Explaining the Windows Explorer Views
By Ciprian Adrian Rusen on Mon, 12/28/2009 - 11:38
Even though I like the new version of Windows Explorer, it seems that not too many people are enjoying it as much. Many users who are migrating from Windows XP are having trouble finding their way around. One of the reasons for this is the lack of information about the new features & changes introduced by the new version. That's why we will create a small series about Windows Explorer in Windows 7 and show the basics for a good user experience.
In this article I will show how to browse Windows Explorer using all the available views (content, tiles, details, list, icons) and explain the differences between them.
How to Access the Views
There are a couple of ways you can access the Views menu and select the one you desire. The easiest way is to click on the third icon from the upper-right corner of the Windows Explorer window. When you click on it, the menu with all available views will pop-up like in the screenshot below.
The second way is to move your mouse cursor anywhere on the right side of the Windows Explorer window, where you can see the contents of the folders. Right click on that space and, from the right-click menu, select View.
Another way to access the View option is to open Windows Explorer and press the ALT key on your keyboard. This will make the Windows Explorer menu show up on the top of the window. In the menu bar that appeared, go to View and you will access all available views.
The views that you can select are the following: Content, Tiles, Details, List, Small icons, Medium icons, Large icons, Extra large icons. In the following sections I will explain each of them in detail.
The Content View Explained
In the Content view, each file and folder is placed on a separate row. In that row you will see detailed information about each file and folder: date when it was last modified, size, author of the file, length (for audio and video files) etc.
Also, for pictures and video you will see a small preview of the content instead of the file icon.
This view is useful when you need to browse through documents and you need to see quickly information about the author of each item.
The Tiles View Explained
The Tiles view will show medium-sized icons of each file & folder plus information about its type and size.
This view is useful when you need to see a combination between the preview of the file contents and basic information such as type and size.
The Details View Explained
When selecting the Details view, the Windows Explorer will be automatically split into columns, each with its own name and type of information shown.
In this view you will not be able to preview the contents of the files. Instead you can see detailed information about each of them.
This view is highly recommended when you need to filter, sort or group files based on different criteria. In the coming days we will publish a complete tutorial about this subject and share some examples.
The List View Explained
This view is very simple. All it does is to show the contents of a folder in a list which contains only the names of each file and its appropriate icon.
No other details are shown. This view can be useful when browsing folders which contain a small number of files and sub-folders.
The Small, Medium, Large & Extra Large Icons Views Explained
These four icons views are extremely similar. They show the icons of each file and its name. The difference between them is in the size of the icons shown.
The Small Icons view shows only a small icon for each file, without a preview of its contents.
The Medium Icons view can give you a better idea of the file contents. However, when working with lots of files, it might be more productive to select a larger view.
The Large & Extra Large Icons views show even bigger icons which give you a better preview of the contents of each file.
These two can be very useful when working with images and video files.
Conclusion & Things to Remember
As you can see from the examples above, the Windows Explorer Views gives you enough options to browse easily through your files and folders. One thing that you should keep in mind is that the selected view changes dynamically based on the type of content you are viewing. For example, if you browse a folder with documents, you might select the Details view. If you open a folder with pictures, the view will change to Large Icons or something similar. When you go back to the folder with documents, it will remember the last view you used. This is because Windows Explorer tries to automatically apply the view more suited to the contents of the folder you are currently browsing. Even though this can be frustrating sometimes, keep in mind that this is the default behavior.
If you have any interesting tips on how to work with the Views in Windows Explorer, or if you just have some issues and you need some help, don't hesitate to leave a comment.
Related articles:
How to Improve Windows Explorer Using Folder Options
Transform Windows Explorer with Filtering Options
Set a Default View Template in Windows Explorer for Any Folder
Configure the Default Viewing Templates in Windows Explorer to be as YOU Want Them!
Libraries - A Great Feature of Windows 7
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Comments
can you explain, if there's a
can you explain, if there's a way at all in win7 explorer, how to make the changes in the folder view permanent, eg have details view or list view in each folder, instead of changing dynamically, because how you put it, its frustrating. i do go to the folder option under the view tab and click the apply the changes to all folders (after i already make the changes to my liking), but the view still changes. any way to prevent this? help!
by the way, i like your articles ALOT!
keep up the excellent work.
erdi
nevermind, i got it
nevermind, i got it fixed.
thanks anyway.
Would you mind sharing the
Would you mind sharing the solution?
In older versions of Windows
In older versions of Windows (e.g. XP), there was a folder option that said something like "Don't archive thumbnails." With that option active, if a folder was emptied, the folder icon in Windows Explorer or in Powerpoint showed an empty folder. With Windows 7, when I empty a folder, the icon still shows that the folder has contents. Any solution? I liked the Windows XP option.
