Windows Explorer: How to Open It

A lot of times when I am speaking to customers I need them to make changes to their files or look at their files in a specific way. I will often tell someone to open Windows Explorer and tell me what they see. In many occasion I have had customers open Internet Explorer instead. Because Windows Explorer is a valuable tool that I think everyone should understand and know how to use, at least at a beginner level, I have decided to take a few weeks and write about it.

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Click on Start then Accessories and then two from the bottom is Windows Explorer. Click on it and you will then be given the following program.

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Windows Explorer defaults to the “My Documents” Directory. As you can see all the files and folders you have in your My Documents folder are now displayed.

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Below that is “My Computer” clicking the plus sign next to it will now display any mass storage devices Windows sees connected to the machine (i.e. your C drive and CD-Rom drive). From here you can also see your Control Panel, Mobile Devices, as well as Shared Documents and your My Documents folder again. We go further into the Control Panel and Shared Documents in a later blog, for now we are just trying to see what we are able to look at in Windows Explorer. You will notice you also have access to your Recycle Bin and any folders that reside on your desktop. (Note: You now have full access to your files, if you delete from here it will be sent to the Recycle Bin.)

To Be Continued…

About Jacqui Best

I started my technology career way back in 1991, when I worked for a local computer store in Pinellas Square Mall. I was a PC technician as well as the trainer. Afterward I moved on to Consolidated Software Products where I was the phone technical support for Disk Analyst, which was for all practical purposes the first piece of data recovery software ever. I then moved on to The Learning Curve, where I was the office manager for many years, this company was at the forefront of data recovery and training software. I finally decided I wanted to move into some different fields and expand my technology back ground beyond data recovery. I got hired on with American CompuSystems where I was the Road Runner Pinellas County PC Installs manager, while in this department I obtained my MCP in NT 4.0. I later moved on to be an in field network administrator for this company. After ACS I then took a position with Knight Enterprises a sub contractor of Time Warner/ Bright House. I was the Regional PC Installs Manager. After 2 years at Knight I decided it was time to come back to my roots and took a job with DTIData as their Software Technical support person.

Comments

  1. muthuraj says:

    when i click the c or d or e drives it could not be open, the OPEN WITH window is open and choose any one to open the folder,please tel me how to rectify this problem.

    by
    muthuraj.G

  2. Donald says:

    every time i try to open my C drive it says “chose the program you want to use to open this file”. with programs below such as IE, notepad, paint etc. i need to access my hard drive. Any help would be appreciated.

  3. jbest says:

    Muthuraj and Donald,

    It sounds to me like you have a virus. One possibility is the MS32DLL.dll.vbs worm. Check to see if Internet Explorer displays “Hacked by Godzilla” when you run it. If it does, you definitely have the virus. Also check for the ms32.dll.vbs file on your C: drive. If you have it, open task manager by right-clicking the taskbar and choosing Task Manager. Look for a process called “wscript” and end task on it. Then do a Google search for MS32DLL to find sites explaining how to remove it. Good Luck!

  4. KJ says:

    When I try to open the Recovery: D drive, PC Angel recovery partition shows up and will not allow me to access. How do I gain access

  5. Jacqui Best says:

    KJ,

    I am sorry I am not familiar with PC Angel? What kind of Computer is this (manufacturer) and maybe I can try and figure out what it is. Also why are the recovery? What is wrong with the hard drive or the data?

  6. eison says:

    pls help me to solve this problem… anyone who know the steps on how to create file from window explorer? thanks

  7. Anonymous says:

    nice games! starcraft and everquest =D

  8. I ran a recovery on my computer and after it gets through i get a little white box telling me to run it again. I also cant move my mouse to click ok. I have run the recovery 3 times and it does the same thing. Need Help Bad! Can someone tell me how to fix it. thanks

  9. I ran a recovery on my computer and it keeps telling me to run it again. what can i do to fix this problem?

  10. sanyam gupta says:

    i have two operating system in my system windows(sp3) and linux (ubuntu)
    now when i start windows it does booting but explorer is not working also
    system is not working proprely in safe mode so help me how i can start my windows

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  1. [...] my last windows explorer tutorial I explained how to open Windows Explorer, now I will start showing some of the functions people need to know. A lot of time a file we are [...]

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