Specifications

CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer

. Hide Extensions for Known File Types—As you saw earlier (see “Turning On File

Extensions”), you deactivate this setting to display file extensions.

. Hide Protected Operating System Files—This setting is activated by default, and it

tells Windows 7 to hide files that have the System attribute activated. This is not

usually a problem because you rarely have to do anything with the Windows system

files. However, if you do need to see one of these files, deactivate this setting. When

Windows 7 asks whether you’re sure, click Yes.

. Launch Folder Windows in a Separate Process—Activating this setting tells

Windows 7 to create a new thread in memory for each folder you open. This makes

Windows Explorer more stable because a problem with one thread won’t crash the

others. However, this also means that Windows Explorer requires far greater

amounts of system resources and memory. Activate this option only if your system

has plenty of resources and memory.

. Show Drive Letters—If you deactivate this check box, Windows Explorer hides the

drive letters in the Computer folder and in the address bar when you open a drive.

NOTE

If you hide drive letters, Windows Explorer displays drive names such as Local Disk.

This isn’t particularly useful, so consider renaming your drives. Right-click the drive

and then click Rename. Note that you must enter administrator credentials to perform

this operation.

. Show Encrypted or Compressed NTFS Files in Color—When this setting is acti-

vated, Windows Explorer shows the names of encrypted files in a green font and the

names of compressed files in a blue font. This is a useful way to distinguish these

from regular files, but you can deactivate it if you prefer to view all your files in a

single color. Note that this only applies to files on NTFS partitions because only

NTFS supports file encryption and compression.

. Show Pop-Up Description for Folder and Desktop Items—Some icons display a

pop-up banner when you point the mouse at them. For example, the default desktop

icons display a pop-up banner that describes each icon. Use this setting to turn these

pop-ups on and off.

. Show Preview Handlers in Preview Pane—When this check box is activated,

Windows Explorer includes controls for previewing certain types of files in the