Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with windowsexplorer

To underscore or not to underscore?

pdb — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:05:50 -0800

Is there an advantage to having an underscore in a file name? I'm devising a naming standard for some time tracking worksheets at work. For some reason, many years ago I started to put underscores in file names containing dates, like this:

20061223_pdb weeklytimesheet.xls
20061223_tjd weeklytimesheet.xls

instead of just naming them like this:

20061223pdb weeklytimesheet.xls
20061223tjd weeklytimesheet.xls

the belief being that the underscore will allow for more accurate sorting (and easier finding) of the files in Windows Explorer. I don't know where I got the underscore-is-better notion, but I've done it forever; a coworker challenged me on it today, and I had no concrete reason why it would be better.

Is there an actual reason why adding an underscore is better, or is it just a stylistic habit I acquired?

Help me not have to restart to get Windows Explorer back

kookoobirdz — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 13:23:51 -0800

Is there a way for me to restart Windows Explorer (the shell) when it crashes, eliminates my taskbar and all desktop icons, but otherwise my open programs are working fine? Don't want to have to restart everything. From time to time Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) has some kind of conflict and it crashes. Googling tells me it is also called the shell. When this happens, my desktop disappears as does the taskbar and start button. All my applications stay up, albeit hovering over an empty blue rectangular hole where my taksbar usd to be. And I can navigate between them using Alt+Tab, and keep using them. But I can't do anything else. Can't start anything else, can't get to my files, etc. So I have to close everything and do a Ctrl+Alt+Delete and restart to get my controls to come back.

Since everything else seems to still be working fine when Windows Explorer crashes, it seems like I ought to just be able to restart it and continue on my way. If Word or Firefox crashes, for example, I can just start them back up. Can I do that with Explorer? If so, how do I do it without having any icons, task bar, Start button etc. to click on?

Is there some key combination I could use? Ctrl+Esc doesn't bring up the start menu because there is no start menu anymore. Is there some way to program an F key to start it up? Is there some key combination to, say, launch a DOS prompt and enter something in there that would start up Windows Explorer again?

I know what I want, I don't need to search for it.

squarehead — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:57:17 -0800

Why does a blank search window open whenever I try to open a folder? I had finally found on-line how to set folder options so that when I open a folder, it opens in explorer mode, with the left folder view frame. That's how I had set my old computer, and that's how I like it.

The problem is that in folder options under the file type tab in the advanced settings for the "folder" file type, "explore" already seemed to be the default action, not "open". But I clicked "explore" and "OK" and now whenever I click on a folder on my desktop or in my start menu, it opens a blank search window. This is Windows XP, and I tried restarting the computer.

I know I can right-click the folder and select "explore", but I don't want to have to do that all the time. Any suggestions?

50MB tiff files and memory hell in Windows XP.

Jack Karaoke — Wed, 09 Mar 2005 19:13:18 -0800

I've been working with 16-bit grey layered tiffs lately, 50-250 MB each. When browsing a folder of 25 files, my machine chokes to the point of screen redraws becoming "wipes". What'd going on, and how do I fix it? PIII 1Ghz, XPSP1, 500MB ram, primary page file on boot drive 750MB-1500MB, secondary page file 750-1500MB on another drive, which does not hold any of these files. Spybot S&D installed and resident. AVG installed and updated. They report no trouble. Files are 16-bit tiffs, associated with photoshop. I have all system animation turned off, folders set to classic view, indexing disabled. When I have 20+ files in detail view, it chokes. I tried to workaround by storing the files in subfolders, 4 to a folder. This works fairly well, but if I need to quickly flip in and out of folders I have to let it breath, or I experience the same problems. The only applications using more than 1MB ram as listed in the task manager are Firefox(30MB) and javaw(->Azureus java BT client)85MB. When I close this folder, the trouble ends very quickly.

Windows Explorer folder comments

theora55 — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 13:36:53 -0800

It's possible to add a comments field in Windows Explorer. Office document comments are displayed. Is it possible to add Folder comments? [more inside] To enable the Comments field, rightclick on the gray bar at the top of the righthand pane, and choose comments.

To add comments to the properties of Office documents - In Word: File, Properties, Summary tab, Comments. The comments then show in the Comments field in Windows Explorer. I haven't seen a way to add comments to a Folder.

Here's what Microsoft has to say
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techenthusiast/tricks/customization/filedetails.asp

Anybody know how to add comments to Folders?