In windows 7 there are a great many changes to Windows explorer, and even the way the folders

you use are arranged. In Windows XP, the main folder was the “My Documents” folder. This is now
replaced by the user folder – a folder named the same as the user. This folder is where the default
locations for all your documents are – your downloads, documents, music, pictures and videos are
all saved in the appropriate folder within this one. The My Documents folder now only contains
documents, rather than being the root folder for other file types as in XP.

There are also shortcuts directly to your Documents, Pictures and Music in the start menu.

The actual explorer window has changed a lot as well since XP. Gone is the shortcuts pane on the
left, replaced by the new Windows 7 pane. In this pane you can navigate quickly to the folders you
use the most.

At the top of this pane is the Favourites section. Like the favourites menu in Internet Explorer, this
lets you save shortcuts to your most used locations for quick access.

Under this is the Libraries section. Libraries are a collation of files from multiple locations on your
computer, arranged in categories for easy viewing. More information on libraries and favourites can
be found in the advanced explorer tutorial.

Below this is the Homegroup section. If you have a Home network, this is where you can easily share
your information with other computers on the network, and access other machine’s shared files.
More information on Homegroups can be found in the Homegroups tutorial.

Lastly is the Computer and Network directory trees. These should be familiar to Windows XP users,
and are a quick way to gain acces to any file needed on the computer. You can expand what is in a
current folder by clicking on the arrow next to it as shown. To view the files in a folder, just click on it
and they will appear in the main pane.

Another feature which has changed is the address bar. It has now become a series of buttons that
quicly allow you to go back to an earlier point in the file path. For example, if you are currently in the
Program Files folder, and wish to go back to the main computer window, you can just click on the
word Computer in the address bar. Alternitively, if you are in the Program Files folder as shown, but
wish to go to a different folder in the C: drive, you can click the little arrow next to the words Local
Disk (C:) as shown. This then displays a dropdown menu of everything in the C: folder, and you can
quickly jump to another location.

Windows 7 provides many different options for ordering and displaying files. To change the way the
files are shown in the window, click the arrow next to the view button in the toolbar. This gives you a
list of preset views to choose from. The options Extra Large Icons, Large Icons, Medium Icons and
Small Icons all show the files in horizontal rows, with a preview of the file above the file name.
Dragging the selector between these provides custom sizes for the preview pictures as shown. List
view arranges the files in lists vertically rather than horizontally. Details is like list view, but shows
information about each file as well. This is very useful for ordering, as will be seen soon. Tiles is very
similar to the icons options, and so not very useful. The last option, Content, strikes a balance
between details and tiles.
If the details view is selected, the files can be arranged any which way you may want. For example, if
you wish to arrange them in order of date created from newest to oldest, click the Date header. To
arrange in oldest to newest, click the header again. The headers also have advanced options,
available by clicking the arrow next to the header name. In this case, you can see files made on a
particular date. To clear the advanced view, simply uncheck the box.

If you wish to arrange the files by a property not shown, or see details that are not listed, you can
add and remove headers by right clicking on an existing header. This then shows a list of headers
that can be added to the window.

Searching for files is very easy in Windows 7. Simply open the folder you wish to search from, and
then type the query into the search bar in the top right hand corner. Windows will start searching as
soon as you start typing! The green bar in the address bar indicates the search progress. Once the
machine has found the files you want, you can stop it from searching further by clicking the stop
search button.

If you wish to view a preview of a supported file such as a picture or PDF document before opening
it, you can open the preview pane by clicking on the button as shown. This will give you a preview of
what the file looks like, without actually opening the file. The pane can be closed by pressing the
button again.

Lastly we have the new look menu bar. This gives quick access to commonly used features. The
Organize menu has common options such as copy and paste, as well as the Layout menu from which
you can customise the look of your explorer a little further.

The Share With menu is used for Homegroups, which is explained in the Homegroups tutorial. If
there are pictures in the current folder, a Slideshow button will appear. The burn button will burn
the currently open folder to a CD or DVD, and the New Folder button creates a new folder in the
currently open window. However this menu bar changes depending on what is selected. If a file is
selected, a button will appear with the programs that can open the file listed, viewable by clicking
the arrow as shown. A print button also appears, should the user wish to print the file.