Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows XP in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Wake Up with Windows XP
  • Hour 1. Taking a Bird's-Eye Look at Windows XP
  • Hour 2. Getting Started with Windows XP
  • Hour 3. Managing the Windows XP Interface
  • Part II: Morning Windows Desktop Exploration
  • Hour 4. Working with the My Computer Window
  • Hour 5. Navigating Files with Windows Explorer
    • Introducing the Windows Explorer
    • The Explorer Options
    • Managing Documents with a Right Mouse Click
    • Right-Click to Copy and Move Documents
    • Using the Explorer's Task Pane
    • Where Do the Deleted Files Go?
    • Making Windows XP Easier to Use
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Hour 6. Calling for Help
  • Hour 7. Improving Your Windows Desktop Experience
  • Part III: Early Afternoon Windows Exploration
  • Hour 8. Installing Programs with Windows XP
  • Hour 9. Finding Files, Folders, and Friends
  • Hour 10. Using the Desktop Accessories
  • Part IV: Late Afternoon Internet Integration
  • Hour 11. Surfing the Web with Internet Explorer
  • Hour 12. Tying Windows into the Web
  • Hour 13. Networking with Windows XP
  • Hour 14. Managing E-mail and Newsgroups with Outlook Express
  • Part V: An Evening with Advanced Windows
  • Hour 15. Exploring Your Hardware Interface
  • Hour 16. Understanding Printing and Fonts
  • Hour 17. Using Windows on the Road
  • Hour 18. Giving Windows XP a Tune-Up
  • Hour 19. Managing Your Hard Drives
  • Hour 20. Tinkering with the Advanced System Tools
  • Part VI: Having Fun at Nighttime
  • Hour 21. Using Media Player
  • Hour 22. Picturing Windows XP Graphics
  • Hour 23. Making Movies with Windows XP
  • Hour 24. Advanced Windows XP Tips
  • Part VII: Appendixes
  • Appendix A. Differences Between the Windows Home and Professional Edition
  • Appendix B. Glossary
  • Appendix C. Answers to Quizzes

The Explorer Options

Explorer supports various display options for the items inside its windows. Files have filename extensions, a file suffix three or more letters long that appears after a filename. A filename might be MyPayments.TXT or All Accounts.act (filenames can contain spaces). The Tools, Folder Options command displays tabbed dialog boxes that enable you to control the way Explorer displays items.

Different users require different screens from the Explorer program. There are types of documents that you simply don't need to display during normal work inside Explorer. The system files are good examples of files that the typical user does not need to see.

In addition, the actual location of the file—its pathname—does not always match the system of embedded folders. In other words, a document might be located inside two embedded folders shown with the Explorer display, but the actual file might be embedded three levels deep on your hard disk. The system of folders—usually but not always—matches the system of directories on your disk. If you need to know exactly where folders and documents are located on your disk drive, you can request that Explorer display the full pathname of those folders and documents using these steps:

1. Select the Tools, Folder Options command to display the Folder Options tabbed dialog box shown in Figure 5.4.
2. Click the View tab to see the folder display options.
3. If you click the option labeled Display the full path in title bar, Explorer displays a full pathname of selected documents in the title bar every time you select one of the items in the left window.
   

   Figure 5.4 The Folder Options dialog box determines the appearance of Explorer.

4. Another option, Hide file extensions for known file types, determines how Windows responds to known file types. Windows comes installed with several types of files already registered, and you might not ever need to register additional types. Registered files are files that Windows recognizes by their filename extensions. When you install a program whose data file is not registered, the installation program registers the file type with Windows.

   The file type's registration tells Windows the required program needed to process files with that extension. Once registered, when you double-click that file's icon, Windows starts the program you've associated with that file. For example, when you double-click a file with a .cda extension, Windows starts the CD Player application because CD Player is the application associated to all files that end with the .cda extension.

5. Look through the remaining items to see the other folder options that Windows provides. Click OK to finish your selection.

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