Both the My Computer and Explorer views of your system resources are
produced by the same program. The My Computer view uses a single window
pane to show you your system's resources. Hold down the Shift key while
double clicking the My Computer icon on the desktop to open up the dual
pane Explorer view. You can also choose View|Options from the menu, click
the File Types tab of the dialog and double click the entry titled Folder.
You will see that there are two choices Open and Explore.By default open
is highlighted in bold, meaning that the My Computer view is the default
view.
Click on Explore, then click the Set Default button to change the default
view to Explorer. From then on, double clicking the My Computer icon on
the desktop opens the dual pane Explorer view.
--------
Explorer: When you display files in Details view, you can sort them
by clicking the column headings. In Explorer, can Move, Copy, Rename,
Compress, View, and Delete files & folders.
-------
To get Explorer to show a two directory view similar to File Manager just
open two instances of the Explorer, right-click on the Task bar, and select
"Tile Vertically". Win95 will retain both if you leave them running when
you shut down so that they're instantly available the next time you
boot up.
-------
Setting Default Explorer View
Explorer enables you to set the view for folder information using the View
menu and the toolbar. Once you have adjusted the sort order, auto arrange,
icon/list view of files, etc. hold down the Ctrl key while you click the X
button to close Explorer. This will cause the settings to be put into the
registry during the next shut down, and those settings will be used
whenever you open a previously unviewed folder. There are separate
settings for the Explorer and My Computer views, so you can customize
both.
------
Explorer Default Drive Partition
Noticed that Explorer always opens looking at your C partition of your drive? If you are like me, you rarely do much file managment on the C:\ partition. To change the partition that Explorer will view: From the Start menu, select Settings and click on Taskbar. Select the Start Menu Programs Tab. Click on the Advanced... button, then double-click Programs and find your Windows Explorer shortcut. Right click the Explorer shortcut and select on Properties from the drop down menu. Click on the Shortcut tab and note the path and command line in the Target field. It should look like:
C:\Windows\Explorer.exe /n,/e,C:\
the last switch at the end of the command line is the drive letter it will open. If you want, for example, Drive E to open by default just modify your command line to look like this:
C:\Windows\Explorer.exe /n,/e,E:\
-------
Start DIRECTORY: In the properties for the icon for Explorer enter the following:
EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,g:\Programs
This will cause explorer to start in g:\Programs when it comes up.
What do the /n and /e do? What other parameters are there? This is from the Windows Resource Kit available on the CD ROM refering to command line switches which you could add to your shortcut. You caHard drive Performancene switches for Windows Explorer in shortcut links or batch files, for example, to run Windows Explorer with a specified file selected
Syntax explorer [/n] [/e][,/root,object][[,/select],subobject]
Parameters
/n - Always open a new window (even if the specified folder is already open).
/e - Use Windows Explorer view. The default is Open view.
/root,object - Specify the object in the normal namespace that will be used as the root of this Windows Explorer Folder. Thedefault is to just use the normal namespace root (the desktop).
/select - Specifies that the parent folder is opened and the specified object is selected. subobject - Specify the folder to receive the initial focus unless /select is used. The default is the root.
Windows Explorer Examples (1)To open a window rooted at \\myserver so you
can easily browse the whole server, but nothing else: explorer
/e,/root,\\myserver (2) To open a folder window on C:\WINDOWS (or make an
open window active) and select CALC.EXE,StartUpxplorer
/select,c:\windows\calc.exe
-------
Use SendTo to make handling files easy
The SendTo folder, which may be hidden depending on how you have Explorer's
View|Options set, is a great place to put shortcuts to your most used
applications. When you right click on a file or shortcut, one of the
options in the context menu is Send To. Selecting an entry in the SendTo
list opens the file using the application you want to user. This technique
is especially handy for those files that have ambiguous file extensions, or
are registered as being opened by another application. If SendTo is hidden
on your system just select Run from the Start Menu and type SENDTO to open
the folder using Explorer.
-------
Use Wild Cards in Explorer File Searches
Q. Does Windows 95's Explorer let you filter the file display with a wild card (such as *.txt, for viewing only text files)? Or is there any other way to view files of a certain type? This was a cinch in Windows 3.1's File Manager.
A. The Explorer has taken some undeserved flak for being different from
File Manager. If you're willing to learn a new trick, press
If you still need a bit more incentive to abandon File Manager in favor of Explorer, consider this: With one command, you can turn frequently executed file searches into one-click desktop shortcuts. The next time you do an oft-repeated search, in the Find dialog box, select File*Save Search to tack your criteria to the desktop. Choose Options*Save Results before you save the search to include the list of found files, a nice tool for comparing the contents of a disk or directory before and after a particular operation. Windows 95 gurus will give the shortcuts plain-English names (with the .fnd extension) and drag them to the Start menu.
