Using Windows XPthe User Experience


Windows XP has a familiar yet different user interface. Most of the visual aspects of the desktop environment have been updated, but you'll find most of the tools and applications you remember from Windows 9x and Windows 2000 right where you expect. The new interface or user experience is called Luna. Luna includes visual updates and improvements to all native dialog boxes, displays, windows, and interfaces. Most notably these changes are seen on the Start menu, the taskbar, the Explorer, and the Control Panel. If you want the older stylings of previous Windows versions (mainly Windows 2000 era visual stylings), revert to the "classic" style. However, we highly recommend giving the new look and feel a try for a week or so before ditching it.

Microsoft's visual palette has moved from a flat gray to include brilliant blues and subtle off-whites. In addition, Microsoft has rounded the corners of windows, added 3D icons, and added action centers (that is, tasks and commands focused on content) everywhere. The result is not only eye-pleasing, but elegantly simple to work with. But even with all the enhancements, everything still seems to have a similar function or placement to that of Windows 2000 and not too different from Windows 9x or Me. Thus, you'll easily leverage your existing experience and expertise in navigating and operating Windows XP. After a few days, you'll soon forget how you got by without all these useful improvements.

NOTE

For a nearly exhaustive list of keyboard shortcuts for navigating and controlling aspects of Windows XP, check out the "Windows keyboard shortcuts overview" document, available through the Help and Support Center. Just click Start, Help; type in the title in the Search field; and then click the green arrow. It should appear under Full-text Search Matches, so click on that button in the Search Results to get to it.


However, Windows is more than just an operating system and graphical user interface. Like other versions of Windows, Windows XP includes a broad collection of useful programs, from a simple arithmetic calculator to fancy system and network management tools. This list also includes a word-processing program called WordPad, a drawing program called Paint, Internet Explorer for cruising the Web, Outlook Express for email, MovieMaker for creating digital movies, NetMeeting for video and telephone conferencing over the Internet, CD burning software that lets you create your own CDs, a DVD playback tool, utilities for keeping your hard disk in good working order, and a data-backup programjust to name a few.

Parts of the Windows XP Screen

At this point, you should be booted and signed in. After you've logged in, Windows XP deposits you in its basic environment (called the desktop). You'll probably notice two things almost immediately: first, the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, and second, an empty (or nearly so) desktop (see Figure 4.4). The taskbar is the central control mechanism for the Windows XP user experience. It hosts the Start menu, the Quick Launch bar, active program buttons, the system tray, and the clock. The only item that is present on your desktop is the Recycle Bin, although if you purchased a computer system with XP pre-installed, you might see other icons as well. Notice that it's now located by default in the bottom right corner. (That's awfully Macintosh-ish, don't you think?)

Figure 4.4. The default desktop with the Start menu open.


NOTE

If you or someone else has used your Windows XP setup already, it's possible that some open windows will come up on the screen automatically when Windows boots (starts up). It's also possible that you'll see more icons on the Desktop than what's shown in Figure 4.4, depending on the options chosen when Windows XP was installed, whether other applications were loaded before upgrading, and whether custom shortcuts to the desktop have been defined.


There are three primary areas of the screen to explore: the desktop, icons, and the taskbar. All you really must know to use Windows XP's interface are these essential building blocks and how to manipulate a window and its commands. If you've been using Windows 3.x, 9x, NT, or 2000, then you already know the latter. You just need to be brought up to speed on the advanced XP interface specifics. As mentioned in the introduction, for the purposes of this book, we assume that you have basic Windows proficiency and have been using Windows 9x, NT, or 2000. Therefore, we skip subjects such as how to click using the mouse, what double-clicking is, and how to scroll a window. (If you need this level of hand-holding, you may want to find a beginner's book, such as Easy Windows XP, instead.)

The Desktop

Let's start with the desktop. This is your home base while doing your work in Windows. It is always on the screen as the backdrop (whether you see it or not) and you can deposit files and folders right on it for storage. It's analogous to a real desktop in this way. It also serves as a handy temporary holding area for files you might be copying from, say, a floppy disk to a hard disk folder. The Recycle Bin holds deleted work objects such as files and folders until you empty it (with caveats). Just as in previous versions of Windows (or the Mac for that matter, if you're coming from that background), you'll do all your work in Windows XP using graphical representations of your files and applications (called icons).

