FAQ: Questions and answers about Windows Explorer
In the standard configuration, Windows' own file manager does not display many files and folders or denies access to them. But there is a remedy.
(Image: Curt Bauer / Shutterstock)
- Axel Vahldiek
As the default file manager, Windows Explorer should help with file management and not make it more difficult. We answer frequently asked questions about Windows Explorer for you.
Missing file types
Although Explorer shows the names of all files, I can often only recognize file types such as pdf, doc(x), png or txt by their icon; the extension is missing.
For decades now, Explorer has only displayed the extensions that it does not recognize by default. This is dangerous because it means that, for example, a malware file saved as "File.pdf.exe" appears in Explorer as "File.pdf". The Windows file manager is thus lulled into a false sense of security, especially as in this case the icon may also appear unsuspicious: Executable files can contain their own icons (for example that of a PDF file), which the Explorer then displays. We therefore recommend always displaying file extensions.
You can do this in two ways with a mouse click. Under "View", you can click on "Show/hide" (under Windows 11 this is just "Show") and then select "File name extensions". From now on, Explorer will show all extensions, even after a restart.
The same option is also available in the folder options. You can find it in Explorer in the Windows 10 menu bar under View/Options. In Windows 11, click on the three dots and select Options. This works regardless of the Windows version: Press the Windows key and then type the term "folder options" letter by letter until the search hit appears. In all cases, continue in the "View" tab. There, remove the tick next to "Hide extensions for known file types" and confirm by clicking on "OK".
Even more missing file types
I have set the option to display all file types, but I still don't see some of them. Shortcuts, for example, are supposed to be LNK files, but I don't see an .lnk extension anywhere.
That's right, there are a few special cases, including the links you mentioned. In our experience, however, it does not lead to problems in everyday life that their extension is suppressed. If you want to see all file types quickly, open a PowerShell and use Dir -Force to see the whole truth.
Hidden system files
In the practical articles from c't, there is always talk of files and folders that belong to Windows and that need to be changed. But I don't always see them in Explorer.
Files and folders have "attributes". These are metadata stored in the file system together with the file. These include "r" (read only, read-only) and "a" for archive file (backup software can use them to mark files that have already been backed up). Two others are "s" for system files and "h" (hidden) for hidden files; Explorer hides files with at least one of the latter two attributes.
Again, there are two ways to change this behavior. The first leads to the Explorer menu bar: "View/Show/Hidden items", the second to the folder options on the View tab. Scroll down to "Hidden files and folders" and switch to "Show hidden files, folders and drives". The option for system files is further up and is called "Hide protected system files".
However, please note: As practical as it may be for professionals to always see all files and folders, this can be dangerous if an inexperienced person is sitting in front of Windows. They may just ignore what they don't know. However, they may be irritated by this, which can lead to questions being asked. In the worst case, they may act according to the fatal motto "I don't know it, I don't need it, I can get rid of it." So decide on a case-by-case basis.
Reaching system folders differently
As far as I know, the entries in the Start menu are just shortcuts somewhere on the C: drive in hidden folders. Can I get to them without first having to laboriously show all the hidden folders?
Obviously you are talking about system folders. There are many of these that are present in every installation, but their specific locations can depend on the user name, for example. For example, the Start menu folder you are looking for is located on my PC under C:\Users\axv\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, whereas yours is under C:\Users\<your account name>\[...]. However, there is a standardized way to access such folders, because there are aliases for them.
Press Windows+R to open the "Run" field. First type Shell: and then the alias after the colon, for example "Start menu" in the case of the Start menu. A PowerShell one-liner lists which aliases Windows knows:
dir 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderDescriptions' | gpv -name Name | sort
Note the colon after HKLM, otherwise the command will fail.
More details
For the right half of the window, I like to switch to "Details" under "View" so that I can see as much information as possible. Sometimes, however, Explorer doesn't show me the information I'm interested in, but only other information.
