How to Navigate Your Files and Folders on Windows 11

This tutorial is split in multiple sections since there are multiple ways to perform the navigation.

Opening the File Explorer

The first thing that you need to do is open Windows' File Explorer.

To do this, simply click on the folder icon on your taskbar (keyboard shortcut: WinKey+E). If you can't find it, see [How to Open the File Explorer in Windows 11].

Locations You Navigate To

A file manager or file browser is an application that lets us navigate to "locations" on the computer. When you navigate to a location, the file manager displays the contents of the current location in its main pane. These contents are virtual objects represented by an icon and a label.

In most cases, the "location" is a folder in your computer, and the "contents," the "virtual objects," are files and subfolders contained inside that folder.

However, there are some exceptions. Certain "special" locations exist that aren't folders, which list virtual objects that aren't files.

Note: it's only possible to create a subfolder inside of a folder, so we won't be able to create subfolders in these special locations, for example.

Home

On Windows 11, the first thing you see when you open the File Explorer is a location called "Home." This location isn't a folder. It's a special location that lists certain files and folders located elsewhere in your computer for quick access. This can sound a bit confusing, but you'll understand what it means in a moment.

First Step

From "Home" we can go to various other locations on the computer by default. These locations are:

• Your Desktop folder.
• Your Downloads folder.
• Your Documents folder.
• Your Pictures folder.
• Your Music folder.
• Your Videos folder.

On Windows, it's possible to create multiple user accounts, for example, if you share your computer with family members, such as your father, or son, or sister, or brother, etc. Each user has a separate Desktop, Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos folder. A normal user logged in on Windows can't view files in other users' folders. The administrator can. And it's also possible to view those files by bypassing Windows, e.g. by using Linux to view them.

In summary, these folders are separate from other users, they're yours, but they aren't really private or secure against someone who really wants to see them, has access to your computer, and has the technical knowledge to access them. It's a good thing to keep that in mind.

Main Pane

To access one of these folders, all we need to do is double click on them. When you double click on a folder, the file manager will start displaying its contents. If the folder is empty, if it has no files or subfolders inside of it, the file manager won't display anything in its main pane, but there will be indicators that tell us which folder we are currently browsing.

For example, the title of the tab at the top part of the window will change according to the name of the location currently being viewed. The contents of the address bar will also change accordingly.

Side Pane

On the File Explorer we also have a side pane that we can use to quickly access many locations in the computer, including all the folders listed in the "Home" location. We can click once on these items to quickly access them. This has the same effect as double-clicking them in the "Home" location.

This side pane will always display the same contents no matter what folder we're viewing in the system, so whenever you need to quickly jump from one place to another, just click on it.

Traversing the Folder Hierarchy

In modern filesystems, we have a folder hierarchy, which is a tree structure. This means that a single folder can contain multiple subfolders within it. And those subfolders can contain multiple subfolders within them. And this can go on and on until we hit some technical limitation of the filesystem.

When we double click on a folder, we "open" it in the file manager, displaying its contents. If we double click on a folder inside that folder, the same thing happens.

We call the folder that contains the current folder its "parent" folder. Subfolders can also be considered to be "children" of a folder. This is the same terminology that's used in node theory when talking about tree structure: a node can have a parent node and multiple children nodes.

Traverse Up

To go back to the "parent" folder after we access a child folder, we can press the "up" button on the address bar, which looks like an upward arrow, or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Up Arrow Key.

It's a good idea to try doing this in practice. Go to your Pictures folder and create a new folder. To do this, right click on an empty area in the main pane and click on New -> Folder, then type its name. We'll call it "Example" through this tutorial. Double click on it to view its contents, then press the upward arrow button on the address bar or use the keyboard shortcut to leave the folder.

• How to Create a Folder on Windows 11

Traverse Forward and Back

On applications with address bars, we can often find a back button (icon is a left arrow) and a forward button (icon is a right arrow) that let us go "back" and "forward." It's very important to learn how to use them.

The file manager keeps track of every location you access in a list. Every time you access a new location, it adds it to the list. This list is sometimes called an "history." If you press the back button (keyboard shortcut: Alt+Left Arrow Key) the file manager will "go back" to the previous entry in the list.

If you press the back button multiple times in a row, it will keep going back.

For example, if you start at Home, double click Pictures, then double click Example, pressing back once goes back to Pictures, and pressing it again will go back to Home. That's because the "history" of the file manager looks like this:

1. Home
2. Pictures
3. Example

If you press the forward button (keyboard shortcut: Alt+Right Arrow Key), the file manager will "undo" going back. So if you went back twice, and press forward once, it has the same effect as having gone back once. The forward button starts disabled (appears grayed out). You can only press it after you have already pressed the back button.

There is one caveat.

If you press the back button once, and then open a folder by double clicking on it, then you will have rewritten "history." For example, if we go back twice, then double click on Documents, our "history" will look like this:

1. Home
2. Documents

In this "history," there is no "Pictures" or "Example," so it's not possible to access those folders by pressing the back and forward buttons anymore.

This is the same situation you'll encounter when using "Undo" and "Redo" in text editors, image editors, and similar applications.

Using the Address Bar

At the top of the window, we can find the address bar, which changes according to what location is currently being viewed. The address bar displays the current locations and its ancestors in a format commonly called "breadcrumbs." There are a few things that we can do with it.

