Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Windows Explorer is everywhere - yet finding Windows Explorer on the Start Menu is actually fairly difficult. We look at where Windows Explorer is, and some of the many other ways you can get to it.
I am running Windows XP Pro, and for some reason I cannot find Windows Explorer. I can't find it in the Start Menu ... could you point me in the right direction?
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Windows Explorer is both the hardest to find, and the easiest to find program there is. There are several ways to get it, and all of them are really, really easy.
It's just that none of them are obvious.
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First, the "expected" location:
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Start menu
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All Programs item
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Accessories sub-menu
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Windows Explorer menu item
Not obvious, but that's typically where you'll find it.
And for what it's worth, I never, ever, use that location.
Here are some of the other ways you can get to Windows Explorer, most of them much easier than that:
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If your keyboard has a "Windows Key", then Windows+E brings up Windows Explorer.
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Right click on My Computer, and click on Explore.
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Click on Start, then Run, and enter in a folder name, like "C:\", and click OK - that will open up Windows Explorer (without the left hand navigation pane) on that folder.
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Click on Start, then Run, and enter in "explorer /e,c:\folder" where "c:\folder" is replaced with the folder you want to view. This is roughly the same as the previous point, except that the left hand navigation pane is visible.
If you have a directory that you like to view often in Windows Explorer, that last point can be very handy - just create a shortcut with that as the command line. For example on my Start menu I have an entry that is a shortcut to something like:
explorer /e,\\Server\share\mp3
A click on that menu item, and the mp3 folder on one of my shared machines opens up.
Article C2712 - July 4, 2006 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
April 25, 2012 4:59 PM
to continue my question posted today:
-my objective is to get to an ftp address.
-I am told to use windows explorer but even if I create a desktop icon of window explorer and click on it I still get the desktop contents and cannot paste the ftp adress anywhere and so I am still stuck
- and I need to get to this address
please tell me how to get there or how else to get to my information ?
thank you
26-Apr-2012
April 26, 2012 1:30 AM
@Audrey
I'm not exactly sure what you want to do, but I suggest you type the ftp address into your browser (Internet Explorer not Windows Explorer). This should go to the ftp address.
October 10, 2012 7:01 PM
Sorry, Leo. You say here in comment dated 26-Apr-2012 "Windows Explorer does not have ftp support." Since XP, it does almost, if you just do this (@Audrey):
From start button click My Network Places. You get a Windows Explorer style window with, in the title bar, simply "My Network Places" and with a left hand pane (the "Explorer bar" according to the View menu) showing "Network Tasks" of which top is "Add a Network Place". (At this stage, in the pane on the right, you get your "my network places" Windows Explorer style list, just as you do if you pick that in the folders tree on the left in a normal "My Computer" Windows Explorer window.)
Click that Add a Network Place menu item to get a new window, the Add Network Place Wizard. Now click "Next" twice and in the "network address" give the FTP site (beginning ftp://) normally on the next page you UNtick the apparently default-ticked "Log on anonymously" and then give your logon username and eventually, when you go ahead and connect, password.
When this has worked you now get a window that LOOKS exactly like a Windows Explorer window, with "Other places" in the left hand pane and shows in the right hand pane the relevant folder/directory of the FTP site to which you have logged on, just as though it were on your machine.
However, I will give Leo this: the title bar contains the URL (netweork path, in other words) "ftp://..." and after that it says "Microsoft Internet Explorer".
But this isn't a browser window; as I say, it looks identical to a Windows Explorer window, with a view menu bar item that offers thumbnails, tiles, icons, list and details --- everything exactly like your normal local Windows Explorer window. The only MSIE thing about it is the fact that the folder whose contents you are looking at is on an FTP server somewhere and the words that follow the address in the title bar.
I have just done this for the first time after using XP for up to ten years and CuteFTP and others for about as long. Yup, it's there. To put a file up you to a copy and paste just as you would to copy within your own HDD folders or on a Windows LAN. It works.
As I say, it LOOKS like Windows Explorer; the only "IE" thing about it is those two words in the title bar. So, in a way, this is actually another case of "Windows Explorer is everywhere", and I hope you find it helps. The question of which Microsoft program this is an instance of could be considered quite sensitive legally. There was, I seem to recall, a court case in the USA with the Justice Dept. and Microsoft related to the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows so that other browsers had an unfair disadvantage some time back.
IPH
October 22, 2012 1:55 AM
I have Windows 7 and recently my Windows Explorer keeps closing down, looking for the problem, and then restarting. How can I overcome this problem??
October 22, 2012 7:42 AM
@Tony,
Here's an article that should help you with that:
What do I do when Windows Explorer crashes?