CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 1: What are Operating Systems and How Do They Work?       9  Operating System Features            9  Explorer: Understanding the Structure

Explorer: Understanding the Structure 1 Customizing Explorer

As discussed previously, “Explorer” is the interface Windows uses to allow you to navigate your hard drive and perform operations on files and folders. There are two primary visual styles of Explorer in use in Windows: the “folder view”, and the “tree view”.

To demonstrate these modes, please follow these steps. First, close any open windows. Next, right click on the My Computer desktop icon and select the “Open” option. You will see a window similar to Figure 50.:

This is the “folder view”. Now right click on My Computer, and select the “Explore” option. You will see a window like Figure 51.

This is the “tree view”. Although these two displays look quite different, the same application is creating them. To demonstrate this, in the “folder view” window click the “Folders” button on the toolbar. Next, click the “Views” icon on the far right of the toolbar, and select the “List” option from the popup menu. As you can see, the folder view has now turned into a tree view.

There is no inherent benefit in using one view over another, although this author prefers the tree view when manipulating files.

Explorer: Understanding the Structure 1 Customizing Explorer