But when you need to find something that isn’t listed there-when you need to burrow manually through the labyrinth of folders on the machine-Windows offers two key methods of undertaking a folder quest.įirst, you can open the My Computer window, as described at the beginning of this chapter. Most of the time, you can get where you’re going on your computer using the commands, programs, and folders listed in the Start menu. The hidden folders include: Application Data (which your programs may use to store user-specific settings and files), Local Settings (Internet Explorer’s history list and cache file, for example), NetHood (shortcuts for the icons in your My Network Places window), My Recent Documents (document shortcuts, the ones that show up in the optional My Recent Documents submenu of the Start menu), and SendTo, which is described later in this chapter. Your account folder actually holds much more than this, but the rest of the folders are hidden, reserved for use by Windows itself. In general, the only action you’ll perform that involves this folder is periodically backing up the Local Disk (C:) → Documents and Settings → folder → My Documents folder. This is where Windows stores your preferences, documents, pictures and music, and so on. They include these standard folders:Įverything that makes your Windows XP experience your own sits inside the Local Disk (C:) → Documents and Settings → folder. Suddenly the C: drive’s formerly invisible contents appear. So when you’re just looking (but not touching) the Windows system files, or when you want to burrow around in your own folders, it’s perfectly OK to click the “Show the contents of this folder” link. Truth is, the C: drive also contains a lot of stuff that doesn’t belong to Windows-including your files. “You should not modify its contents.” ( Figure 4-2 shows a similar message.)Īll of this important-sounding prose is aimed at the kind of person who, before the invention of this warning message, fearlessly or naively cruised through the important system files of their PCs, deleting and moving files until the computer was inoperable (and then calling Microsoft for tech support). “This folder contains files that keep your system working properly,” it says. If you double-click the Local Disk C: icon in My Computer-that is, your primary hard drive’s icon-a direly worded message lets you know that these files are hidden. It’s organized primarily for Windows’ own benefit. You might be surprised to learn that your main hard drive window doesn’t actually contain anything much that’s useful to you, the PC’s human companion. So there probably aren’t many “files stored on this computer.” They probably sit on some centralized server machine elsewhere on the network. Why the difference? Because in a corporation, your files probably aren’t even on your PC. On a workgroup PC, you get a third section, called " Files Stored on This Computer.” It lists the My Documents folders for each person who has an account on-and who has logged on to-this computer. “Hard Disk Drives” and “Devices with Removable Storage” ( Figure 4-1). On a computer that’s part of a domain, you see only two sections: As you’ll discover over and over again, the Windows XP experience is slightly different depending on which kind of network you’re on. The difference is that your PC at work is probably on a network domain, and the one at home belongs to a smaller, less formal workgroup network ( Chapter 13). The My Computer window at home and the My Computer window on my PC at work don’t look alike. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: The View from a Window
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