Windows 11 File Explorer

By Len Nasman, Bristol Village Computer Club, [Link]

Introduction
Understanding Windows 11 File Explorer is key to taking control of your computer.
If you have ever saved a file and later had a hard time finding it, or if you have
downloaded picture files and want to organize them into a manageable system, Win-
dows 11 File Explorer will help. If you want to transfer files to or from flash drives
or an external hard drive, Windows 11 File Explorer can make the job easy.
The Windows 11 File Explorer presents a significant change from Windows Explorer that was included with
earlier versions of Windows. If you are bothered by the changes, fear not. If you spend a little time going
through this document and learn to use the new File Explorer, you will find it easy to use and more powerful
then the old Windows Explorer.
Just as Microsoft Internet Explorer (or Edge) provides a method of accessing the Internet in an organized
fashion, Windows 11 File Explorer provides a method of examining and organizing files in your computer.
This tutorial is designed to provide the basic information needed to take control of your computer files
through the use of Windows 11 File Explorer.
Computer Files
Nearly every bit of information in your computer is organized into files. The pro-
grams that run applications are stored in files. Applications (Apps) are computer
programs that allow you to do word processing, enhance pictures, read and write
email, explore the Internet, or do anything at all with your computer. The data used
to show the contents of an email message or a picture is stored in files. When you
receive an email message from someone, the message is copied from a file some-
where in the world to a file in your electronic mailbox. If you want to be in control
of your computer, you have to learn about the computer filing system. Inside a hard drive
Computer files are stored on disk drives. Disk drives take the form of hard drives, CD and
DVD drives, flash drives, memory cards, and, in the old days, floppy disk drives. The main
storage location for most computer files are hard drives, and the main hard drive in a Win-
dows computer is identified as C: along with a drive name.
It might help understand how computer files are organized by
thinking of using electronic file cabinets. The different disk drives
in the computer are kind of like different file cabinets. Each file
cabinet can have several drawers, and each drawer can contain
file folders where documents (or files) are stored.
In the electronic computer file cabinet, each disk drive can be
organized into folders, and a folder can contain one or more files.
It is also possible to have a folder inside another folder that is
inside another folder and so on. The tool that can be used to visu-
alize how these electronic files are organized, and the tool that
gives you control over all of these disk drives, folders, and files is
Windows 11 File Explorer.

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 Windows 11 File Explorer

Each computer file has a particular format, or method of organizing the bits of data that make up the file.
When an application program (like a word processor or a graphics program) saves a file, it organizes the
data in a manner specific to that pro-
gram.
Figure 1 shows that hard drive C: is
selected. It also shows a list of folders in
drive C:, and the contents of a selected
folder.
Data is organized differently in text doc-
uments than it is in picture or graphics
files. To tell one type of file format from
another, a three letter file name exten-
sion is added to the end of the file name.
For example, if you save a document
using a word processing program and
name the document mine, the name of
the file that is saved might be [Link].
If you create a picture using a paint pro-
gram and name the picture mine, the file
that is saved might be [Link] or
Figure 1: File Explorer 11, C:
[Link]. (There are several different
formats for picture or image files including jpg and png.)When you want to retrieve your document or pic-
ture, Windows can tell from the three letter file name extension the difference between document and pic-
ture files, and knows which program to use to open the file.
Windows 11 uses a
Desktop screen. The
Desktop screen dis-
play will contain a
number of Shortcut
icons and has an area
of the display known
as the Taskbar.
The Taskbar is typi-
cally along the bot-
tom of the display,
but can be moved to
the top, left or right
of the display. When
File Explorer is
open, the system will
show a File
Explorer window Figure 2: The Windows 11 Desktop.
on the Desktop dis-
play.

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 Windows 11 File Explorer

Opening Windows 11 File Explorer

NOTE: In this document, select means to position the mouse pointer on an object and then click the
left mouse button once.
Now it is time for you to start exploring the features of Windows 11 File Explorer. There are several key-
board shortcuts you must memorize to efficiently use File Explorer and other Windows applications.

Shortcut Keys
+E Open File Explorer

+C Copy

+V Paste

+ Left Arrow Key Force active window to left half of display

+ Right Arrow Key Force active window to right half of display

+Z Undo

+Y Redo

NOTE: When you position the mouse cursor over a tool icon for a few seconds (hover), a Tool Tip will
appear that describes the tool function.

Open Windows 11 File Explorer –

Method 1
Open Windows 11 File Explorer from the Desk-
top display by selecting the File Explorer
Taskbar tool (See Figure 3).

Figure 3: File Explorer Taskbar Tool.

Open Windows 11 File Explorer – Method 2

Open Windows 11 File Explorer by holding the Windows Key down and, while
holding the Windows Key down, press the E key.
Both of these methods have the same result, they open a new File Explorer win-
dow on the Desktop. Use the method that is the most comfortable for you.

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 Windows 11 File Explorer

The File Explorer

window has a col-
umn on the left side
that provides differ-
ent file Access
Options (see Figure
4). Each of these can
be expanded by
selecting the small
arrow on the left side
of each option.
In Figure 4, observe
that the File
Explorer 11 gfx
folder has been
selected and this
Figure 4: File Explorer window.
folder is in the
Using File Explorer 11 folder, which is in the 2022 Tutorials folder, which is in Drive C:. The Directory
Path text line shows the location of the selected folder.

