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Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20 to javaMan

Premium Member

to javaMan

Re: [WIN8] Windows Explorer Display full path to files?

said by javaMan:

said by Mele20:

. . . Where did that name "breadcrumbs" come from?

. . .

I think it's because it's an easy way to traverse back up the directory tree. Click any of the folder names in the address bar and it takes you directly to that folder.

I have to admit that I found it irritating at first. But as I figured out how to use it, I discovered it to be quite handy.

Thanks for the explanation. But what about the Up Arrow? What is so difficult about using the up arrow to go up in Explorer?

javaMan
The Dude abides.
MVM
join:2002-07-15
San Luis Obispo, CA

javaMan

MVM

said by Mele20:

said by javaMan:

said by Mele20:

. . . Where did that name "breadcrumbs" come from?

. . .

I think it's because it's an easy way to traverse back up the directory tree. Click any of the folder names in the address bar and it takes you directly to that folder.

I have to admit that I found it irritating at first. But as I figured out how to use it, I discovered it to be quite handy.

Thanks for the explanation. But what about the Up Arrow? What is so difficult about using the up arrow to go up in Explorer?

That works too, it's just a different way to do things. That's the nice thing about Windows; it allows people a variety of ways to do things depending on their preferences.

plencnerb
Premium Member
join:2000-09-25
53403-1242

plencnerb

Premium Member

Good discussion in this thread. This is why I love this site so much!

However, I still don't see yet a reason why one view show the folder name to be "Windows System" while another view shows it to be "System Tools"?

I can see it doing that if it was treated like a library, but I don't believe that to be the case.

--Brian
OZO
Premium Member
join:2003-01-17

OZO

Premium Member

May be one of them is a junction to another. Have you checked it?

plencnerb
Premium Member
join:2000-09-25
53403-1242

plencnerb

Premium Member

said by OZO:

May be one of them is a junction to another. Have you checked it?

I'm not sure how to check that.

However, I feel my question is starting to derail this thread, so I started a new thread for my issue on this. That thread is here

»[WIN8] "System Tools" Folder shows up as "Windows

--Brian
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave to plencnerb

Premium Member

to plencnerb
said by plencnerb:

However, I still don't see yet a reason why one view show the folder name to be "Windows System" while another view shows it to be "System Tools"?

are we talking about Explorer? I've lost the thread.

Explorer is not a file viewer. And in particular, it does not necessarily tell you the name of files.

For example, the file system directory often displayed as 'My Videos' is really called 'videos'. This isn't because it's a library, it's because Explorer can do that sort of thing and does it.

Amongst other things, it's used for folder-name localization.

»answers.microsoft.com/en ··· e13198e2
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20

Premium Member

So File Explorer in Windows 8 is just an "explorer" not a "viewer"? What's the difference?
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave

Premium Member

said by Mele20:

So File Explorer in Windows 8 is just an "explorer" not a "viewer"? What's the difference?

It's a matter of what it shows you, so the question is around the 'file' part, not the 'viewer' part.

People get fooled into the viewpoint that each thing that shows up in Windows Explorer is a thing that exists in the file system. This is reasonably accurate most of the time, but it's never been 100%, and it tends to get less true as fancier features are added.

An easy example is that it looks like you have one thing called "Recycle Bin" than contains files you have deleted, and they're still named like they were when you deleted them. In fact, there's a related directory on every single disk, it's called $Recycle.Bin on Windows 7 but its name has changed a lot. $Recycle.Bin contains a bunch of subdirectories named for user ids, and each such subdir contains files with cryptic names - these are the 'deleted' files. It all looks nothing like the Explorer view.

That example says there's some sort of correlation between the file system view and the Explorer view, but that doesn't have to always be true. Explorer can, if it chooses, show things that are entirely virtual.

In the context of the current discussion, even if Explorer is displaying a fairly simple file or folder, it can give it a different name from what it's known by in the file system. I think this was originally added for per-user localization of directory names (like 'Program Files').

The 'dir' command in the command prompt won't lie to you.
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20

Premium Member

Ok. That makes some sense. I've noticed those different recycle bins. They are not the same and one has cryptic files. I've wondered about that before.

So, if the "dir" command in command prompt won't lie.. then I how do I get it to work? It gave me that error.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave

Premium Member

What error? I don't see any mention of a command-line error, but I could have missed it in all the screenshots.