Windows 2000 Administration in a Nutshell

Name

Windows Explorer

Synopsis

Browses any resource on the local computer, the network, or the Internet.

To Launch

• Start → Programs → Accessories → Windows Explorer

• Right-click on My Computer → Explore

• Right-click on My Network Places → Explore

• Internet Explorer → type C: in Address bar → press Enter → click Folders button on toolbar

• Command interpreter → explorer

Description

Windows Explorer is an all-in-one browsing tool that can be used to browse the filesystem of the local computer, shared folders and printers on the network, objects in Active Directory, and web content on the Internet. Other similar tools (My Computer and My Network Places) are simply different views of Windows Explorer. While Internet Explorer is a different tool (see Internet Explorer in this chapter), it cooperates seamlessly with Windows Explorer to give a unified browsing experience from the local computer to the Internet.

Windows Explorer displays resources in a familiar two-pane view called Explorer view, with the left pane showing the hierarchy of resources being browsed and the right pane displaying the contents of the folder, volume, or other container object selected in the left pane.

There are many useful and interesting menu options and toolbar buttons on this tool. It’s virtually impossible to fully document everything, though, since the menus here are context sensitive and vary depending on the type of file selected. Some of the more useful features include the following:

Search button (toolbar)

This changes ...