What Is This? Windows Basics

12. Files

It is helpful to think of your computer as a big filing cabinet full of papers.  To be useful, you need to have the papers filed in a way that makes them easy to find again.  Microsoft Windows® and most other operating systems use a series of directories and folders to keep things organized. 

A file path may look like this:
C:\Users\MyName\Documents\COL\ITSkills

The "C" is your computer's hard drive.  This tells you the file is located on your computer and not available to anyone else unless you send them the file.  After the "C", there are a series of directories (also called libraries) and folders within folders until you reach the end of the file path and the file you are looking for. 

If you were to follow this path, you would get to a sub-folder labelled "COL" and inside that folder you would find the document "ITSkills".

Directories are a type of high level folder.  Fortunately, you don't have to type a long file path like this to locate your documents.  The icons and shortcuts are already in place on your computer to allow you to go directly to a sub-directory (in this example, the sub-directory is "Documents").

The Documents folder and other high-level directory folders such as Downloads, Music and Pictures are usually already set up when you purchase the computer.