The Windows 8.1 app-first approach to file management makes sense. When you use many apps designed for Windows 8.1, you don’t even need to know which file system folders the data is stored in, and you certainly don’t need to understand how to view file metadata, group files, or change the thumbnail size. The individual apps know best how to organize files of that type, and they hide the underlying file system structure from the user.

You can still take a file-first approach in the Windows 8.1 interface: open the Search charm and search for files. For most users, searching is a quicker and more accurate way of finding files than browsing the relatively complex file system.

Of course, for those of us comfortable with the file system, File Explorer is still available on the desktop. In fact, as described in Chapter 2, the user interface has been significantly improved. To open File Explorer, simply launch the Desktop from the Start screen, and then click the pinned File Explorer window on the taskbar. (It looks like a yellow folder.)

When you use Windows 8.1 apps and everything works like it is supposed to, you really don’t need to understand how a file system works. For those of us who still use desktop apps or who want to understand the inner workings of an operating system, this section provides an overview of basic file system concepts.

Windows 8.1 uses a file system called NTFS. NTFS stands for New Technology File System, which was a completely appropriate name when the file system was originally released in 1993. NTFS is old enough to vote now, but Microsoft has regularly added new features to keep it up to date.

NTFS uses a hierarchy of folders inside other folders, including C:Users<username>My Documents, which is your documents folder, and C:Windows, which (by default) stores your Windows system files. Each folder can contain files and other folders. Figure 9-1 shows a portion of the file system tree of the C drive in File Explorer.

Figure 9-1. Your file system stores folders within folders.

File names

File names can be long (up to 255 characters) and contain some special characters, such as spaces and parentheses. File names can’t contain other characters, including slashes, backslashes, and asterisks (*). You can type file names in uppercase and lowercase, such as MyFile.txt, and Windows remembers the case you used. However, file names aren’t case sensitive, so if you later attempt to open myfile.txt without using the uppercase letters, it still works.

File names almost always end with an extension that indicates the file type and which app the file should be opened with. For example, many image files have a .jpg extension (for example, MyPicture.jpg), and Windows knows to open .jpg files with the Photos app. Text files often have a .txt extension (such as MyTextFile.txt), and Windows opens .txt files in Notepad by default. Chapter 2 describes how to change which app opens a specific file type by default.

File Explorer hides file name extensions by default, but it’s very useful to see them. To show file name extensions, select the View tab in File Explorer, and then select File Name Extensions, as shown in Figure 9-2.

Figure 9-2. You can choose to show file name extensions.

Attributes

Besides names, files and folders have attributes. Attributes control some aspects of how Windows interacts with a file. The most commonly used attributes are:

• Hidden. Prevents a file from being displayed by default. Hiding a file isn’t at all secure; you can show hidden files in File Explorer by selecting the View tab and then selecting the Hidden Items check box. I describe how to protect files later in this chapter.

• Read-only. Indicates that a file shouldn’t be changed or deleted. This attribute also shouldn’t be trusted; any app or user can overwrite read-only files. Most apps provide an extra warning if a file is read-only. Some apps don’t allow you to overwrite a read-only file. You need to go to File Explorer to remove the read-only attribute.

• Compressed. Compresses a file so that it consumes less disk space. When you compress a folder, you can compress all files within that folder. Accessing compressed files can be a little slower than accessing noncompressed files, but if there’s any performance impact, you probably won’t notice it. Compression is always lossless, which means that your file contents aren’t changed in any way; the original data is still stored in its entirety, it’s just stored a little more efficiently. It won’t do you any good to compress image, music, or video files, but text files and documents become much smaller when they’re compressed.

• Encrypted. Encrypts a file so that only authorized users can access it, even if they bypass Windows by connecting the hard disk to another computer. Encrypting files is discussed in more detail later in this chapter.

To modify a file’s attributes, right-click the file in File Explorer and then click Properties. The General tab gives you check boxes for Read-Only and Hidden, as shown in Figure 9-3. To modify the compressed or encrypted attributes, click the Advanced button.

Figure 9-3. Modify a file’s attributes in its Properties dialog box.

