Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

Explorer Window Controls

When you’re working at the desktop—that is, opening Explorer folder windows—you’ll find a few additional controls dotting the edges. They’re quite a bit different from the controls of Windows XP and its predecessors.

Address Bar

In a Web browser, the address bar is where you type the addresses of the Web sites you want to visit. In an Explorer window, the address bar is more of a “bread-crumbs bar” (a shout-out to Hansel and Gretel fans). That is, it now shows the path you’ve taken—folders you burrowed through—to arrive where you are now (Figure 6-9).

There are three especially cool things about this address bar:

• It’s much easier to read. Those little triangles are clearer separators of folder names than the older\slash\notation. And instead of drive letters like C:, you see the drive names.

  Tip

  If the succession of nested folders’ names is too long to fit the window, then a tiny icon appears at the left end of the address. Click it to reveal a pop-up menu showing, from last to first, the other folders you’ve had to burrow through to get here.

  (Below the divider line, you see, for your convenience, the names of all the folders on your desktop.)

  Figure 6-9. Top: The ...