Talk:File Explorer

Explorer vs. Shell

I believe this article is propogating a common misconception. Windows Explorer is not just the file-browsing application, it was the name of the entire user interface shell. (Recent MSDN documentation [1] refers to it simply as the "Windows Shell" and seems to have dropped the Explorer portion, probably to avoid confusion with Internet Explorer.) --mordemur 05:34, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The shell is configurable. It doesn't have to be Explorer. This is a long standing trait of Windows.

I was about to say that after reading this article, and a year later after the above comment was posted it still hasnt been addressed. Ho hum. Windows Explorer as described in here and the Windows shell use the same EXE, so they're essentially the same thing. Is there a seperate article about the shell anywhere? -- jeffthejiff (talk) 22:47, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Uh...are we reading the same article? Read the first two paragraphs again (current form dates to March 2005; the same info was presented but much less clearly from July 2004). It's pretty clearly stated that the article is about the Windows Explorer shell and how it accesses the Windows file structure. The "file manager" interface, whether used in navigational or spatial mode, is part of the shell, as is the desktop, taskbar, start button, etc. They are all the same executable because they are all aspects of the shell. Are you saying that there isn't enough attention paid to other individual aspects of the shell gui? Each one has its own article, because they are not specific to Windows but appear in many OSes that use a desktop gui. Canonblack 13:57, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Ah, it is mentioned in a sentence or two, but that doesnt reflect on the rest of the article. The rest of the article is about Explorer as a file manager; shouldnt there be more information on the general Windows GUI shell or another article about it or something? -- jeffthejiff 16:04, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I think you're off track here. Explorer doesn't have the code that manages the system anyway. That's in a DLL. The article is called 'Windows Explorer'; it's probably best to stick to that topic. Programmatically Explorer is very much the 'interface' of which this article speaks. The 'shell' of which you speak is different. It's a DLL. SHELL32.DLL. HTH

I remember that when Windows 95 was introduced, the "Windows Explorer" was the two-paned version of what you got when you right-clicked My Computer and clicked Explore. It also had a start menu entry. "screen shot" (Note: I'm editing hte page to clarify that Explorer did NOT replace Win3.1(1)'s Program Manager -- Start Menu did.) I believe as late as XP, the "Explore" menu command is still there on My Computer, and really any folder. If you execute Start -> Run -> Explorer, you will get ... the Windows Explorer. Discussion welcome. Check "Nathan's GUI Gallery" for some historical screen shots. So ... my two cents is that this article is largely accurate. -- David Spalding 18:30, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Those are the two 'modes' it operates in. One is more or less 'spatial' and the other is the traditional file management interface. In Windows 95 and later your folders are actually 'Explorer' (or more correctly 'ShellDefView') windows.

The start menu is a part of Windows Explorer, so is the taskbar and all icons on the desktop. Try closing explorer.exe in the task manager, this will close the start menu, the taskbar and remove all icons from the desktop. The reason you can right-click and choose "Explore.." is merely because this will give you the folder list on the left.

---

Windows Explorer displays the hierarchical structure of files, folders, and drives on your computer. It also shows any network drives that have been mapped to drive letters on your computer. Using Windows Explorer, you can copy, move, rename, and search for files and folders. For example, you can open a folder that contains a file you want to copy or move, and then drag the file to another folder or drive.

— Using Windows Explorer, Windows 2000, XP online Help

. --David Spalding | Talk 19:04, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Windows Explorer Is the User Inteface of the Shell

Windows Shell includes not only explorer.exe, but also Shell32.dll. So I think Windows Explorer is a user interface of the shell, including the system tray, the start menu and the folder browsing/exploring windows.

Just look in the registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell

Hehe...never end the process EXPLORER.EXE...you get nothing but your wallpaper. So I think it's the interface.

Hmm, I don't seem to see that... oh, right, I made the joyful switch to BBLean. Xiong Chiamiov :: contact :: 22:52, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

explorer "activities"

Just two points not included in the article.

-When u run windows, explorer.exe appears in the programs list running "in the back".

-Even with a popular firewall like ZoneAlarm, it warns you that explorer.exe is trying to access the internet. At least windows 98.

Can anybody clarify that, please? I will wait posible feedback before deciding a retouch of the text.

thanks :)

Explorer is your desktop. It's running even when you don't think you see it running. By default it's your 'shell' meaning it's what starts first. The desktop itself in such case is a special case of the Windows 'list view' control. That's Explorer. When you open Explorer as you would an ordinary application you are actually starting new threads within the one and the same Explorer process. HTH

This can be done" section

The This can be done information is vague and what is meant is not understandable. It should be replaced with a paragraph explaining the things. Soumyasch 08:04, 9 February 2006 (UTC)Soumyasch

Complete rewrite

Okay, I've rewritten the article, and added some screenshots. The Windows XP portion got the most attention here, and there is definitely a lot of missing information, still. I haven't addressed the whole "Windows Explorer" vs. "Windows shell" issue yet; there is probably grounds for creating a separate article which talks about the Windows shell as a whole, though... Warrens 09:40, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

== Internet explorer V.S. Windows explorer

The talk about IE seperating from Windows Explorer beginning with IE7 is nonsense.