Libraries are collections of folders that make it easy to find files in different places. You use libraries all the time, even though you might not be aware of them.

For example, Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos are all libraries, even though they behave very similarly to folders. Each library, by default, contains two separate folders: a private and a public folder.

Figure 9-4 shows the properties for the Documents library (which you can view by right-clicking Documents in File Explorer and then clicking Properties). As you can see, my Documents library contains two different folders: C:Users northruDocuments (my private documents folder) and C:UsersPublicDocuments (the public documents folder that all users on my computer can access).

As you can see by the check mark in Figure 9-4, your personal Documents folder is set as the default save location. Therefore, any newer Windows apps will automatically save your documents in this folder. Different file types, such as music, pictures, and videos, will be saved in the appropriate library’s save location. You can select a different folder as your default location by selecting the folder and then clicking Set Save Location.

Figure 9-4. Libraries can contain multiple folders stored anywhere.

Here’s why libraries are useful: you can access and search multiple folders as if they were a single folder. For example, if you run out of room on your C drive, you could buy a USB drive and connect it to your computer, create a new Documents folder on it, and then add that folder to your library. If you want new files to be saved to your external drive by default, select the new folder and then click Set Save Location.

Similarly, if you decide to move all your documents to a different drive, just move your Documents folder to the new drive, add the new folder to the library (and set it as your default save location), and then remove the old folder from the library.

Inside OUT: Creating custom libraries

I don’t recommend creating custom libraries; Windows won’t know about them or use them by default. It’s better just to add folders to the existing libraries.

However, if you find a need to create a custom library, right-click Libraries in File Explorer, point to New, and then click Library. Then, right-click and select Properties to configure the library. As shown in Figure 9-5, you can add folders to the new library, specify the document type, and change the library icon.

Figure 9-5. Create a custom library for special file types (if you must).

You don’t really need to use libraries. You could simply select a different folder to save your files in. However, using libraries saves you a few clicks each time you open and save files, which can add up to thousands of clicks over time. Libraries are also backed up by default, assuming you configure backups as described in Chapter 10. Adding folders to your Pictures, Music, and Videos libraries allows the associated apps to automatically find your files, too, and the Search charm searches your libraries by default.

You can compress files and folders using attributes, but the compression isn’t very efficient. However, you can dramatically reduce the size of many types of files by zipping them. Accessing files in a zipped archive takes a bit longer, so you only want to zip folders that you don’t frequently use. Zipping doesn’t reduce the size of most pictures, videos, or music, however, because those files types are (usually) already compressed.

To zip a folder, right-click it in File Explorer, click Send To, and then click Compressed (Zipped) Folder. Windows makes a new file with a .zip extension. This file contains a compressed copy of every file that was in your folder, including all subfolders. To view the contents of the compressed file, simply open it like you do a folder.

To unzip an archive and return it to its original state, right-click it, and then click Extract All.

Zipping a folder is also a good way to send several files to someone as an email attachment. Zipping a folder creates a second copy, so if you are archiving the folder, you should delete the original folder after zipping it.

Windows 8.1 offers two ways to protect your files and folders: permissions and encryption.

Using permissions

Every file and folder has its own set of permissions. These permissions define which users can open, edit, and delete files. The default settings work for most users, so you might never have to see or change permissions.

However, if you’re curious, right-click a file or folder in File Explorer, click Properties, and then select the Security tab. As Figure 9-6 shows, permissions consist of a list of different users and groups and the rights they have to that file or folder. This list is known as an access control list (ACL).

Figure 9-6. The Security tab shows the permissions of a file or folder.

Figure 9-6 shows typical permissions for a system folder: the Everyone group (which, logically, applies to everyone on the computer, including guests) can read files and run apps. The SYSTEM account and the Administrators group (both of which are also logically named) can also update files. These permissions allow a user with administrator privileges (such as the first account you created on your computer) to update system files but prevent standard users from updating files, reducing the risk of malware infecting your computer.

Figure 9-7 shows typical permissions for a user folder. A user can access his or her own files, as can the SYSTEM account and members of the Administrators group. No other users are allowed to access the files, however. Because the Everyone and Users groups are not listed, members of those groups can’t view or edit files in this folder.

