The file manager program is called Explorer, do not get this confused with Internet Explorer they are two different programs. The Explorer program is your file manager with this program you can copy files, move files, create new folders, create new files, delete files and manage file attributes. If you have a network at home you can also manage file sharing from here.

There are two ways to start the Explorer program the first way uses your start menu. Move your mouse over the Start button and left click, move your mouse over the All Programs and when it expands move your mouse up to Accessories.

When the fly out menu appears move your mouse down to Windows Explorer and left click, the menus will close and the program will begin.

When the program begins it should look like the picture below.



The second way to open the file manager Windows Explorer program also uses the Start menu. Move your mouse over the start button and left click which will bring up the start menu pictured below.

Move your mouse up and to the right until your mouse is over top of My Documents option and then left click on it. The menu should close and the program will begin, showing the same window as the picture above.











Let's look at the Picture below for some basics on this program.


The window is divided in to two parts. The left side is the folder view and the right side is known as the file view. The blue high lighted folder is the current folder. In this example the My Documents folder is the current folder and when you look in the right window it shows you the files and folders in the current folder.

In the file manager Look beside the high lighted folder you will see a small box with a "-" sign in it. Left click on that sign, You will see that all of the folders disappear except the My Documents folder and you will also notice the "-" sign has changed to a "+" sign.
The "+" sign in the folder view pane means there are folders or " sub folders" inside of it. To see these folders you simply click on the "+" sign. Any folder can have "sub folders" so in most cases you will see many "+" signs in the folder view.

Looking at the picture you will see that the folder " My Music" has sub folders and that the folder "My Webs" does not have any sub folders. You change the current folder by moving your mouse over a different folder and left clicking on it or use the up and down arrows on your key board.

Lets make a new folder.
Let's say we keep track of the Christmas presents we buy for everyone and we want to keep this information in one place. Let's create a folder under My Documents called Christmas list. Left click on the My Documents folder next move your mouse up and click on the name File and when the menu file pops open click on new and now click on folder like the picture below shows.


Now look in the file view on the right at the bottom you will see that a new folder is now in the window. Your window should look like the picture below.

Do you see the New Folder ? See how it is high lighted blue? This is giving you the chance to name this folder. On your key board type in Christmas List and then press the enter key.

NOTE
If for some reason it is not high lighted simply move your mouse over top of the new folder, right click on it and you will see that one of your options is rename. Move your mouse down to rename and left click on it and the folder name will high light allowing you to type in the name you want.

Congratulations you have just made your first folder and named or renamed it using the file manager.
When you pressed the enter key you will notice in the left window the (folder view) that your new folder has appeared.

Move your mouse over your new folder and left click on it. You will notice that in the file view window on the right that it is completely empty. You just made this folder it should be empty right?

Now what? We have a folder where we want to keep some files. So how do we make these files? Well we can add a file the same way we made the folder so try that. Click on file and click on new now look at the fly out and decide what kind of file you want to create everyones options will be different but everyone should be able to choose Text Document so move your mouse over Text Document and then left click on it.

In the right window of the file manager you should see a new file with it's name high lighted just like when we made the folder so on your keyboard type dan-list.txt and press your enter button. Congratulations you just made a text file.



I said earlier you could delete files here so lets do that. Move your mouse over the file you just made and left click on it. Now you have two choices either right click and choose delete from the options or click on file at the top of your screen and then choose delete from the menu that pops up. When you choose to delete a file by default windows asks you to confirm that you really want to delete that file. See the picture below.


 OOPS we didn't want to delete that file. What do we do now? Relax all is not lost. Move your mouse to the word Edit at the top of your screen left click and a menu appears now choose Undo Delete you will see the file return. Also if you delete anything it goes into the Recycle bin and it can be restored at anytime as long as you have not emptied your recycle bin.

I said earlier you can copy files with the file manager so lets do that now. Click on your Undeleted text file and then right click on the file. Now choose the option copy Now move your mouse into the folder view pane (left side).
Left click on the My Pictures folder and next either right click on that folder and choose Paste from the option menu or move your mouse into the file view pane (right side) and right click in an empty area and choose Paste with either of these methods you should see your text file copied into this folder.

Congratulations you now have the basic knowledge of how the file manager works. You now know how to create folders and files, delete files and copy and paste files using Windows Explorer. Please feel free to review any of this until you feel comfortable.

If you have any questions please feel free to use the contact form, I'll try to answer your questions.