All the desktop icons you are familiar with from Windows 9x and 2000 have been moved to the Start menu. You can gain access to My Computer, My Documents, and My Network Places with a simple click on the Start button. If you revert to the previous Windows 2000 Start menu (called classic), then these items reappear on the desktop (see Chapter 23's section titled "Start Menu Pizzazz!"). In either case, you control which icons or shortcuts appear on your desktop.

You can add icons and shortcuts to your desktop to you heart's content. However, Windows XP doesn't want to let things stay cluttered. So, if you fail to use any of the items on your desktop for more than 60 days, the Desktop Cleanup Wizard is launched automatically to prod you into removing unused items or moving them into the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder. This folder appears on the desktop automatically after the Desktop Cleanup wizard is used to remove unused shortcuts. When the Desktop Cleanup Wizard launches, just follow the wizard's prompts to select which icons to remove (or, more specifically, move into the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder).

The Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin acts a bit like the waste paper basket at the side of your desk. After you throw something into it, it's basically trash to be thrown out; however, you can still retrieve items from it if you get there before the cleaning staff takes it and throws it away for good. Within Windows XP, the Recycle Bin holds those files you've deleted using Windows Explorer, My Computer, or the Open/Save As dialog boxes. It does not capture files deleted by third-party tools, files deleted from floppies or network drives, files removed with an uninstall program or from DOS boxes, and DOS files running in a DOS box.

The Recycle Bin has limited storage capacity. By default, it retains deleted files that total up to 10% of the total capacity of each hard drive on your computer. When the maximum size of the Recycle Bin is reached, the oldest files are permanently removed from the hard drive to make room for newly deleted files. The size of the Recycle Bin can be customized as a percentage across all drives or as a unique size on each individual volume. The Recycle Bin is customized through its Properties dialog box (see Figure 4.5). The configuration options are discussed in Chapter 23, "Tweaking the GUI," but if you want to get there now, just right-click over the Recycle Bin icon and select Properties from the pop-up menu.

Figure 4.5. The Recycle Bin Properties dialog box.


After a file is removed from the Recycle Bin, it cannot be recovered using native tools. You must restore the files from a backup, use a third-party recover tool (which often needs to be in place before the file is deleted), or live without the lost files. If you don't want your excess trash sitting around, you can also configure the system to bypass the Recycle Bin entirely so that it permanently deletes files immediately instead of granting you a recovery period.

To restore a file still retained in the Recycle Bin, double-click the desktop icon to open the Recycle Bin, locate and select the file to restore, and then issue the Restore command from the File menu or the Recycle Bin Tasks list (see Figure 4.6). The file/folder(s) will be returned to its original location.

Figure 4.6. Restoring a file from the Recycle Bin.


You can also manually empty the Recycle Bin. This is often a useful activity before defragmenting your hard drive or just wanting to permanently delete files and folders. The Empty Recycle Bin command, found in the right-click pop-up menu for the icon, the File menu (be sure no items are selected, otherwise the File menu's context changes to file/folder restore operations), and the Recycle Bin Tasks list of the Recycle Bin interface, is used to clear out all files being retained.

CAUTION

Don't try moving program files unless you know that they have not registered themselves with the operating system and they can harmlessly be moved around between folders. If you must move applications, use a tool specifically designed for this. The tool MagicMover from Symantec, a program bundled with an older version of PartitionMagic, version 5.0 (see www.symantec.com), was able to perform this task for Windows XP.


Icons

As you almost certainly know, the small graphical representations of your programs and files are called icons. Windows XP uses icons to represent folders, documents, programs, and groups of settings (such as dial-up connections). Graphically, icons got a 3D facelift in Windows XP, even when compared to their Windows 2000 counterparts. In most cases, the default icon displayed for an object somewhat represents the function of that object.

NOTE

In recent versions of Windows Microsoft has begun using the term "folder" instead of "directory". They want to focus your thoughts toward the idea of your files being stored on the hard drive in a manner similar to that of a filing cabinet for manila folders. While we think this analogy is helpful, we don't always stick to Microsoft-speak. So, if you see "folder" or "directory" anywhere in this book, keep in mind we consider them to be the same thing.