Traversing Using the Address Bar

We can use the breadcrumb buttons on the address bar to traverse the folder hierarchy up and down. To do this, first we will need to go into a subfolder inside Pictures. If you haven't done it yet, create a subfolder called "Example" inside Pictures" so we can learn how to use this interface.

Once you have created the folder, double click on it to access it. The address bar should display something like this:

> Pictures > Example

Both "Pictures" and "Example" will be breadcrumb buttons in the address bar. If you click on the "Pictures" breadcrumb button on the address bar you will quickly travel to it. Then the address bar will look like this:

> Pictures >

Traversing Using the Dropdown

If a location contains subfolders, we can access them through a dropdown displayed on the address bar next to its breadcrumb button.

This time, let's create a second folder on Pictures called Example 2. Then let's double click on it to view it. The address bar should look like this:

> Pictures > Example 2

If you click on the right arrow (">") after Pictures on the address bar, a dropdown menu will appear displaying a list of the subfolders of Pictures. In this case, the subfolders will be "Example" and "Example 2." There may be others if the Pictures folder already had other subfolders in it. Clicking on an item in this dropdown menu will access the respective folder. Try clicking on "Example" to jump to it.

Accessing The Filepath

Every file and folder in a filesystem has a unique text code that identifies it called its filepath. Traditionally, this filepath would be displayed in the address bar, since the path is the address, however, modern applications are fancier than that, so they display breadcrumb buttons in the address bar instead.

We can access the filepath of the folder currently being viewed in the file manager by clicking on an empty space in the address bar. This will turn the address bar into a simple text box, its contents being the filepath of current location.

Unfortunately, Windows 11 is too clever so it doesn't display the real filepath of certain folders like Pictures when you click on the address bar. To understand how this function works, we will need to create a subfolder in Pictures. If you haven't created it yet, create a Example subfolder inside Pictures so we can see how it works. Then, double click on the Example subfolder to view its contents.

Now that you are in the Example subfolder, click on an empty area in the address bar. This will be on the right side of the address bar, since the breadcrumbs appear from the left side. It's also possible to access the filepath through the keyboard shortcuts Alt+D or Ctrl+L or F4.

You should see a text code that looks like this:

C:\Users\<your user name>\Pictures\Example

This is the filepath of the Example folder. Each backslash character (\) on this filepath separates a folder from its child.

1. Example is a child of a folder called Pictures.
2. Pictures is a child of a folder that has the same name as your username on Windows.
3. Your user folder is a child of a folder called Users.
4. Users is a child of the root folder of the C: drive.

In a filesystem, the root folder or the root directory has a filepath that consists of a single folder separator. On Windows, the separator is a backslash, so the root folder has the filepath \. On Linux (e.g. Android, SteamOS), macOS, and BSD this would be forward slash (/) instead. One difference between these operating systems is that on Windows filepaths must start with a drive letter followed by a colon (:). For example, C:\ is the root folder of the filesystem installed in the C: drive. On other systems, the root directory is just /, and refers to the root of everything the operating system can access.

On Windows, the operating system is installed by default on the C: drive. Why not A:? Because, historically, Windows was installed through floppy disks, and the floppy disk drives would be A: and B:. If you plug a USB stick on your computer, its filesystem will probably receive the letter D:, then E:, then F:, and so on.

Modifying the Filepath

You can manually change the filepath in the address bar to access a different location. For example, try removing the word "Example" at the end of the filepath so that it ends in Pictures/, then press the Enter key. This will change the current location being displayed to the new filepath.

This PC

On the side pane we can find an item called "This PC" (previous called "My Computer"). This location isn't an actual folder, but simply a place where your drives are listed. So, in this case, the "virtual objects" are what Windows calls "drives," not files and subfolders.

Double-clicking on a drive will access the root folder of its filesystem.

In the C: drive you will find 3 important folders.

C:\Users: this is where your files and the files of other users on your computer are stored. Since you can already quickly access your files through Home, there is usually no reason to access this folder.

C:\Windows: this is where the files of the Windows operating system is stored. UNLESS YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING YOU SHOULD NEVER ACCESS THIS. Deleting this folder will make your computer stop working, and then you'll have to reinstall Windows.

C:\Program Files: this is where applications are installed in your operating system. When you install an application with an installer, it will typically create its own subfolder inside this folder, e.g. if you install Inkscape, you'll have C:\Program Files\Inkscape. In most cases, you will have no reason to access this folder, since if you want to uninstall an application, you just run its uninstaller instead, and the uninstaller will delete the subfolder automatically. See [How to Uninstall an Application on Windows 11] for details. You might also have a folder with the filename Program Files (x86), which are 32-bit applications you installed in your 64-bit (x64) operating system.

In summary, the average user has no reason at all to ever go inside C:. One legitimate reason you might want to do it, is if you don't want to put some files inside your user folders for some reason (e.g. you don't want Microsoft OneDrive to try to synchronize the files with the cloud). In most cases, it shouldn't be necessary.

If you ever plug a USB stick in your computer, to access its files you will need to go to This PC, where the USB stick will be listed as a drive. Note that in some cases a new USB stick doesn't have a filesystem installed in it, so it needs to be formatted before you can use it.

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