Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

The File Picker

Microsoft’s dearest hope for TileWorld is that it will become as ubiquitous, recognizable, and popular as the iPad. And as simple: full screen, no menus, no dialog boxes, no file structure.

What? No file structure? You can’t save and name a file, or open an old one?

That’s going too far. It may fly on the iPad, but Windows 8 needs to get real work done.

Therefore, here and there in TileWorld apps, you’ll run into something called the File Picker (Figure 3-14). In the days of Olde Windows, it was called the Open dialog box. But the idea is the same: It lets you navigate to any folder on your hard drive so that you can hunt for a file or a document that you want to open.

Navigating the File Picker

Now, in the real desktop world, the Save and Open dialog boxes are miniature desktops. They have columns that you can sort or widen, a list of folder links down the left side, a toolbar, and so on.

The File Picker serves the same purpose—it lets you navigate all the folders of your computer—but it’s been incredibly stripped down. If the Open dialog box is a Boeing 767, the File Picker is a kite.

Here are its elements, newly overhauled in Windows 8.1:

• This PC . This is actually a pop-up menu. It lists the primary sources of files that TileWorld can access, like OneDrive (files stored online, on your free 15-gigabyte OneDrive), This PC (files on your machine), Homegroup (your home network, ...