Icons are either objects themselves or they are shortcuts. A shortcut is a means to gain access to an object from multiple locations throughout the environment. Shortcuts are the preferred mechanism by which access to the same object is achieved from multiple locations, rather than making duplicate copies of the original object or application. Duplicating the object often causes version problems, such as never knowing which one has your most recent changes, and difficulties in upgrading or replacing applications. Shortcuts eliminate these issues and take up less space. You could have thousands of shortcuts pointing to the same application or document and still save drive space!

Additionally, a shortcut can define alternative launching parameters, such as default directories, command line parameters, compatibility mode, and so on. To alter the settings of a shortcut, just right-click and select Properties from the pop-up menu.

NOTE

Compatibility mode is a nifty new feature that enables Windows XP to support a wider range of software products than Windows 95 and Windows NT combined. A compatibility mode is simply a designation for a software platform emulation environment. In other words, when an application is launched with compatibility mode enabled, a virtual machine representing that application's native environment (Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, or Windows 2000) is created in such a way that the application is fooled into thinking that it is the only application present on the computer system running its preferred OS.

Don't fret that I didn't include MS-DOS or Windows 16-bit (Windows 3.x) applications in that list of environments. Those are already automatically launched into their own virtual machine. That is discussed in Chapter 23.


Dialog Box Changes

The Open and Save dialog boxes (a.k.a. file or browse dialog boxes) for most applications still offer the same shortcuts and controls as those of Windows 9x, Me, and 2000. This typically includes a shortcut menu to History, Desktop, My Documents, My Computer, and My Network Places. You'll also still find the Look In pull-down list with quick selections for local drives, user home directories, shared folders, and more. Not all applications that function on Windows XP will offer a fully enhanced file dialog box.

Many dialog boxes have tabs. These often appear at the top of a dialog box, like the tabs for General and Sharing shown in Figure 4.7. Tabs are used to offer multiple pages or displays of controls within a single smaller window. Many of the configuration settings dialog boxes have tabs, so watch for them. To select another tab, just click on it. In some cases, tabs are easy to miss. The new color scheme and display enhancements don't always direct your eyes to tabs.

Figure 4.7. A properties dialog box containing tabs you can click to see additional settings.


My Computer and Windows Explorer

My Computer and Windows Explorer are still present with many of the same functions and features as in previous versions of Windows, but a few interesting enhancements have been made. Yes, Windows Explorer is still hidden away in the Accessories area of the Start menu. Microsoft wants to draw your attention away from how files are managed on the hard drive and to direct your attention to how documents are arranged within your personal folders (such as My Documents, My Pictures, and so on). My Computer and Windows Explorer are used to access the folder structure of your hard drives to locate files. Through these tools you can move, copy, delete, rename, create new, and more.

TIP

Surprisingly, Windows XP still includes a Program Manager from the days of Windows 3.x. It's there for full backward compatibility for applications. If you want to work with it, just execute Progman.exe in the Start, Run box. Keep in mind that File Manager doesn't work with long filenames. Also, it doesn't have the capability to exploit the advances in the interface, such as links to the Web, and lacks flexibility in cutting, copying, and pasting objects between locations, including networked workstations.


WebView

WebView is Microsoft's attempt to make your local content integrate as seamlessly as possible with Internet-based content. This integration offers the benefits of more information displayed within the interface by default and quick access to common activities. For example, a single click can initiate a file or folder rename, a move or copy, or even the deletion of a selected item (or items).

NOTE

In the chapters on using the Internet (Chapters 8-14), we'll cover the ins and outs of getting connected, browsing the Web, using search engines, creating and serving Web pages, and using email, newsgroups, and so forth. However, what's relevant here is how the Windows XP WebView affects how you work with files and folders.


The WebView display option for Windows Explorer and My Computer has been greatly improved. No longer a direct annoyance, WebView finally offers useful information, true content-directed capabilities, and easier data object manipulation. What does this all mean? Well, it means that doing the things you normally do with files and folders will be easier than ever before. Basically, WebView transforms the interfaces of your file and folder utilities into more Web-like mechanisms. They offer graphical representations of objects, they display more details about the selected objects, and most of the functions or commands are single-click activated.

