How to Customize Windows Explorer
- 1). Click the Windows Explorer icon to open Windows Explorer. The icon is located on the taskbar and looks like a small set of yellow folders.
- 2). Choose which panes you would like Windows Explorer to display. Available panes include: The navigation pane, which displays your current browsing location; the details pane, which displays additional information about the file that is currently selected; the library pane, which displays the contents of the current folder; and a preview pane, which gives a short preview of the file that is currently selected. To toggle any of these panes on, click the "Organize" menu in the top left corner, select "Layout" and check the boxes next to the panes you wish to be displayed.
- 3). Select your preferred view style. There are five different ways to display the contents of a folder: tiles, content, details, list and icons. Each format displays a varying level of information about your files. To change the view format, click the "View" menu and select your view style of choice. If you prefer the icon view, you can also use the slider on the left hand side of the view menu to change the display size of the icons.
- 4). Decide whether you want the traditional menu bar displayed. By default, Windows 7 does not display the older-style menu bar, but you can turn it on in a few steps. Click the "Organize" menu, select "Layout" and then check the box next to the menu bar option.
- 5). Arrange the contents of folders in Windows Explorer using a variety of different attributes. Click the "Arrange By" button in the top left corner of the library pane, and select one of the following attributes: author, date modified, tag, type or name. Windows Explorer will automatically group your files together using whichever attribute you select.
