Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Windows 2000 Secrets: Windows Explorer
Revealing his next consignment of Windows 2000 secrets, Dave Cook turns his attention to Windows Explorer
Improved Search facilities and a useful synchronize tool help to make Windows 2000 Explorer even more powerful than earlier versions. It still works in much the same way, though. Hence, most of the tips we'll be covering here and in our final look at Windows 2000 Explorer will also work on other Windows operating systems.
To open Windows 2000 Explorer, you click Start, select Programs, Accessories, and then Windows Explorer. But, hey, that method is for wimps! For speedier access, it's better to create an Explorer shortcut on the desktop (or on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, for that matter).
You can create shortcuts in various ways. The simplest is to click Start, and select Programs, and Accessories like before. Then right-click on Windows Explorer (keeping the button pressed down) and drag the icon onto the desktop before releasing the mouse button. From the pop-up menu that appears, select Create Shortcut(s) Here. Congratulations, you now have a Windows Explorer shortcut that can be dragged or positioned anywhere on the desktop (or taskbar).
Once launched, the default view of Explorer displays a two-pane view showing folders and subfolders in the left pane, and the contents of the current folder including subfolders in the right pane. All icons in the right pane will be large.
If you would like to see more information about each file contained in the My Documents folder, for example, first ensure that the My Documents folder is highlighted in Explorer's left pane, and that its contents (if any) are displayed in the right pane. Then, from the menu at the top of the screen, click View, Details.
To display even more information, click View, Choose Columns. You'll see that from here Explorer can be made to display many other pieces of information about a file or folder, including its attributes, information about its owner, or author, and even when it was last accessed.
Hide and Seek
In Windows 2000, Microsoft has again set the default Explorer view to hide important operating system files. This might be fine for Timid Timmy, but if you're in the least bit curious about your operating system you'll want to view everything stored on it. To do so, click Tools, and then Folder Options. Once opened, you'll see that apart from a few notable inclusions, such as Offline Files settings, the Windows 2000 Folder Options is a lot like the one in, say, Windows Me.
The Folder Options dialog box allows you to alter a wide range of configuration settings, but we'll concentrate on just two. Our first priority is to let Explorer display all those hidden system files. So click the View tab, and in the advanced settings dialog box, find the Hidden Files And Folders selection and then place a checkmark in the Show Hidden Files And Folders option.
Click OK for your new settings to take effect, but note that the first time you try to view the WINNT folder, to display all your system files you may have to click Show Files (in the right pane) first.
Our second example of how to customise Explorer requires us to return to the same My Documents folder that we changed earlier. Having gone to all the trouble of setting the My Documents folder to your liking, the next step is to make all of your folders appear in the same way. To do so, click Tools, Folder Options, and the View tab once more. Now click the Like Current Folder button to set all of your folders with the same view settings as the My Documents folder.
Next Time
Windows 2000's Explorer is good, but it's not perfect. For example, the way in which it defaults to the My Documents folder on launch doesn't suit everyone. In our final look at Windows 2000 Explorer, we'll show you how to change that setting. Thus, ensuring Explorer opens the way you - and not Microsoft - want it to.
