File Explorer may be one of the most frequently used system applications on Windows, and it can be used wherever there are files, whether in work or life. Today, the minority has compiled 8 tips for using File Explorer for everyone. Let’s press Win+E to advance towards becoming a Windows expert together.
Shortcut keys
Before reading this section, why not press the Alt key first? You will find that shortcut key prompt boxes appear on various options in the File Explorer. Simply press the corresponding letter key to perform various operations. This technique is also applicable to most Microsoft produced software such as Office and some third-party software.
In addition to menu operations, you can also quickly view file properties by holding down Alt and double clicking on the file or by pressing the Alt+Enter shortcut after selecting the file.
Most of the other shortcut keys in File Explorer are compatible with Windows systems, such as Ctrl+C copy, Ctrl+Z undo, Alt+← back, etc., which will not be repeated here.
However, there are also some shortcut keys that are counterintuitive. Sometimes, you want to create a new folder in the current directory and habitually press the Ctrl+N shortcut key, only to find that a new File Explorer window has opened, so you have to reluctantly move the mouse. Actually, just add another Shift key and use Ctrl+Shift+N to directly create a new folder.
The function of the Shift key goes beyond this. If you select a file and press the Shift key and right-click, you will find that there are several advanced operations added to the right-click menu. You can use this technique to copy files as paths, open Powershell windows in the current directory, or open folders in a new process.
Quickly switch layouts
The File Explorer provides multiple interface layout options, among which the one we are most familiar with is the left navigation pane. In fact, you can also use the shortcut keys Alt+P and Alt+Shift+P to summon the file preview pane and detailed information pane, respectively, to quickly view file details.
As a mouse enthusiast, you may feel that keyboard operations are still not convenient enough. Here, let’s invite the versatile registry master to add layout adjustment options to the right-click menu, which is within reach.
Firstly, copy and paste the following code into a new text document, then change the file extension from. txt to. Reg, and double-click to open the file using the registry editor to import the script.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
The final completion effect is as follows.
If you want to restore the registry key in the future, simply repeat the above operation by adding the – symbol before the registry key starting with HKEY_ and importing it again.
Easy Multiple Selection
When selecting multiple files, we can select a single file by holding down the Ctrl key, while holding down the Shift key allows us to select multiple adjacent projects. If you need to select hundreds of files at once, you can first select the first project with the mouse, then hold down the Shift key and click on the last project. This way, all files between them have been selected, and you no longer need to drag the mouse from beginning to end.
Moving Picture Cover
In addition, you can also open the project checkbox in the folder options to select multiple projects without relying on keyboard assistance, which is more intuitive.
File Renamer Turbo
After selecting multiple files, you may need to rename them to a more convenient format for organizing. At this point, you can directly press F2 to edit, and once confirmed, all files will be renamed in the format of Name (1-N). If you want to change their names separately, you can press the Tab key to directly switch and edit the next file name after editing one of them.
Obviously, this method is only suitable for general situations. If you have more complex renaming requirements, you can implement them through third-party software such as ReNamer or Bulk Renaming Utility.
Customize the “Send To” menu
After organizing the files, you may need to copy them all to other places. At this point, the “Send to” menu can help you. You can first navigate to the File Explorer address bar, then enter shell: sendto and press enter to jump to the SendTo folder.
In this folder, any shortcuts you add will appear in the native “Send To” menu. You can drag commonly used archive locations, cloud storage synchronization folders, or applications inside to achieve various shortcut operations.
Efficient replication using RoboCopy
Although “send to” is useful, Windows native replication may appear too slow when dealing with a large number of files. Microsoft also realized this issue and developed the Robocopy command-line program. The basic syntax is robocopy start folder target folder, where various parameters can be added later. For example, Windows only uses 8 threads by default to copy files, but in Robocopy, you can set it to a maximum of 128 threads using/MT: num, and the copying speed takes off instantly.
In addition to accelerating replication speed, you can also use Robocopy to achieve more powerful features. The commonly used ones include *. type specifying the file name and file type (supporting wildcards),/max: and/min: specifying the file size, and/xn excluding newer files. You can find all usage information on the official Microsoft support page.
In the following example, I specified that Robocopy uses 128 threads to copy all PNG format images in the current directory to the SSPAI folder on the D drive.
If you don’t like the command line, you can also search for packaged Robocopy GUI programs online, or try third-party software such as Fastcopy, which won’t go into detail here.
Cleverly using the address bar
After learning the Robocopy command, you may want to immediately open a command line window and try it out. Don’t panic by pressing Win+R, first press Alt+D to navigate to the address bar of the File Explorer and try entering cmd. You should find that the command line window directly opens in the current directory, which is very convenient.
In addition to cmd and the shell: sendto mentioned above, you can also use File Explorer to open utilities such as Powershell, Registry Editor (regedit), Group Policy Editor (gpedit. msc), Service Manager (services. msc), System Configuration (msconfig), etc. If you input a website address, you can also directly call the default browser to open the webpage. (Don’t forget, before Microsoft was sued for monopoly, IE was integrated with File Explorer.)
Command parameters
Like Robocopy, File Explorer itself also supports adding command-line startup parameters. For example,/e, the folder path can open the specified folder in a new window/ Root can only display the target folder in the address bar, without including the parent level; The window opened with/n does not contain the left navigation pane.
In addition to using these startup parameters on the command line and in the runtime window, you can also use this technique in shortcuts. Simply double-click the shortcut to quickly open the specified folder.
