Dec 21
2007Managing Files, Folders, And Documents
Filed Under (Windows Xp) by Admin on 21-12-2007
Tagged Under : customize installation procedure, Details, Documents, e-mail client, file system, Filmstrip, Firewall, Folder Views, folders, Icons, Internet Service Provider, isp, kernel, List, Managing Files, Microsoft Outlook, MSN messenger, My Music, My Network Places, My Pictures, os, Outlook Express, Pagefile, re-installation, separate partition, swap file, System32, Thumbnails, Tiles, video collection, viewing style, Virtual Memory, Windows Xp
Windows XP creates many folders such as ‘My Pictures’, and such folders are by default used by applications to store their files— unless the user decides to save it elsewhere. Novice users may love the idea, but it is not entirely safe to use such ‘friendly’ folders; we will tell you why shortly. Before that, let’s get down to understanding the basic file system of Windows XP.
Windows XP installs itself on a primary partition, and if it is the only OS on your hard disk, then it is most likely called the C: drive. Let’s assume C: is your primary drive, for the sake of convenience.
The Default File System
Here, we try and explain what type of file is stored under what folder, rather than going into the details of each file. The ‘C:\Windows’ folder stores files that are of critical importance for proper functioning of the OS. This folder contains the all important ‘System32’ folder that not only stores .dll (dynamic link library) files responsible for the functioning of many process and services, but also contains the kernel (krnl386) for Windows XP and its dll. Now you know why files in ‘System32’ are more prone to virus attacks!
The Windows theme also finds a place in C:\Windows\ Resources\Themes. Other folders such as AppPatch, Fonts and System also contain files that are closely associated with the functioning of the operating system. Basically, you don’t want to mess with the files in the ‘C:\Windows’ folder!
The ‘Program Files’ folder located under the root of the C: drive is assigned as the parent folder for installation of different software. Every software, by default, installs into ‘C:\Program Files\Software Name’; however, this default method of installation can be altered if the software allows the user to customize the installation procedure and choose a different path.
Few Windows users are aware of the swap file (or virtual memory) settings. The swap file is a reserved portion on the drive (the default is the C: drive) that serves as virtual RAM, and it is used if there’s no RAM left for running a particular program. You can tweak the virtual memory settings to make your system work a little faster. This virtual memory can be seen on its target drive as a hidden file called ‘Pagefile.sys’.
The ‘My Documents’ folder has sub-folders by default: ‘My Pictures’, ‘My Music’ and ‘My Received Files’. Images and music are usually stored in the first two folders respectively, while ‘My Received Files’ is used by MSN messenger to store files that are transferred to you by your friends via the Internet. Assuming that your computer is connected to a LAN through which you are connected to the Internet, ‘My Network Places’ shows up folders shared by other computers on your network or domain. The shared folders are visible if and only if your Internet Service Provider (ISP) does not implement a Firewall to prevent its users from interacting.
Folder Views
The manner in which files and sub-folders are arranged under a parent folder depends on the Folder View options. The default viewing option is ‘Icons’; there are five other options—Filmstrip, Thumbnails, Tiles, List and Details.
‘Filmstrip’ is applicable only for image viewing; it displays images as a strip of film with a larger preview above the strip. ‘Thumbnails’ shows a preview of the contents of a folder. ‘Icons’ and ‘Tiles’ are arrangement of files and folder into rows and columns. The display and font size for the ‘Tiles’ view is slightly larger than in the ‘Icons’ view. ‘List’ and ‘Details’ both display the content of a folder one below the other; the text and icon size under this view are the smallest. ‘Details’, as the name suggests, shows more information about a file such as the size, date/time of creation and modification, and more.
You may opt to apply one of the above styles and force Windows to display all files, folders and even drives in your preferred viewing style. To do this, open a folder, say ‘My Documents’. Click ‘View’ and choose your preferred viewing style, then go to Tools > Folder Options… Select the ‘View’ tab and click the ‘Apply to All Folders’ button.
Good Practices
We’ve mentioned earlier that using the ‘friendly folders’ Windows creates isn’t a good habit. Every OS has a decay period—after some time, a few services fail to start, resulting in a sluggish system. If a crucial system service fails, Windows may crash. Re-installing the OS will delete all the data on the C: drive. Remember that ‘My Documents’, a friendly folder, is located under the C: drive—which means you’ll lose all your documents if you format your drive and reinstall XP. Good practice dictates that you maintain the C: drive for Windows, Program Files and other application-related files and folders. Limit the size of the C: drive to 10 GB and create separate partitions for storing personal data. Let’s assume that you and your dad use the computer, and you do not want to create a separate user called “Dad.” You can create a separate partition, and also build a directory structure such as ‘Documents’ for text and office based files, ‘Pictures’ for images, ‘Songs’ for music files, and so on. You can also maintain a separate partition to store your song and video collection. The idea behind creating and maintaining separate partitions for your personal and important data is to safeguard them from the consequences of an OS crash.
Many people use Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook as their e-mail client. The mails thus received are stored somewhere on the C: drive by default; use the account setting options in Outlook (or Outlook Express) to change the ‘Personal Folders’ path to somewhere other than the C: drive. Suppose you change the ‘Personal Folders’ path from ‘C:\Outlook\Personal Folders’ to ‘E:\My Mails\’. A few months down the line, if your system crashes and you reinstall Windows, you can simply reset Outlook’s mail folder path to ‘E:\My Mail’, and you’ll see all your mails intact.