Figure 4.8 shows Windows Explorer in WebView. WebView gives you access to common tasks related to files and folders. In addition to the list of quick access tasks, WebView displays a quick access panel that allows you to jump quickly to other resource locations. The Details section displays basic information about a selected item, such as

  • The selected item's name and type (such as document, folder, application, and so on)

  • The date on which it was most recently modified

  • Its size, author, and other item-specific information

Figure 4.8. Windows Explorer in WebView.


Much of this information also appears in a ToolTip when the mouse cursor is placed over an object.

Some of the key WebView effects integrated into Windows XP include

  • Your desktop is "active." It can display Web page information (such as your home page) or streaming data gathered from the Internet, such as news, weather reports, traffic reports, stock tickers, and so on.

  • My Computer and Windows Explorer have Back, Forward, Search, and History buttons, just like a Web browser.

  • The toolbars in folder and Explorer windows are customizable and have address lines, just like a browser. You can type in a Web address, hit Enter (or click Go), and the window will adjust appropriately to display the content. If you enter a Web address, that page will display. If you enter a drive letter (C:, for example), its contents will be displayed.

  • Every folder on your system can be customized with a background color, picture, hot links, instructions, and so forth. Basic customizations are made without knowledge of HTML coding, through a wizard.

  • Many of the Windows preset folders already have hot links to relevant sites, help files, and troubleshooting tools.

  • WebView can be fully customized with unique icons for each folder and file, different display layouts for each folder, and thumbnails of album art on music files.

  • Windows XP is able to navigate the contents of compressed archives, such as zip files, without a third party utility. Archive files act like compressed folders.

There are many more features and options in the interface, but we'll get to those in the sections on customizing with the Control Panel, as well as in the Windows Explorer and My Computer coverage. Also, Chapter 23 covers even more ways to change the interface.

WebView is enabled by default on Windows XP. But, if you decide you would rather live without WebView, it is not difficult to return to the Classic style of Windows 2000's interfaces. WebView is enabled and disabled through the Folder Options Control Panel applet, by choosing Tools, Folder Options from any My Computer or Windows Explorer window. As shown in Figure 4.9, WebView is enabled or disabled on the General tab of the Folder Options Control Panel applet by choosing either Show common tasks in Folders or Use Windows classic folders. This is a systemwide change. Once WebView is disabled, it is disabled on all Windows Explorer and My Computer windows.

Figure 4.9. The General tab of the Folder Options Control Panel applet.


If you're the controlling type, you might want to fine-tune other aspects of your folders' behavior. Go back to the Folder Options applet, and then select the View tab. You'll see a bevy of options that affect how folders and their contents are displayed. Change any settings you like. (Some of these are pretty technical, though. If you don't understand a setting, don't touch it.) We'll check out most of these in Chapter 23.

Selecting Several Items

On most lists, especially within My Computer and Windows Explorer, not to mention the file and browser dialog boxes, you can select multiple items at once to save time. The normal rules of selection apply:

  • Draw a box around them by clicking and holding over empty space near the first item then drag across and over the desired selections until all are highlighted and/or contained within the selection box, and then release the mouse button.

  • Select the first of the items, hold down the Ctrl key, and click to select each additional object you want to work with. Use this technique to select a bunch of noncontiguous items.

  • Select the first of the items, hold down the Shift key, and click the last item. This selects the entire range of objects between the starting and ending points.

After several items are selected (they will be highlighted), right-clicking any one of the objects will bring up the Cut, Copy, Paste menu. The option you choose will apply to all the selected items. Also, clicking anywhere outside of the selected items will deselect them all, and Ctrl-clicking (or pointing) to one selected object will deselect it.

TIP

Take a look at the Edit menu in any folder window. There are two commands at the bottom of the menu: Select All and Invert Selection. These can be useful when you want to select a group of files. Suppose you want to select all but two files; select the two you don't want and then choose Edit, Invert Selection.


