At the top of the File Explorer window, you can see the path to the current folder: for example, This PC > Windows (C:) > Users > YourName > Documents > MyFolder. This is a breadcrumb navigation trail that shows where you are in the folder tree. You can jump to any folder in the trail by clicking it. Each folder is followed by a ‘>’ symbol. Click that, and the subfolders it contains are displayed in a menu. Click one to jump straight to it. A surprising feature is that you can click a file or folder in the Explorer window and drag it to a folder in the breadcrumb trail to move it. As you hover the dragged item over a folder, the caption under the icon changes to ‘Move to [folder name]’. Drop it and Explorer moves the item to the named folder. Customise ‘Quick access’ The ‘Quick access’ list at the top of the left panel lets you go to commonly used folders in one click. Drag any folder on the hard drive to the ‘Quick access’ list and drop it to add it. Once you’ve added your favourites, click and drag the folders to move them up or down in the list. Right-click folders and select ‘Unpin from Quick access’ to remove them from the list. Strip files of their properties Files contain extra information that isn’t part of the file but tells you something about its contents. The obvious examples are music files, such as MP3s, which store the name of the artist and album; and photos taken on a phone or digital camera, which contain information such as shutter speed, aperture and metering modes. This extra information can be stripped out, and it’s sometimes useful to do this when sharing files on the internet. For example, you might want to remove GPS information that reveals where you live if you share a photo taken at home. Be careful with this tip, though, because the information you remove from the file is erased irreversible. Select a file in Explorer and click the Home tab. Click the arrow under the Properties icon and select ‘Remove properties’. In the window that opens, select ‘Remove the following properties from this file’. Use the Select All button to remove all the information, or tick the box next to each item you want to remove, such as a photo’s GPS coordinates. Alternatively, if you prefer to keep this information and want to make it easier to find, read our ‘Optimise folders for content’ tip (opposite). Control your photos Select one or more photos and a new Manage tab appears at the top of the Explorer window. Select a photo, click Manage and then ‘Set as background’ to make it the Desktop background image. There are also buttons to rotate images left and right, which you can use to rotate more than one image at a time. If you’ve just transferred photos from your camera, open the folder, hold down the Ctrl key while you click any images you want to rotate to portrait orientation, and then rotate them all in one goWeb Design Tips
At the top of the File Explorer window, you can see the path to the current folder: for example, This PC > Windows (C:) > Users > YourName > Documents > MyFolder. This is a breadcrumb navigation trail that shows where you are in the folder tree. You can jump to any folder in the trail by clicking it. Each folder is followed by a ‘>’ symbol. Click that, and the subfolders it contains are displayed in a menu. Click one to jump straight to it. A surprising feature is that you can click a file or folder in the Explorer window and drag it to a folder in the breadcrumb trail to move it. As you hover the dragged item over a folder, the caption under the icon changes to ‘Move to [folder name]’. Drop it and Explorer moves the item to the named folder. Customise ‘Quick access’ The ‘Quick access’ list at the top of the left panel lets you go to commonly used folders in one click. Drag any folder on the hard drive to the ‘Quick access’ list and drop it to add it. Once you’ve added your favourites, click and drag the folders to move them up or down in the list. Right-click folders and select ‘Unpin from Quick access’ to remove them from the list. Strip files of their properties Files contain extra information that isn’t part of the file but tells you something about its contents. The obvious examples are music files, such as MP3s, which store the name of the artist and album; and photos taken on a phone or digital camera, which contain information such as shutter speed, aperture and metering modes. This extra information can be stripped out, and it’s sometimes useful to do this when sharing files on the internet. For example, you might want to remove GPS information that reveals where you live if you share a photo taken at home. Be careful with this tip, though, because the information you remove from the file is erased irreversible. Select a file in Explorer and click the Home tab. Click the arrow under the Properties icon and select ‘Remove properties’. In the window that opens, select ‘Remove the following properties from this file’. Use the Select All button to remove all the information, or tick the box next to each item you want to remove, such as a photo’s GPS coordinates. Alternatively, if you prefer to keep this information and want to make it easier to find, read our ‘Optimise folders for content’ tip (opposite). Control your photos Select one or more photos and a new Manage tab appears at the top of the Explorer window. Select a photo, click Manage and then ‘Set as background’ to make it the Desktop background image. There are also buttons to rotate images left and right, which you can use to rotate more than one image at a time. If you’ve just transferred photos from your camera, open the folder, hold down the Ctrl key while you click any images you want to rotate to portrait orientation, and then rotate them all in one go