Moving, copying and deleting files and folders in Windows

Windows provides two powerful tools for managing the files and folders on your Hard Disk - Windows Explorer and My Computer.

My Computer

To display the My Computer window, click on Start (at the bottom left corner of your screen) and select My Computer from the menu that appears.

A window similar to the following picture will appear:

You will see that the main area of the window above has four sections:

• Files stored on this computer has links to commonly used folders.
• Hard Disk Drives displays the Hard Disk drives installed in your computer (as with the diagram above you will probably just have a C: drive, although you may have additional drives available).
• Devices with Removable Storage are devices such as CD drives, DVD drives, floppy disk drives, tape drives etc..
• Network Drives will not appear, or will have nothing in it on your computer, unless your computer is attached to a local network - these are locations on other computers that you can access across a local network.

Double-clicking the left mouse button on any of these devices or folders will open it and display the top level of it's contents within the window - for example, if I open my Hard Disk the window looks like:

You can change the way the contents are displayed, so that you can see more detail about the items etc.. by using the Views button on the toolbar at the top of the window (click on the arrow next to this button to display different options):

(the best way to become familiar with these display options is to experiment)

The folders button () changes the display in the left hand column. Clicking it will show a hierarchical folder view of the device you are examining.

After clicking on the Folders button the window will change to look something like the following picture:

Notice that some of the folders have a cross to their left () - this means that this folder contains other folders. Clicking on the cross will show these lower level folders (and change the cross to a minus sign).

As you can see from the picture above you can have many levels of folders.

This is the easiest way to navigate around the device. However, if you just want to go back up one level you can use the 'up' button () on the toolbar.

The search button opens the search tool to allow you to find specific files and folders.

The two remaining buttons () allow you to move between the locations you have displayed in this window.

Windows Explorer

In earlier versions of Windows this was a separate tool and quite different from the My Computer way of viewing files and folders. With Windows XP, Microsoft have made them the same.

Click on Start and select All Programs. Then select Accessories, in the next sub-menu you will see an option Windows Explorer. Single-clicking this option will open up the same window as when you opened My Computer - the difference being that this window will automatically be viewing your My Documents folder.

Moving Files/Folders

The easiest method to move files or folders is to use drag-and-drop.

To do this you need to have two windows open - one showing the location of the files/folders that you want to move, and the other the location where you want to move them to.

1. Open My Computer (or use Windows Explorer) and navigate to the folder containing the item you want to move.
2. Open another copy of My Computer (or use Windows Explorer) and navigate to the destination folder.
3. Move these windows around so that you can see all of the source and at least some of the destination (the source view may be in front of the destination view - but as long as you can see some of the destination window this is OK).
4. Move the mouse pointer over the file/folder that you want to move and click down the left mouse button.
5. Keeping the left mouse button clicked down move the pointer to a blank area of the destination window (be careful not to move it over a file or folder in the destination window as this will move it into that folder! - or have unpredictable results over a file) - notice as you drag the item you will see a ghost image of it move with the mouse pointer.
6. Release the left mouse button and the file/folder will be moved. If you are moving a folder that has other files or folders within it, the contents will also be moved.

An alternative method is to select the file or folder that you want to move and select Cut from the Edit menu (or press Ctrl+X). Then find the location you want to move it to and select Paste (or press Ctrl+V). However, I tend to avoid this method, and if not using drag-and-drop would feel more comfortable copying to the destination and then deleting the original (next sections).

Copying Files/Folders

Copying files and folders in Windows uses the same techniques and processes of copying anything else.

First, select the item you want to copy, and then either select Copy from the Edit menu or press Ctrl+C.

This is now held temporarily for you to Paste (from the Edit) menu - or press Ctrl+V - into the location of your choice.

The difference between copying and moving is that when you copy, the source remains intact and you will have two copies of the file or folder.

Deleting Files/Folders

First select the file or folder that you want to delete and then simply press the delete key on the keyboard (not the backspace key!).

When you delete a file or folder you will be asked to confirm that you want to move it to the recycle bin:

Select Yes to delete or No to cancel.