Drag-and-drop support is implemented uniformly across the Windows XP interface. In general, if you want something placed somewhere else, you can drag it from the source to the destination. For example, you can drag items from the Search box into a folder or onto the desktop, or you can add a picture attachment to an email you're composing by dragging the picture file into the new email's window. Also, the destination folder does not have to be open in a window. Items dropped onto a closed folder icon are added to that folder. You can also drag-and-drop items via the taskbar by dragging an item over an application button and waiting a second for that application to be brought to the forefront. You can also drop items into the Start menu to add them to the listings, or drop items over desktop icons to open them with the application onto which you drop the item (assuming the application supports the object's file type).

Arranging your screen so you can see source and destination is graphically and intuitively reassuring, because you can see the results of the process. However, it's not always the easiest. Once you get familiar with the interface, you'll want to try the Cut, Copy, and Paste methods of moving files and folders.

CAUTION

Don't try moving program files unless you know they have not registered themselves with the operating system and they can harmlessly be moved around between folders.


Putting Items on the Desktop

The Desktop is a convenient location for either permanent or temporary storage of items. Many folks use the Desktop as a home for often-used documents and program shortcuts. I'm quite fond of using the Desktop as an intermediary holding tank when moving items between drives, computers, or to and from floppy disks. It's particularly good for pulling found items out of a Search window or other folder while awaiting final relocation elsewhere.

Here are some quick notes about use of the Desktop that you should know about. For starters, you can send a shortcut of an object to the Desktop very easily by right-clicking it and choosing Send To, Desktop (thus creating the shortcut).

Second, remember that the Desktop is nothing magical. Actually, it's just another folder with a few additional properties, prime among them is the option to have live active Internet-based information, such as stock tickers, weather, and the like. Also, each user on the machine can have his/her own Desktop setup, with icons, background colors, screen saver, and such.

The major feature of the Desktop is that whatever you put on it is always available by minimizing or closing open windows or more easily by clicking the Show Desktop button on the Quick Launch bar. Keep in mind that some items cannot be moved onto the Desktoponly their shortcuts can. (For example, if you try dragging a Control Panel applet to the Desktop, you'll see a message stating that you cannot copy or move the item to this location.)

If you must be able to access a Control Panel applet from the Desktop, the answer is clear in this case because you don't really have a choice. Just create a shortcut to the applet and place it on the Desktop. However, in other cases when you're copying and moving items around, particularly when using the right-click method, you'll be presented with the options of copying, moving, or creating a shortcut to the item. What's the best choice?

Here are a few reminders about shortcuts. Remember that they work just as well as the objects they point to (for example, the program or document file), yet take up much less space on the hard disk. For this reason, they're generally a good idea. What's more, you can have as many shortcuts scattered about for a given object as you want. Therefore, for a program or folder you use a lot, put its shortcuts wherever you need themput one on the Desktop, one on the Quick Launch bar, one on the Start menu, and another in a folder of your favorite programs on the Desktop.

Make up shortcuts for other objects you use a lot, such as folders, disk drives, network drives and printers, and Web links. From Internet Explorer, for example, drag the little blue E icon that precedes a URL in the address bar out to the Desktop to save it as a shortcut. Clicking it will bring up the Web page.

CAUTION

Remember that shortcuts are not the item they point to. They're aliases only. Therefore, copying a document's shortcut to a floppy or a network drive or adding it as an attachment to an email doesn't copy the document itself. If you want to send a document to some colleagues, don't make the mistake of sending them the shortcut unless it's something they'll have access to over the LAN or Web. If it's a shortcut to, say, a word-processing document or folder, they'll have nothing to open.


The link between shortcuts and the objects they point to can be broken. This happens typically when the true object is erased or moved. Clicking the shortcut can result in an error message. In Windows 2000 and in Windows XP, this problem is addressed in an ingenious way. Shortcuts automatically adjusted when linked objects are moved. The operating system keeps track of all shortcuts and attempts to prevent breakage. Shortcut "healing" is built into Windows XP for those situations where the automated recover mechanism fails.

If you're in doubt about the nature of a given shortcut, try looking at its properties. You may find it telling, or at least interesting. Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. Clicking on Find Target will locate the object the shortcut links to and will display it in a folder window.

TIP

To quickly bring up the Properties dialog box for most objects in the Windows GUI, you can highlight the object and press Alt+Enter.


