MOVING AROUND IN WINDOWS EXPLORER

One of the most significant changes in Windows Explorer under Vista is in the techniques used to move from location to location.

To move to a different location (for example, to open the contents of a drive, or to jump to one of the locations in the Favorite Links list or the Folders list), double-click where you want to go.

After you've moved to another location, a Back button (a left-pointing arrow) becomes available in the upper-left corner. After you've clicked it to go back to a previous location, a Forward button (a right-pointing arrow) becomes available. These work just like in a Web browser window, but they're for your local PC. You can also click the down arrow to go back more than one step at a time by selecting a menu option. See Figure 2-9 for a closer look at these buttons.

Figure 2-9: Back and Forward buttons help you navigate between locations.
Figure 2-9: Back and Forward buttons help you navigate between locations.

You can also use the path in the Address bar for navigation. Each step of the path is represented by name with a drop-down arrow. To go back to a level, click that name; to go to another location under that level, click its down arrow and select from the menu. See Figure 2-10 for an example of the drop-down menus.

Figure 2-10: Each step of the path in the Address bar is clickable and opens a menu.
Figure 2-10: Each step of the path in the Address bar is clickable and opens a menu.

The << button at the left side of the Address bar opens a top-level menu, displaying the same items as in the Computer window shown in Figure 2-11. You can use this to go all the way back up to the top of the hierarchy in a single step.

Figure 2-11: Jump back to the top level with the << button.
Figure 2-11: Jump back to the top level with the << button.

The Back button takes you back to previous locations only within the current session (that is, locations you've been to since you opened the current window). To quickly access previously visited locations that don't meet this criterion, click the down arrow at the right end of the Address bar and then select one of the paths from the history list as shown in Figure 2-12. This list contains not only local locations but also Web sites you've visited.

Figure 2-12: Use the history list to jump back to previous locations.
Figure 2-12: Use the history list to jump back to previous locations.

The next section shows you how to access commands and menus.