Do you mean the "Do not cache
Do you mean the "Do not cache thumbnails" option? This option no longer exists in Windows 7. However, you can use Disk Cleanup to clear the entire thumbnail cache. This will fix your icon issue.
How do I make it possible to
How do I make it possible to freely move files around in a folder? I can't seem to move them or rearrange them. There is nothing in the "sort" or "view" options that will allow this?
I'm not an expert, but I'm
I'm not an expert, but I'm guessing there's no way to do what you want to do. When you say you want to "freely move files around" I'm assuming you mean you want to explicitly control the order in which the files are displayed, right? I don't think there's any way to do this. It would require explorer to give you a user interface to allow you to turn off sorting and manually control the order (for example by dragging and dropping) and then it would have to remember that order for next time you visited the same folder. I don't think that code is in there. (But maybe I'm wrong.)
You wrote: "Windows Explorer
You wrote: "Windows Explorer tries to automatically apply the view more suited to the contents of the folder you are currently browsing. Even though this can be frustrating sometimes, keep in mind that this is the default behavior."
Yes, this is frustrating. It's fine if this is the *default* behavior, but the problem is that there seems to be no way to override this default. If I'm looking at a folder containing music, I might want view the files as media tracks, and see items like track number, artist, and so on, but on the other hand I might just want to look at the files as files, and see creation date, size, and so on. There seems to be no way to switch between these different views. How can I do it?
Check the How to Access the
Check the How to Access the Views of this article. It shows how to switch between views.
No. "How to Access the
No. "How to Access the Views" just explains how to switch between List, Details, Icons, etc...
The point is that, for any one of these views, Explorer tries to be smart and shows you different things depending on what it thinks you want to see. For example, in "Details" view, if the folder is within your "Music" library it shows Name, Contributing Artists, Album, Track, etc... Otherwise the "Details" view shows Name, Date Modified, Type, Size, etc...
Now it's possible to go into the View / Choose Details menu and change what's shown, but obviously I don't want to have to do that every time. I simply want to tell Windows, "I know this folder contains music, but forget that, just show me the files in the folder." How do I do that?
This is a typical example of Windows trying too hard to be smart and make things easy for me, but actually making things harder because I have no easy way to make it just do what I tell it do, and nothing else!
No, that's not my question.
No, that's not my question. The problem is that for any particular view, Explorer displays different things based on what it thinks the folder contains. For example, if it thinks the folder contains music, in the "Details" view it shows Name, Contributing Artists, Album, etc... Whereas if it thinks the folder contains "Documents" it shows, Name, File Type, Size, Date Modified, etc...
I know it's possible to select View / Choose Details and change what things are displayed. But obviously I don't want to have to do this every time. I just want to tell Windows, "Don't try to be smart - just show me the files in this directory as if they were regular files, not music or pictures or anything like that."
How can I do this?
Thanks.
We will publish a tutorial
We will publish a tutorial about this in maximum one week.
This tutorial should help:
This tutorial should help: Set a Default View in Windows Explorer for Any Folder.
Yup. That shows how to do
Yup.
That shows how to do it. Thanks.
I followed the tutorial to
I followed the tutorial to customize my window views, but for some reason when I click on "properties" it doesn't give me a tab labled "customize" like in the tutorial. Am I missing something?
I have a basic question. In
I have a basic question. In windows 7, when I try to use windows explorer, my choices are among 4 "libraries" - in the older version, the folders list in the left hand pane included folders for the "computer" with the various drives included, the desktop, etc. Are there settings that I can use to see this old view in the left pane?
You should see on the left
You should see on the left hand pane the drives on your computer, under the Computer section. Can you share a screenshot of how you see things? I would be able to help more.
I used to be able to right
I used to be able to right click on any folder on my desktop and chose "explore" - but I no longer have that option.
I right click on "start" and choose "open windows explorer":
I have a screen shot in .jpg format - how do I upload it? - It wouldn't paste into the comment box.
1. Use http://imageshack.us/
1. Use http://imageshack.us/ to upload the screenshot and then share the link.
2. Why would you right click on a folder and then choose "Explore"? If you want to open it, you just double click on it and it opens in Windows Explorer.
3. In Windows 7, if you right click on a folder you have an option called "Open". Does the same thing as "Explore" - if I remember correctly.
Hope this helps, if not, please provide more details as I am having trouble understanding what you want to do.
Would you believe that I have
Would you believe that I have been working with computers since 1985 and my brain has been in a fog lately!? - All I needed to do was open a folder, then check "navigation pane" under layout. Your comments pushed me in the right direction.
I missed using DOS for the longest time. I guess it's still hard to accept so much constant change :-). I also have Vista on my laptop, and going back and forth between the two can cause confusion sometimes in this little old lady! - Thank you for putting up with me. I am glad I found your web site! - Carolyn
Cool. Glad I could help! :D
Cool. Glad I could help! :D And welcome to 7 Tutorials! Hope you will come back from time to time.
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