and moving it with your mouse. These are common operations for many windows with scroll bars.

Let's see what we have in that left pane; scroll the left pane up so you can see the 3½ Floppy (A:) drive ... This is your floppy drive, and, if you were to click it without having a floppy disk in the drive, you would get an error message window stating that the drive is not ready (of course its not ready, there's nothing in it). If there were a floppy disk in the floppy drive, clicking the 3½ Floppy (A:) in the Explorer's left pane would have caused any folders and files you have on the floppy to appear in the right pane.

Now, click on the C: drive in the left pane; it probably has a name, and the name will end with (C:) ... When you click it, it becomes highlighted in blue indicating that it is selected, and the folders and files in it will appear in the right pane. You will note that in the left pane, its folders are probably shown also, and so clicking the minus sign in front of the C: drive causes them to contract and the minus sign becomes a plus sign ... A plus sign in front of a disk drive or a folder in the left pane indicates that the view of it is contracted; clicking the plus sign changes it to a minus sign and expands the view to show what is in it. Now double clicking the object (such as the C: drive) will toggle between the plus minus conditions ... An object in the left pane which does not have either a plus or minus sign in front of it has no sub folders in it. In the right pane, the folders are displayed again, and if you scroll down, you will also see the files in it. This is the root directory (folder) of your hard disk and are critical system files so look but don't touch.

Another area you should stay away from is the Windows folder under the C: drive, and all of its subfolders and files ... This is your Windows operating system, and fooling with that stuff can easily cause your computer to fail to load Windows and be useless to you until fixed. For those more advanced, there are times when you might place a bmp (bitmap) file there; that's how you add pictues to your desktop (or remove them when you want them deleted) ... But that's another lesson.