clickhere.gr - Tutorials - Explore the contents of your computer

clickhere for the language selection page!

Exploring your computer's contents (files and folders)

Here we'll be showing you how to view your computer's contents and how to locate something you have previously saved. In this tutorial we'll be looking for your drawing from the drawing tutorial. Can you recall saving it in the "My Pictures" folder? If you haven't done the drawing tutorial, you will still be able to follow this tutorial, however, you'll never find your drawing...

To view your computer's contents, you have to "open" the Microsoft® Windows Explorer program, which is your computer's content directory.

right-click the.

button

highlight and click on Explore

... and the Microsoft® [Windows] Explorer window will appear. On the left hand side you can see a column listing all your computer's folders and on the right hand side you can see a listing for the selected folder's contents (files and/or other folders known as subfolders). Folders are used for storing (saving) files (images, documents etc.) and programs. A folder's name is associated with its files. For example, we can find images in the My Pictures folder. Each folder may contain files and other folders. These folders in turn may contain files and other folders and so on!

Before you start looking for your drawing, we'll be showing you how to move around in Microsoft® Windows Explorer.

Moving around...

Have you noticed a or a beside your folders? This means that the folder contains other folders (subfolders). For instance, the Start Menu folder has a beside it. Exactly below it and a bit to the right you can see a folder named Programs. The Programs folder is located inside the Start Menu folder

double click on the Start Menu folder

...the

beside it becomes a

and the Programs subfolder no longer appears. By double clicking on a folder you can open or close it.

drag the folders scrollbar now all the way to the top

Can you see that all your folders are located inside the Local disk (C:)? The local disk is also known as your hard drive and is located inside your computer.

Note: in some computers it may not say Local Disk (C:) but something other instead. This "description" depends on the computer manufacturer.

Double click your local disk to "close" it

Now you can see:

the floppy drive (Α:) for 3.5" diskettes

Local Disk (C:)

Compact Disk (D:) for your DVDs. If you don't have a DVD drive, drive (D:) should be your CD ROM drive.

and Compact Disk (Ε:) for your CD ROMs.

If you insert a 3.5" diskette in your (A:) drive, by clicking on it you will be able to see its contents. The same applies to the CD ROM and DVD drives.

note: the letters A, B, C, D, E don't correspond to the same devices on all computers so don't worry if you notice a difference!

Your drawing...

Now you can start looking for your drawing! You have to find the My pictures folder. This folder is a subfolder (i.e. it's located inside) of the My documents folder.

note: The "My Documents folder" is also listed under your Local Drive (C:)

double click on My Documents

Two subfolders will appear, My Music and My Pictures.

Click on My Pictures

As you can see, the right hand side column lists the My pictures folder contents. Your drawing should be listed there. These contents may display preview-style (i.e. mini images) on your computer unlike the plain listing appearing in our screenshot .

Double click on your drawing or any image for that matter (if you haven't drawn something)

...and a window displaying the full sized image will appear.

Whenever you double click on a file from the Microsoft® Windows Explorer program, you "call" on the program that is selected for viewing the particular file type (i.e. image, video, music etc.)

Close the image viewing window now by clicking on the

button on the upper right hand corner and you're done!

Now you have learned how to use the Microsoft® Windows Explorer to locate and view a file!

Screen shots reprinted by permission from Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft® Windows Explorer and Windows® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.