The file management part of Windows Explorer does look a lot like Intenet Explorer, but they are really to seperate applications. If you use IE to vist a web page it will append "- Microsoft Internet Explorer". If you use Windows Explorer (at least the version on the computer i'm typing this on) to visit a web page This is not appended. Likewise IE appends "- Microsoft Internet Explorer" when using it as a file manager.

Now IE will pretend to be Windows explorer when used to browse local files, by doing things such as changing the menus to very nearly match those of Windows Explorer's File Manager and even changing the "About" dialog that is shown. Windows Explorer's File manager will likewise pretend to be Internet explorer when being used as a web browser.

Never the less they are distinct. Now if one is to remove Internet explorer from Windows XP, Windows Explorer's File manager will attempt to take on the job of Internet Explorer. AIUI Windows explorer will still work for web browsing, and still pretend to be Internet explorer even when IE has been removed. Nevertheless removing IE will cause things to break, including things that embed IE. (Windows Explorer's File manager does not embed IE, but more or less reimplements some of it. This is not to say that it does not use parts of IE, because in some cases it does, and those features would break if IE was not available.

The whole thing is very strange.... It is most likely a good thing if IE 7 stops trying to appear coupled with Windows explorer. I assume this would mean that IE would stop pretending to be Windows Explorer's File manager when used to browse local files, and Windows Explorer's File manager would stop prenting to be IE, or even lose the ability act as a web browser. I'm uncertain about that as I have never used Vista or IE7. 199.218.240.5 20:02, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

I highly recommend that you use the software before calling it "nonsense". Warrens 21:01, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

The fact is that Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer have always been two seperate applications. Windows Explorer (the file manager component [pre-Vista]) happens to have a mode in which it can pretend to be IE. If IE is available it can reuse some IE components to enable features that would not work in the absense of IE. IE 6 happens to have a mode in which it can pretend to be Windows Explorer's File manager component. AFAIK this does require Windows Explorer ro be installed, as it resuses some Windows Explorer dlls.

[Note that both IE AND Explorer use the same underlying display engine: Trident.]

Now IE 7 replaces IE 6 and lacks the ability to act like windows Explorer's File Manager. When IE 7 is installed, the Windows Explorer File Management does not enter the IE emulation mode, but will lauch the default browser whatever it happens to be) instead.

Note that even on Vista, it is theoretically possible to have a Windows Explorer window that has a frame that contains a webpage. That is due to using Trident as the rendering engine. Tacvek 20:58, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry, that simply isn't correct. The Trident engine, which resides in MSHTML.DLL, is not loaded or used by Windows Explorer in XP or 2003 unless you specifically ask for a web page to be displayed; when that happens, the ActiveX control which provides web browsing capabilities is loaded into the main frame, which of course will load MSHTML.DLL. You can check this for yourself by using the Sysinternals Process Explorer utility. Windows Explorer uses its own internal layout engine, as well as the Windows Shell common controls, to present the user interface. Warrens 22:14, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Whoops. You are correct. I had assumed the layout engine used by Windows Explorer was Trident. I assumed that because I had forgotten that Web View which is Trident based is no longer enabled by default in Windows. When Web View is enabled, *some* parts of the file manager are displayed using an html rendering engine of some sort, which i would presume would be Trident. I also suspect that if Active Desktop is enabled, the primary Explorer process will have Trident loaded for the purpose of displaying any web content on the desktop. But you do agree with me that Windows Explorer is quite distinct from Internet Explorer, so talk of seperating the two is (at least somewhat) misleading? AFAICT in Vista Windows Explorer simply will no longer offer an Internet Explorer emulation mode that works by embedding Trident, and IE will not offer an a Windows Explorer file manager emulation mode. 199.218.240.5 18:12, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

To reply to myself: I guess it could be argued that IE7 is becomping less integrated by not using SHDOCVW.DLL and BROWSEUI.DLL (or at least using them less). Those are the main two components that both IE4-6 and Windows Explorer share, besides MSHTML.dll which as you mentioned is not always used by Windows Explorer and which should not be considered a component of IE or windows explorer anyway (It could still potentially be usefull if neither IE nor windows explorer was availble, albeit less usefull). 199.218.240.5

