After mastering the basic op.erations in Windows, you are no more stranger to Windows XP. Now, to further enhance your capability to use the computer, we Introduce you to a powerful feature of Windows XP called Windows Explorer. The Windows Explorer is a program which enables you to systematically arrange and access various files, folders and disk drives on your computer.

What is the role of files and folders in a computer and how are they arranged? To understand this, let us take an example of a filing cabinet in which files are stored. A filing cabinet has folders pertaining to various subjects. Your filing cabinet may have folders of your cliep.ts, projects, etc. that mayor may not be logically arranged. Each folder may have articles, letters, diagrams, reports - anything that you want to keep. Similar to a filing cabinet, Windows XP provides the Windows Explorer program to logically store all the files and folders in your hard disk. Using Explorer, you can also perform various operations on files, such as cuttfng, copying, pasting, etc.



Any folder window can be transformed into the Explorer window. Later in this chapter, you will learn how to do this. For now, observe the Explorer window of the My Computer folder, shown in Fig.WE-l. This window is divided into two portions. The left hand side portion displays the folders and right hand side portion displays the contents of the folder that has been selected.

Before working with the Explorer program, let us learn to create and save a file. You will need this file to understand the functioning of the Explorer program. If you want to work in Explorer directly then sill)ply move to the topic, "Opening the Explorer", of this chapter.