Figure 9-7. This Security tab shows the author has Full Control permissions for his Taxes folder.

If you want to share a folder or files with another user on the same computer, simply drag them to a public folder. Public folders are located within C:UsersPublic. Other users on the same computer will be able to access files in the same folder.

Inside OUT: Booting from a live CD

A live CD is a CD or flash drive containing an operating system that doesn’t need to be installed on a computer. Simply insert the CD or connect the flash drive, start your computer, and the operating system on the live CD will start, allowing you to perform basic tasks such as browsing the web, opening files, and recovering corrupted files.

You should always keep a live CD ready because they’re extremely useful for recovering a failed Windows installation and saving corrupted files. There are dozens of different live CDs available, but my favorite is Puppy Linux, available from PuppyLinux.org.

Live CDs are usually distributed as ISO files. It’s surprisingly hard just to find the ISO file to download on the Puppy Linux website, so you might have better luck searching the Internet for the phrase “Puppy Linux ISO.” After downloading the ISO file, insert a blank CD into your computer, right-click the ISO file in File Explorer on the desktop, and then click Burn Disk Image. To create a bootable USB flash drive, download the free UNetbootin tool from http://sourceforge.net/projects/unetbootin/, and use it to copy the ISO file to a flash drive.

After burning the CD, restart your computer to load the live CD. If the computer doesn’t automatically start from the CD, change the startup sequence in your computer’s BIOS settings to start from a CD first.

Once Puppy Linux loads, you can browse your files by clicking the hard disk icons in the lower-left corner, as shown in Figure 9-8. This is useful when Windows won’t start, but it also has a more nefarious purpose: bypassing permissions. The permissions discussed in this section apply only when Windows 8.1 is running. If you load a different operating system, that operating system will completely ignore those permissions.

Figure 9-8. Using the Puppy Linux live CD enables you to access your files.

For security that can’t be ignored, use encryption, as described in the next section.

Permissions are useful for protecting your privacy because other users who log on to your computer by using their own account won’t be able to accidentally access your files. However, you shouldn’t rely on permissions for security purposes. Permissions can be bypassed simply by starting a computer from an operating system other than Windows.

Note

Protecting your files Watch the video at http://aka.ms/WinIO/protect.

Using encryption

Encryption changes how Windows stores your files but not how you access them. Encryption is a process that replaces your files with seemingly random data. With the right security key, however, you can decrypt the files and access their contents.

Encryption complements permissions perfectly. Whereas permissions can be bypassed by starting your PC from a different operating system, encrypted files are completely unreadable to other operating systems.

Windows 8.1 provides file encryption using a feature called Encrypting File System (EFS). EFS encrypts each user’s files with a unique key. When you log on, all your files are automatically decrypted when you access them, so there are no additional steps for you to take. Other users can decrypt your files only if you specifically share the files with them.

To encrypt a file or folder, right-click it in File Explorer and then click Properties. On the General tab of the Properties dialog box, click the Advanced button. As shown in Figure 9-9, select Encrypt Contents To Secure Data. Click OK twice, and you’ll be given the option to encrypt subfolders and files.

Figure 9-9. Encrypt files to protect them from offline access.

The first time you encrypt something, Windows prompts you to back up your recovery key, as shown in Figure 9-10. While you will probably never need to directly access your key, backing up your key is really important, because if your key gets corrupted for some reason, you won’t be able to access your encrypted files.

Figure 9-10. Back up your key or risk losing access to your encrypted files.

Windows stores your key in a certificate, so to back up your key, Windows uses the Certificate Export Wizard. The wizard is used for other types of certificates as well, so it has many options you won’t use. Simply accept the default settings on the Export File Format page and provide a password on the Security page.

If you miss the notification to back up your key, you can back up your key at any time by using the Encrypting File System tool. Search Settings for encrypt, and then select Manage File Encryption Certificates. On the Select Or Create A File Encryption Certificate page, accept the default settings. On the Back Up The Certificate And Key Page (shown in Figure 9-11), provide a password and select a backup location. Don’t select any files on the Update Your Previously Encrypted Files page.