Saving Files on the Desktop from a Program

Because the desktop is a convenient place to plop files and folders, modern applications' Save As boxes list the desktop as a destination option. Even if the app's dialog box doesn't have the desktop icon in the left pane, the drop-down list at the top of the box will have it. If you are using a very old legacy application (such as those for Windows 3.x), you may need to manually locate the desktop folder within the file system. It's located on the same drive as the main Windows directory, in \Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop (where <username> is the name of the user account).

Locating the desktop in a Windows 3.x program's Save As box is a pain, because long filenames will be truncated to 8.3-style names and have ~ marks imposed on them. Here's how that works: For 16-bit programs, Windows removes spaces, shortens long names to six characters, and inserts a ~ character and then a number. If two files have the same first six characters (for example, Bob's resume and Bob's resume revised), the number is incremented for the second file. Therefore, those files appear as bobres~1 and bobres~2.

NOTE

The location of the desktop folder for a user will not be on the local machine if IntelliMirror is being used on a network using Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003 in such a way that the user's desktop will follow him or her from workstation to workstation. In this case, the desktop will be in a folder on the server and will be more difficult to locate from an old-style Save As dialog box. Just use another folder to save the file and then move it to the desktop using My Computer or Windows Explorer.


Properties and the Right-Click

Ever since Windows 95, a common theme that unites items within Windows is the aspect called properties. Properties are pervasive throughout Windows 9x, Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, and now Windows XP. The Properties dialog boxes provide a means for making changes to the behavior, appearance, security level, ownership, and other aspects of objects throughout the operating system. Object properties apply to everything from individual files to folders, printers, peripherals, screen appearance, the computer itself, or a network or workgroup. All these items have property sheets that allow you to easily change various settings. For example, you might want to alter whether a printer is the default printer or whether a folder on your hard disk is shared for use by coworkers on the LAN.

A typical set of properties is shown in Figure 4.10, which displays the properties for the D: drive (hard disk) on a computer. Notice that there are several tab pages on this dialog box. Some property dialogs only have a single page, whereas others may have many.

Figure 4.10. A typical Properties dialog box for a hard disk.


Property sheets are very useful and often serve as shortcuts for modifying settings that otherwise would take you into the Control Panel or through some other circuitous route. With some document files (for example, Word files), you can examine many settings that apply to the file, such as the creation date, author, editing history, and so forth. A typical printer's property sheet contains security, color management, location, name, and share status information. You can even change your screen colors, display resolution, screen savers, and more by right-clicking over the desktop and clicking Properties from the pop-up menu. This opens the Display applet without having to traverse the Control Panel.

Although everyday users might not have need for property sheets, power users certainly will. As you use property sheets, you'll also become familiar with and accustomed to another aspect of the Windows XP interface: the right-click. Until Windows 9x, the left (primary) mouse button was the one you did all your work with unless you were using a program that specifically utilized the other buttons, such as some art programs. However, Windows 9x instituted the use of the right-click to bring up various "context-sensitive" menus in programs and throughout the interface. These have been incorporated into Windows XP.

Here are some typical uses of right-click context menus:

  • Sharing a folder on the network

  • Changing the name of your hard disk and checking its free space

  • Changing a program's icon

  • Creating a new folder

  • Setting the desktop's colors, background, screen saver, and so on

  • Adjusting the date and time of the clock quickly

  • Closing an application by right-clicking on its icon in the taskbar and choosing Close

  • Displaying a font's technical details

  • Renaming an object

  • Accessing an object's Properties dialog box

As an example of the right-click, simply get to an empty place on the Desktop and right-click on it. Right by the cursor, you'll see a menu that looks like the one shown in Figure 4.11. Notice that you can slide up and down the menu to make choices. Choose Properties down at the bottom of the list. You'll see the Properties settings for the your desktop (as well as general video display, screen saver, and other related items). By the way, many menus (Start, menu bar, pop-up, and so on) have commands with a small arrow to one side. If you highlight one of these commands, a submenu will fly open, hence the term fly-open menu.

Figure 4.11. An example of a right-click menu, this one from an empty location on the desktop. Notice how it contains fly-open menus.


Here are some other examples of useful right-click activities:

  • Right-clicking on any window's title bar produces a menu containing the Restore, Move, Size, Minimize, Maximize, and Close commands.

  • Right-clicking on and dragging an icon from the Explorer or a folder onto the desktop reveals a pop-up menu with the options Copy Here, Move Here, Create Shortcuts Here, and Cancel.

  • In many applications, selecting text and then right-clicking produces an edit menu at the cursor location that lets you choose Cut, Copy, or Paste.

  • Right-clicking an empty area of the taskbar gives you a menu that lets you manage the display of all the windows you have open. For example, you can tile all open windows or set the properties of the taskbar. (The taskbar is discussed in more detail later in this chapter.)

  • In the Explorer, right-clicking on a file lets you work with it in various ways, depending on the file type. You can open the document, send it to an email recipient, run a program, install or set up a utility such as a screen saver, play a sound file, and so forth.

If you want to use Windows most efficiently, make a habit of right-clicking on objects to see what pops up. You may be surprised to see how much time you save with the resulting shortcuts.

NOTE

Starting with this chapter, we're going to assume that you understand the choice between single-click mode and double-click mode. Some of the figures in the book might have icons, files, or other object names underlined, whereas others may not, based on what mode the computer was set in when the screen shots were grabbed. Don't let it throw you. When we say "double-click something," we mean run it or open it by whatever technique is applicable based on your click setting. Also, when we say "click on it," that means select it. Remember that if you have single-clicking turned on, just hover the pointer over (that is, point to) the item to select it. Generally, we will be working from the defaults set by Microsoft.


Using the Folders Bar (A.K.A. Windows Explorer)

For a bird's-eye view of your computer, turning on the Folders bar is the way to go. It makes copying, moving, and examining all the contents of your computer easier than navigating up and down the directory tree through folders. If you're doing housekeeping, copying and moving items around from one folder to another or across the network, or hopping back and forth between viewing Web pages and your local hard disk, mastering this view will serve you well.

You probably remember that the folder view was introduced with Windows 95 in the form of Windows Explorer, and although it's still in XP under that name, it's not featured as much as it used to be. This is because the functionality of Windows Explorer can be added to all folder windows (such as My Computer) simply by clicking on the Folders button in the toolbar. The Folder View paradigm affords significant power and flexibility in file and folder control, and has been adopted by Microsoft and other software makers for other classes of programs. For example, right-click on My Computer and choose Manage. The resulting application (Computer Management) uses the same approach, as do many Web pages.

For everyday file and folder management, I prefer Folder View over the usual folder system, which can clutter your screen with numerous overlapping windows when you have lots of them open. Instead, with Folder View (call it Windows Explorer, if you wish), whether you want to examine the Control Panel, the local area network, the Internet, your hard disk, or the Recycle Bin, it can all be done with a minimum of effort from the Explorer. Folder View also makes copying and moving files between far-flung folders and drives a snap.

To recap, you can get to the Windows Explorer in two ways:

  • Open My Computer (or any folder) and choose View, Explorer Bar, Folders (or easier yet, click on the Folders button in the toolbar).

  • Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer.

Figure 4.12 shows the folders that appear on my own computer in Folder View.

Figure 4.12. The basic Windows Explorer screen, showing the computer's major components on the left and the contents on the right.


TIP

As an easy way into Windows Explorer, I always keep a shortcut to it on the Quick Launch bar or on the Desktop (see Chapter 23 for how to use the Quick Launch bar). Another trick is to right-click the Start button and choose Explore. This brings up the Windows Explorer, too.


Displaying the Contents of Your Computer

When you use Folder View (or run Windows Explorer), all the objects constituting your computer appear in the list on the left. Some of those objects have a plus sign (+) next to them, which means the object is collapsed; it contains subitems that aren't currently showing. For example, the hard disk drives (C: and D:) shown in Figure 4.12 are collapsed. So are My Network Places and My Documents.

Click an item in the left pane to see its contents in the right pane. If the item has a plus sign, click it to open up the sublevels in the left pane, showing you the relationship of the folders and other items in a tree arrangement. In the figure, you can see that the Bob's Documents folder has been opened in this way. Notice that the + is replaced with a minus (-) sign, indicating that the object's display has been expanded. Clicking the minus sign causes that branch to collapse.