Also how sure are you that Windows Explorer uses the "WebBrowser Control" (the ActiveX control exported by Shdocvw.dll) to embed IE? It seems that Windows Explorer uses Shdocvw.dll for other purposes as well, as it is loaded even when mshtml.dll is not. Since Windows Explorer is already using Shdocvw.dll, it would seem logical to call the code directly rather than through the ActiveX interface. 199.218.240.5 18:34, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually, all applications shipped with Windows that need to display HTML use (as far as I can tell) the WebBrowser Control. This is also the standard way to do this in your own applications. The reason behind this is a bit subtle. The WebBrowser Control does not actually display any HTML. So in fact, the statement that "applications that need to show HTML use the WebBrowser Control" needs to be refined a bit more. The WebBrowser Control is used when an application needs to be able to navigate from content to content, regardless of that contents location / file type. So if you instruct the WebBrowser control to load a file from the internet (using the Navigate2 method) and it sees a MIME type "text/html", it will look up this value in the registry to figure out what this means. It sees that the classid is {25336920-03F9-11CF-8FD0-00AA00686F13}. It then looks up this identifier in the registry and sees that this class should be browsed in place (i.e. in the WebBrowser Control, not in a new window). So then it uses a standard COM API to instanciate this class. COM looks in the registry and sees that the in-process server is located in %SystemRoot%\System32\mshtml.dll, so it loads that DLL and performs some initialization as it would for every class instanciated. It gives the newly created object back to the WebBrowser Control which asks for an appropriate interface that contains the methods to feed data to this object, and then calls those methods. It also in a similar fashion asks for an interface that enables the WebBrowser control to display the object (at the location of the WebBrowser Control). Then events will be sinked to it just like this would happen with any embedded object, and the object paints itself, reacts to mouse clicks, etc. Note that all the specifics of showing HTML are handled by this object, whose classid is {25336920-03F9-11CF-8FD0-00AA00686F13}. Similarly, other object classes may be available, for example to show PDF documents. Also note that the HTML showing object contains no specifics about where the data is coming from. This is not, in fact, handled by the WebBrowser Control itself either. Depending on the location (internet, local file system, a file inside a compound file, like a .chm help file) various classes can be instantiated. These support an interface that the WebBrowser Control gives to the display object, so that these objects can communicate directly, without the WebBrowser Control getting between them. Everything clear? Shinobu 01:42, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Windows NT Explorer

Wasn't there a Windows NT Explorer in Windows NT 4? --Evice 19:07, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Yep, it was renamed Windows Explorer in Win2000. "In Windows 2000, Windows NT Explorer has been renamed Windows Explorer [sic] and is located on the Accessories menu. Windows Explorer shows you the hierarchical struture of files, folders and drives on your computer. It also shows any network drives which have been mapped to drive letter on your computer. For information about using Windows Explorer, see Related Topics." (quote from Win2000 Help, emphasis exists in the original.) --David Spalding | Talk 18:30, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

windows explorer

if there is a 3 in front of windows explorer what does that mean?

Huh? I don't grok the question. Please clarify. --David Spalding | Talk 18:30, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

If you are referring to the taskbar button, it means that you have three open Windows Explorer windows. Usually these are folders that you have opened that Windows grouped together in one button to create room in your taskbar. Windows does this with windows belonging to other applications as well. Shinobu 19:17, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Ending EXPLORER.EXE

People mentioned ending the explorer process with Task Manager earlier... you can also use a keyboard shortcut:

Use Start > Shutdown, and hold Ctrl+Shift+Alt whilst clicking No/Cancel in the Shut Down box. You will end explorer.exe (and it won't automatically reload). This is documented by Microsoft (see Debugging with the Shell on MSDN).

129.67.18.125 23:38, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

My Computer

My Computer redirects here, but nowhere in the article does it give any explanation. Shinobu 00:58, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Windows Explorer Icon.png

Image:Windows Explorer Icon.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 12:14, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Added a short fair use rationale; please check if it is okay. Shinobu 13:09, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Windows - disambiguation

My search for 'Windows' came here - what I wanted was a good explanation (with diagrams) on how to use a Window widget (for example, resizing it). - The information isn't available under 'Computer Literacy' either. Not sure if such an explanation is in the scope of Wikipedia really. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikivek (talk • contribs) 20:12, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm not entirely sure how applicable this is to Windows Explorer? ~~ [Jam]^[talk] 20:39, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

rewording?

The sentence

Windows Explorer includes significant changes from previous versions of Windows such as improved filtering, sorting, grouping and stacking, as well as diminished searchability of folders.

is confusing. What is diminished searchability? Kushal 02:56, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

It means the 'searchability' (is that a word) is diminished. It means you can't search for things as well anymore. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.201.152.214 (talk) 12:17, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Shell extensions

The current info on shell extensions is so limited. Explorer supports a very rich extensibility model (preview handlers, context menu extensions, column handlers, Explorer bars). Can anyone describe it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 221.128.180.168 (talk) 06:48, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Extensibility is barely covered. It needs to be written. I will get to it soon. --soum ^talk 11:04, 23 March 2008 (UTC)