NOTE: One of the file Access Options in Windows 11 is the One Drive. This is a collection of hard
drives in the cloud that are owned and controlled by Microsoft, and require an Internet connection and
an active Microsoft Account to use. Because I am a control freak and want to own my files, I never use
cloud storage. There may be some advantage for some people who do not want to maintain their own
hard drives, or who need access to files from different computers in different locations through the In-
ternet. However, I prefer to have complete control of my files. Companies that offer cloud storage are
taking control and ownership of peoples personal files, in my opinion a bad idea for most users.

The Quick Access option shows lists of recently accessed folders and data files. The Quick Access list
can be opened or closed by selecting the small arrow to the left side of the Quick Access option.
The This PC option shows a list
of the different drives installed
on the computer. If you insert a
flash drive, external hard drive,
or a camera memory card, the
drive will appear on this list. In
Figure 5, two flash drives, XFER
(D) and INSTALL (E) appear on
the This PC list.
Note that the Display Toggle
will switch between showing
icons or showing details.
Figure 5: Flash Drives.

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 Windows 11 File Explorer

You can rename drives. Right

click on the drive in the list,
select Show more options, and
select the rename option from
the context menu that appears.

Figure 6: The Rename disk drive option.

The Network option shows a list of the different computers available if the computer is part of a local net-
work. The network administrator
must set permissions on these
drives before they can be
accessed from a different local
network computer.
Figure 7 shows an example of a
local area network list. The list
shows both network computers
and network printers.

Figure 7: Local Network example list.

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 Windows 11 File Explorer

The File Explorer Menu

Windows 11
replaced the Win-
dows 10 Ribbon
menus with a new
menu. Figure 8
identifies the dif-
ferent menu
options. Some
options are only
available when
something has
been selected.

Several of the
menu listings have Figure 8: The File Explorer Menu.
additional pop
down options.
The New Menu
The New Menu allows creation of a new folder. It allows creating
shortcuts from the current folder to new documents.

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 Windows 11 File Explorer

The Cut, Copy, Paste, Rename, Delete, Set as Background, and Rotate left and right options are self
explanatory. The other options require more info.
The Share Menu
The Share Menu has a number of options including opening email
with the current selected file attached.

The Sort Menu

Files can be sorted by Name, Date, Type, and More. They can be
sorted in Ascending or Descending order.

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 Windows 11 File Explorer

The View Menu

The View Menu provides for displaying files by different icon sizes,
and other options. You should experiment with each of these View
options.
There are also different Show options. These can be toggled ON or
OFF.
The Navigation pane refers to the Access list on the left side of the
File Explorer window.
The Details pane opens an area of the right side of the File Explorer
window that shows a thumbnail image and information about the file.
The Preview pane shows a thumbnail image of the file. This is partic-
ularly helpful when the small icons, Details, Tiles, Content, or Com-
pact View options are in use.
When Item Check boxes are toggled ON, multiple files can be
selected for copying, or whatever.
File name extensions should always be toggled ON. Otherwise it will
not be known what apps will apply to the different files.

Figure 9 shows the File Explorer

window with Large Icons, and
the Details pane toggled on.

Figure 9: Large icons with the Details pane.

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 Windows 11 File Explorer

Copying Files or Folders from one drive to another

There are many times you want to move files from one place to another. Maybe you want to copy files to a
flash drive to share them with someone using sneaker net (you put on your sneakers, grab the flash drive,
and carry it to a new location). Perhaps you want to move documents or pictures (which are simply files)
from one place to another just to keep things organized. Everyone should make backup copies of their
important files and keep the copy safe. It’s not a question of whether your computer might crash. It will if
you keep using it long enough. You need to take action to prevent big blue bruises on your forehead. “I
knew I should have made a backup copy of that file.”!

By the way, I recommend that you get an external hard drive. The price of hard drives keeps getting
lower. If all you want to do is back up word processing files, any external hard drive will be big enough.
If you are backing up picture files you will need a drive that is at least as big as your C drive (250, or
500 GB, or perhaps 1TB). If you do a lot of video editing go for a bigger drive maybe 2 or 4 TB.
You can use flash drives for moving files around, but they are not the best for long term storage. The mean
time between failures is not as good for flash drives as it is for hard drives.
Here is a trick for copying files from one drive to another.
✔ Hold the Windows key down and press E to open a File Explorer window.
✔ Hold the Windows key down and press the left arrow key to force the window to the left half
of the display.
✔ Hold the Windows key down and press E to open a second File Explorer window.
✔ Hold the Windows key down and press the right arrow key to force that window to the right
half of the display.
You should now have two File Explorer windows open on the display.
✔ In the left window, select the folder or files you want to copy and press Ctrl+C to copy the
folder/s or file/s to the secret clipboard.
✔ Select the folder or location for the copy and then press Ctrl+V to paste the file/s.

➢ If you have toggled the check boxes option on, you can select several different
files at the same time.
➢ You can hold the Ctrl key down while you select different files for copying.
➢ To select a series of files, select the first file, then hold the Shift key down and
select the last file.
➢ To select all the files in a folder, select a file, then press Ctrl+A to select all the
files.
➢ You can also select one or more folders for copying.

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 Windows 11 File Explorer

Figure 10: Side by side File Explorer windows.

Figure 10 shows two open File Explorer windows. The left window show that several files have been
selected. The right window shows copies of the selected files.

Remember that flash drives SD camera cards, and external hard drives, show up on the File Explorer access
list as just another drive..

HINT: To keep track of the contents of your flash drives or external hard drives, use the Rename option
to give each drive a different name.

This version was created June 11, 2022 by Len Nasman.

If you reproduce and share this document, please credit the Bristol Village Computer Club
<[Link]>.
Please send comments about this document to:

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