Wednesday, May 25, 2011

File explorer options

  • Just a thought: The file explorer is quite cool in itself. Every OS should have one without which browsing through files could be a real pain. The windows file explorer has many options under the "Folder options" dialog that probably most of us never bothered to see nor customize.
    • How to open "Folder options": In the file explorer do any one of these:
      • Press ATL + t and then o
      • Select Tools->"Folder options" from the menu.
    • Some interesting options that fall under the "View" tab are:
      1. Display full path in the address/title bar:
        • Use: To know where you are
        • Recommendation: Check
        1. Show hidden files, folders and ... :
          • Use: Displays hidden files and folders
            • Recommendation: Select
              • Details: Some OS and application files are hidden by default. The aim is to prevent accidental data modification by the user. If you enable this, folders and files that you probably never saw will be displayed. It might take a while to get used to this, but it's worth it as you will know about all the hidden files that exist on the system. :-)
              1.  Hide extensions for known file types:
                • Use: Hides the file extension, displays only names
                  • Recommendation: Uncheck
                    • Details: If this is checked and you try to change the extension, the file name is changed and the extension remains the same - Not what you want. If you uncheck it all extensions are visible and changeable.
                    1.  Hide protected OS files:
                      • Use: Hides important OS files
                        • Recommendation: Uncheck
                          • Details: It is better to leave it checked unless you really want all system files to be displayed. Accidental modification/deletion of these files may render the OS corrupt and unbootable.
                          1.  The "Apply to folders" button:
                            • Use: The current layout is preserved for all file explorer windows opened henceforth.
                              • Details: If you like the layout of the current file explorer window(detailed/icon/tiles/list etc.) and want all future explorer windows to be like this one, click this button. Now you don't have to change the layout for each window you open.

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