Recently I wrote about how to change folder options on a new computer. I wrote about how you would change folder options on a Windows 98 machine. Not surprisingly, I got the following e-mail from a frustrated XP user:
"I don't have the settings you're talking about once I get into My Computer. I'm on Windows XP Home Ed. Once I open View, there are no Folder Options. You also said you could go in via Windows Explorer and if I have that on my home PC I certainly don't know where it is."
It stands to reason that these days, most new computers will be Windows XP computers. However, as most readers have probably figured out, my main computer is still Windows 98. But we do have an XP machine here, so I checked out the scene. Fortunately, the world of folders really hasn't changed much. In XP, you can find Windows Explorer by choosing Start|All Programs|Accessories. You should see Windows Explorer in the list.
In Explorer, you choose Tools|Folder options. Most of the dialog boxes after that work pretty much the same as I described for Windows 98 (look through the different tabs, since they may have moved options around a little). You can make Windows show all your file extensions and hidden files as well opening folders in the same window. If you used Windows 98 before you may want to switch the view to "Use Windows Classic folders" too.
With XP, Microsoft has basically changed the menu commands just enough to make everything mildly confusing for users of prior versions. However, with a little judicious experimentation, you can generally find all those old options somewhere. After all, file management is not going to go away. Every operating system has to manage files somehow and XP is no exception.
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