If you open a local disk drive or disk across the network, you can quickly get a graphical representation of the disk's folder layout. Then, click a folder to see its contents. By right-clicking on disks, folders, or files, you can examine and set properties for them. The straight lines connecting folders indicate how they're related. If you have more folders than can be seen at one time, the window will have a scrollbar that you can use to scroll the tree up and down.

Notice that there are two scrollbarsone for the left pane and one for the right. These scroll independently of one anothera feature that can be very useful when you're copying items from one folder or drive to another.

Working with Objects in Folder View

Working with folders and files in this view is simple. As explained previously, you just click an item in the left pane, and its contents appear in the right pane. Choose the view (Large Icons, Small Icons, and so on) for the right pane using either the toolbar's View button or the View menu. In Details view, you can sort the items by clicking the column headings.

When they're displayed, you can drag items to other destinations, such as a local hard disk, a floppy drive, or a networked drive. You can drag and drop files, run programs, open documents that have a program association, and use right-click menu options for various objects. For example, you can right-click files or folders and choose Send To, 3 1/2 Floppy to copy items to a floppy disk. I use the Send To, Mail Recipient option all the time, to send attachments to people via email.

With a typical hard disk containing many files, when its folders are all listed in the left pane, some will be offscreen. Because the two panes have independent scrollbars, dragging items between distant folders is not a problem. Here's the game plan:

1.

Be sure the source and destination folders are open and visible in the left pane, even if you have to scroll the pane up and down. For example, a network drive should be expanded, with its folders showing (using and mapping network drives are covered in Chapter 17).

2.

Click the source folder in the left pane. Now its contents appear to the right.

3.

Scroll the left pane up or down to expose the destination folder. (Click only the scrollbar, not a folder in the left pane; if you do, it will change the displayed items on the right side.)

4.

In the right pane, locate and drag the items over to the left, landing on the destination folder. The folder must be highlighted; otherwise, you've aimed wrong.

This technique will suffice most of the time. Sometimes it's too much of a nuisance to align everything for dragging. In that case, use the cut/copy-and-paste technique discussed earlier in the chapter. Remember, you can copy and paste across your home LAN as well as between your local drives.

Here are a few tips when selecting folders:

  • Only one folder can be selected at a time in the left pane. If you want to select multiple folders, click the parent folder (such as the drive icon) and select the folders in the right pane. Use the same techniques described earlier for making multiple selections.

  • When a folder is selected in the left pane, its name becomes highlighted. This is a reminder of which folder's contents are showing in the right pane.

  • You can jump quickly to a folder's name by typing its first letter on the keyboard. If there's more than one folder with the same first letter, each press of the key will advance to the next choice.

  • The fastest way to collapse all the branches of a given drive is to click that drive's plus sign.

  • You can quickly rearrange a drive's folder structure in the left pane by dragging folders around. You can't drag disk drives, but you can create shortcuts for them (for example, a network drive) by dragging them to, say, the Desktop.

  • If a folder has subfolders, those will appear in the right pane as folder icons. Clicking one of those will open it as though you had clicked that subfolder in the left pane.

  • When dragging items to collapsed folders (ones with a plus sign), hovering the pointer over the folder for a second will open it.

  • You can use the right-click-drag technique when dragging items if you want the option of clearly choosing Copy, Move, or Create Shortcut when you drop the item on the target.

  • To create a new folder, in the left pane, click the folder under which you want to create the new folder. Right-click in the right pane and choose New, Folder.

  • Delete a folder by right-clicking on it and choosing Delete. You'll be asked to confirm.

CAUTION

Although powerful, the Folder View is also dangerous. It makes accidental rearrangement of your hard disk's folders extremely easy. When selecting folders, be careful to not accidentally drag them! The icons are small, and this is easy to do accidentally, especially over in the left pane. A little flick of the wrist and a click of the mouse, and you've dragged one folder on top of another folder. This makes it a subfolder of the target. Remember, the left pane is "live" too. Rearranging the directory tree could make programs and files hard to find and even make some programs not work. If you think you've accidentally dragged a folder (its subfolders will go, too) into the wrong place, open the Edit menu. The first choice will probably read Undo Move. Choose it, and the folders or files you dragged will be returned to their previous locations.




Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows XP Professional (3rd Edition)
ISBN: 0789732807
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 450

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