You can customize the detailed view by right-clicking on the column headers at the top. What exactly you can select there depends on the content currently displayed. If it is "This PC", for example, you can display the file system, network addresses and fill level. If the "Network" is displayed, you can show workgroups, MAC and IP addresses. If it is files and folders, you have even more options. Click on "More ..." at the bottom of the context menu of a column header to see them - just look through them and pick out what is useful to you.
By the way, clicking on a column header sorts the view accordingly, another click on it reverses the sorting. If you hold the mouse pointer to the far right of a column header, a small triangle appears. Click on it to filter the view.
The key combination Ctrl+Plus (i.e. the plus key on the ten-key pad of the keyboard) optimizes the width of all columns.
Expand tree view
When navigating through the folders and subfolders on my drives, I notice time and again that the left-hand tree view does not work. While I can already see E:\Games\Gothic2 in the right area of the Explorer window, drive E: is still collapsed on the left. Is there another way?
Yes, open the folder options to do this: In the View tab, you can check "Expand to open folder" at the very bottom of the list. Alternatively, scroll to the bottom of the Explorer window in the tree view and then right-click in the narrow white area under the last icon displayed to open the context menu. Select "Expand to current folder". If you are already here, you can also click on "Show all folders" to also see the old Control Panel and the Recycle Bin in the tree view.
Incorrect names in address bar
I navigated to the "Public" user folder on the C: drive and then somehow clicked the wrong name: Now it no longer says C:\Users\Public at the top of the address bar, but C:\Users\Public. Did I accidentally change the language of my system?
No. The address bar is not only used to display the current path, but also as a navigation tool: The components in the address bar (here "C:", "User" and "Public") can be clicked to jump directly there. If you click on the small arrow next to one of these components ("Bread Crumbs"), a pull-down menu with all subfolders appears.
However, if you click to the right of the path in the free area, the real path appears instead of the bread crumbs, and it has an English name instead of a German one. The reason for this is the way Microsoft adapts Windows to different languages. By default, Windows is developed in English and delivered everywhere, including Germany. The fact that Explorer still displays German names is due to files called Desktop.ini. If you search for them, you will find lots of such files that Windows normally hides from you. The address bar normally also takes the contents of the Desktop.ini files into account, but not after a click in the free area next to it. This is practical if you are also working in the command prompt or PowerShell: Only the real names appear there.
"Access denied"
I have come across a folder in Explorer that I am not allowed to open: I get the error message "Access denied", even though I am an admin!
This is due to the user account control. The name in English is "User Account Control", hence the abbreviation UAC, which is also commonly used in this country. It ensures that every process only runs with restricted rights, even if your account has administrator rights. Explorer also runs with restricted rights by default and therefore denies you access to everything that requires admin rights.
Access despite "Access denied"
I closed all Explorer windows and then tried to start Explorer via the context menu by clicking on "Run as administrator". However, access to some folders is still denied!
It is not enough to close all Explorer windows, because it also runs as a shell. It is therefore the process that, among other things, ensures that you have a desktop, a start menu and a taskbar. Therefore, if you try to run Explorer as an administrator, it will simply open another window of the already running Explorer, with unchanged restricted rights.
However, there is a workaround that allows you to get an Explorer window running with administrator rights. You can take advantage of the fact that open and save dialogs of applications are essentially just Explorer windows, but they run with the rights of the application. For example, start Notepad as Admin and press Ctrl+O. Change the view of the open dialog from "Text files (*.txt)" to "All files". You can now perform at least simple file and folder operations such as copying, cutting, pasting and renaming via the context menu; the usual key combinations also work.
Even more "Access denied"
On drive C: there are folders that look like shortcuts, and here too I only get "access denied" messages. Even with the Notepad trick, nothing changes.
The shortcut arrow already indicates it: These are not actually folders, but something similar to shortcuts. Technically, they differ from the ones you know from the Start menu and the desktop, but to put it simply, they simply refer to other folders. You can see exactly which ones in a command prompt (cmd.exe) running with administrator rights if you enter the command Dir /aL (/aL stands for "Attribute: Link"). If you navigate to one of the target folders, you will see that you are allowed to access it.
There are complicated reasons why Explorer denies you access to this link, which would be too much to go into here. We have summarized the details for you.
(axv)
