Take control of folders in Windows

Whatever you use your computer for – from creating the occasional text document to organising a vast music or digital photography collection – many of the tasks performed in Windows involve working with folders.

It’s possible to make folders do what you want, using the Folder Options Control Panel; it will help speed up common tasks and make everything easier.

In this feature, we are going to reveal how to change the way Windows folders look and behave. We’ll also show you how to personalise them to function in the way that suits you best.

Magic folders
Folders are such an integral part of Windows and the organisation of files that it is essential to configure them to your needs. Using the Control Panel you can make changes and customisations easily.

The bulk of these settings can be accessed in a couple of ways: the first option is to open the Control Panel from the Start menu. You will find the Folder Options icon under the Appearance and Themes section if working in Category View, or as a standard icon when in Classic View.

Alternatively, open up any folder, such as My Documents, and select Folder Options from the Tools menu. By moving to the View tab, it is possible to access a huge number of settings that can be customised to your tastes. One of the first settings that can be changed relates to pop-up tips – or Tooltips.

When holding the mouse cursor over a folder, Windows will display a pop-up listing the overall size of the folder as well as the names of any subfolders it contains, along with the first few filenames. While this information can be useful, it can also prove a distraction. Prevent the pop-ups from appearing by unticking the box labelled ‘Display file size information in folder tips’.

When navigating through folders using Windows Explorer, as soon as a folder is clicked in the tree structure to the left of the screen, it is automatically expanded so that any subfolders are also displayed.

While this is sometimes useful, it can also make it difficult to copy between folders. This feature can be disabled by unticking the box labelled ‘Display simple folder view’ in Explorer’s Folder list.

As a safety measure, Window XP hides certain files and folders that are important to the running of your computer – such as folders containing vital system files and those that have been assigned the ‘hidden’ attribute – to prevent them from being deleted. While this is generally a good idea, it can be frustrating if access is needed to a particular folder.

To ensure all files and folders are visible at all times, tick the box labelled ‘Display the contents of system folders’, select the option labelled ‘Show hidden files and folders’, and untick the box labelled ‘Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)’. After clicking apply, nothing will be hidden from view.