If you'd rather not have to learn a new interface, no problem: Windows 95
includes a 16-bit version of File Manager that's nearly identical to that
in Windows for Workgroups. Open Explorer and double-click winfile.exe in
the c:\windows folder, or select Start* Run, type winfile. exe, and click
OK.
-------
Getting to Explorer, Part I
In addition to opening standard folder windows, you can also use Windows 95's Explorer to view folders and the files within them. An Explorer window is a standard folder window with an extra pane on the left that contains a tree diagram of your drives and folders (what DOS and Windows 3.x used to call directories). You can launch Explorer by clicking the Start button and selecting Programs/Windows Explorer.
Getting to Explorer, Part II
If your mouse cursor is at the top of the screen rather than the bottom, you don't have to drag it all the way to the bottom to start Explorer. Just click My Computer, then hold down [Shift] as you double-click it.
Getting to Explorer, Part III
There's another way to launch Explorer: From a standard, single-pane folder window. Just select the folder you want to explore, then hold down [Shift] as you double-click it. An Explorer window will open up.
Make Explorer the Default
If you prefer Explorer to standard folder windows, select View/Options from
within either window. Click the File Types tab. Select the Folder file type
(not to be confused with the File Folder type) and click Edit.
Click the Set Default button until the word explore in the Actions list
turns bold. When you're done, close all of the dialog boxes you've
opened.
From now on, you'll always get Explorer when you open a window unless you
explicitly ask otherwise.
Getting There From the Toolbar
Sometimes it's easier to use the keyboard to just tell the computer where to go. To get to a particular folder, choose Start/Run ([Ctrl]-[Esc], then R), and type the folder's full path and name (for example, d:\doc\spreadsheets) in the resulting command line box. When you press [Enter], Windows will open a single-pane window to the designated folder.
Getting There From Explorer
If you're in Explorer, there's another way to get to a destination through typing. Select Tools/Go to (or press [Ctrl]-G), and type the path in the pop-up box. Explorer will jump to the directory you type.
Getting There in DOS, Part I
Experienced DOS users know they can move up one folder level with the command cd ... But in a Win 95 DOS window, you can also type cd ... to move up two levels, cd .... to move up three levels, cd ..... to move up four levels, and so on.
Getting There in DOS, Part II
You would think that you could open a folder from the DOS prompt the same way as from the Run box (see 7: Getting There From the Toolbar). You can't. Instead, at a DOS prompt, you must enter the command start, followed by the path, as in start "c:\windows\start menu", to open a folder. The quotation marks are required if your path includes any spaces.
For this to work, your c:\windows\command folder must be in your autoexec.bat's path statement. It's probably already there, because Win 95's install program puts it there by default.
Find a Variety
You can use Windows 95's Find command (Start/ Find/Files or Folders) to
search for multiple file names, or partial names, at one time; just
separate each with a comma, a space, or both. For example, enter *.exe,
*.com, *.bat, *.pif in the Named field to look for all executable
files.
------
Find (F3):
Search for a file or folder by name, date, or contents. Search results can be sorted by name, date, or size. You can then do with them what you please - rename, copy, delete, or move -- very powerfull.
Find function: Press F3 or use the Start/Find file, or Tools menu in Explorer, or R/click any folder icon, or R/click My Computer, then in File menu can open file, create Shortcut, see Properties etc.
Find (Usage): Use as filter to list certain type of files. Can search for multiple folders, files or file types: separate their names by a comma eg. *.bat, *.sys, bill?.* etc...
Can search for files or folder modified or created (same as modified date) within certain period.
Can also search by file type, size, or certain text in the files (click Advance). In the Result window can choose any view. If Details view, can sort the found files & folders by name, name of folder, date, size, file type, in asc or desc. order.
To go to the folder that contains a given file or folder, h/lite it, then
click File/Open container folder. Can save the search criteria for future
search, can modify it (File menu/Save search)
-------
Save Search Result:
After using Find files, click Options/Save results, then File menu/Save
search- an icon represent'g the search result will be on the Desktop. Next
time d/click on icon, click Find now to do search or update search
results.
-------
To find a file in the CD cab files:
If you know the file name or part of it:
Start - Find files or folders -
Name & Location tab: Named = *.cab
Look in: D:\Win95
Advanced tab: Of type = All files and folders
Containing text = enter the name of the file you need
click Find now ( in your win95 CD )
the cab file which contains the file you need appears in the box (I suppose
you have cabview installed) double-click this cab file (or R/click then
View) -
select the file/right-button hit extract.
or: Start | Find | *.cab searching for text "cpl" should have turned up all the cpl names inside the cab files.
Get your own Free Home Page