You should back up your encryption key somewhere other than your computer: use SkyDrive, a USB flash drive, a writable CD or DVD, or a different computer.

Figure 9-11. Store your backup key somewhere other than your PC.

If you ever need to recover your EFS-protected files (for example, if you connect your drive to a different computer), follow these steps:

1. At the Start screen, type certmgr.msc. Select Certmgr.

2. Select the Personal folder.

3. On the Action menu, click All Tasks, and then click Import.

   The Certificate Import wizard appears.

4. Click Next.

5. On the File To Import page, click Browse. In the lower-right corner, click the file types drop-down list and select Personal Information Exchange. Now, select your EFS certificate backup. Click Open, and then click Next.

6. On the Private Key Protection page, type the password and select the Mark This Key As Exportable check box. Do not enable strong private key protection. Click Next.

7. On the Certificate Store page, click Next.

8. Click Finish.

Now, you should be able to open the EFS encrypted files.

The easiest way to search files is to use the Search charm. However, File Explorer offers more advanced file search capabilities.

First, open File Explorer and select a folder that you want to search. Searching automatically searches all subfolders. If you’re not sure which folder your file might be in, simply select Libraries in the left pane to search all folders where users typically store files.

With the folder selected, simply type a search term in the search box in the upper-right corner. By default, File Explorer returns results that have a matching file name, matching metadata (such as tags on picture files), or matching file contents (such as a word within a text file). Figure 9-12 shows how to search all user libraries for files matching the term Ireland.

Figure 9-12. Select Libraries and use the search box to search all your libraries for any text you specify.

Searching with File Explorer works very similarly to the Search charm. However, File Explorer uses a very different technique for finding files.

You can also use either File Explorer or the Search charm to find files by file name. If you don’t know the exact name of a file, use the asterisk (*) wildcard. An asterisk replaces any number of characters in the file name. For example, searching for Book* returns all files with a name that starts with Book, including Book1.rtf, BookingTickets.docx, and BookPages.jpg. Searching by using the term *.jpg returns all files with a .jpg extension, including File1.jpg, Picture.jpg, and MyCat.jpg, as shown in Figure 9-13. You can use multiple wildcards in a single search, so *ope*ge*.jpg would return .jpg files with Copenhagen in their name (and perhaps other files). Basically, if you know part of the file name, replace any part you don’t know with an asterisk and then search.

Figure 9-13. Use wildcards to find files by file name.

If you don’t know the name of a file, but you know you worked on it recently, you can use File Explorer to sort by when files were last updated (you can’t do this using the Search charm). Follow these steps:

You can use the same technique to find recently created files. Right-click any column heading in Details view and then select the Date Created column. Then, click that column to sort by it. Date Created is the time the file was first written, whereas Date Modified is the time the file was most recently updated.

By right-clicking a column and then clicking More, you can choose from a wide variety of useful details about files, including photo metadata (such as the shutter speed or aperture setting), music metadata (such as the artist and album), and Date Accessed (the last time a file was used).

If you know when you last updated the file, you can search by Date Modified. First, open a folder or perform a search. Select the Search tab, click Date Modified, and select a date range, such as Today, Yesterday, This Week, or Last Year, as shown in Figure 9-14.

Figure 9-14. Use the Date Modified button to narrow down a search.

To specify a custom date range, switch to Details view and then click the drop-down list on the Date Modified or Date Created column, as shown in Figure 9-15. Drag your pointer across the dates you want to search for.

Figure 9-15. Use the drop-down list to the right of the column headings to narrow a search to custom dates.

You never have enough disk space. No matter how large your hard disk, at some point you’ll fill it up.

Here are some ways to free up disk space. Before you do anything, though, make a complete backup of your computer as described in Chapter 10. That way, if you accidentally delete something important, you can restore your backup.

Figure 9-17. Use a disk space analyzer tool to find large files and folders.

Windows gives you complete flexibility to create any folder structure you want. If you’re a naturally organized person, this is really useful. If you’re more like me and your files are chaotic and lost, this can lead to many moments of frustration and even terror when you can’t find important files.

Here’s some advice on keeping your files organized: