Project 1 : Windows Explorer Project

 

 

Introduction:

Computer users often need organize their program and data files for many applications. The Windows Explorer is used to make new folders, create, copy, move, edit, and execute files. The exercises below will give you practice using the Explorer to do these tasks.

In the graphic at right, note the icons identifying each file. To get the properties of the file MW2.exe highlight the file and then click the right mouse button. From the displayed menu, select the Properties item. The dialog box will display the current properties of the file.

Note the icons identifying each file. To get the nice menu next to the file Qb.exe with choices [Open Quick View ... Properties], just select the file with the right mouse button. If you click on the Properties row, there are many options that help a program to run better. You will need a special disk to actually do these exercises.

The Windows operating system allows you to run many programs at once. the programs running have a rectangular button at the bottom of the screen. To switch to a new application program, just click on the button of the program you want.



Note : In the example above I was running Corel WordPerfect, Claris Home Page, Explorer, and Paint Shop Pro

Project Goals :

Use Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) to:

1. Create a new folder (previously called a directory).
2. Delete individual files and a group of files. Delete a directory and all the files in it.
3. Move a file from one place on the hard drive to another.
4. Copy a file from one place to another.
5. See your most recent files (organized by Date created).
6. Capture this list of files and print it out.
7. Use Explorer to run a program and capture and print out a part of a screen.
8. Write a report with each printout carefully labeled so that later the labels will help you remember what you did.

   For a grade of B - also make sure the text in your report wraps around the graphics - show the floppy disk files with three different display options.

   For a grade of A - include a picture of the directory of your K drive and the directory on your zip disk.

FILE NAMES:

In Windows , file names can be up to 245 characters long. File names may include letters, numbers, spaces, periods, and some other punctuation marks (but not all; some, such as /, \, :, *, ?, ", <, >, and |, are not allowed). File names usually end with a period followed by up to three letters called the file's extension. The extension can tell Explorer what kind of file it is. Here are some common extensions:

• .TXT is a plain text file made up of keyboard characters with no special characters. Such text is called ASCII text, which stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange."
• .HTM is a plain text file that contains special sequences of characters such as "<IMG>" that a web browser can interpret and display.
• .EXE is an executable file that is usually identified with and icon and will run program when it is double clicked.
• .BMP is a bitmap graphics file, in a format used by Microsoft Windows.
• .GIF is a bitmap graphics file format often used in web pages.
• .JPG is another bitmap graphics file format used in web pages.
• .DOC is a Microsoft Word document.
• .WPD is a Word Perfect document.

How to SELECT FILES:

• You can click the left mouse button to select a single file. If you double click on a file name, Explorer tries to run the file i.e. do it.
• To select more than one file hold down the <Ctrl> [the marks <...> mean a single key] and click on various files.
• To select a group of files that are together in Explorer, click on the first one and <Shift> click on the last one and all files including the top and bottom one are selected.
• When you have selected some files, they are shaded.

How to MOVE or COPY FILES:

To MOVE selected files within a hard drive, just DRAG and DROP. That is put the mouse pointer on the selected files and press and hold the left mouse button. Now move the mouse to the new destination and unclick (let up on the mouse button). To move to a new folder, drop the file when the file icon is on top of the folder icon. A new graphic shows the files being moved or copied.

To COPY selected files to another place on the hard drive press <Ctrl> and then Drag and Drop. To copy to a different location just select it, drag and drop it into the folder or new drive that you want.!

To Delete a file or group of files, press <Del> <Enter> and either Y or A. If you select a file, you can use the pull down menu under File for the above functions and others.



PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS

1. Get Windows running and start the Explorer.

   Turn the computer on. You should see the Desktop on the screen. With the curser, you can change the size of the Program Manager Window or Group windows by clicking and holding on a border and dragging it to its new size.

   Look for the Explorer Icon on the Desktop. or right click on the start button and select Explore. n this icon. If you do not see this icon on the Desktop, you can double click on the My Computer Icon, double click on C:, and now double click on explorer.exe.

    

2. Map your K drive using the icon provided or selecting it from your menu.

3. Copy the Data folder from the N:\deroos\csc171\ folder.
   
   1. Use Explorer to locate the N: drive.
   2. Highlight the N drive by clicking on it.
   3. Click on the DEROOS folder
   4. Click on the CSC171 folder. You will now see the DATA folder.
   5. Highlight the DATA folder by clicking on it.
   6. Next, right mouse click , a menu will appear and select copy. (You are now ready to copy all the contents of the Data folder).
   7. Use the mouse to find and click on your K: drive to highlight it.
   8. Then right mouse click , a menu will appear, select paste.
      The folder Data and all its contents will be copied.

4. Make a new folder on your K:\ drive called BACKUP.
   
   1. Click on K: drive to select it.
   2. From the File menu select the option New, then click on Folder.
      A new folder should appear on the file list at the right and under the K: icon.
   3. Erase the New Folder name and type in BACKUP.
      This renames the folder to BACKUP.

5. Into this new Folder BACKUP, copy the files VITAL.TXT and MYPAPER.TXT from the Data folder. Select these files with the mouse. Hold down <Ctrl> while dragging and dropping the files into this sub-directory. If you don't hold down <Ctrl>, you will be just moving the files and not getting a second copy.

6. Delete all the files in the Data Folder starting with the word JUNK. Just hold <Ctrl> and click on each file you want to delete. Now press <Delete> and answer yes to the prompts to delete these files. To select many consecutive files, click on the top file, hold down the <shift> and click on the bottom file. All the files from top to bottom should be selected.

7. Delete the Folder called TRASH.

   Select this Folder, press <Delete> and then press <Enter> to answer yes to do you really mean to delete the Folder and all it contains?

8. Optional : Do only if you are copying to a floppy disk.
   Label your disk with your name

   Click on the 3 ½ Floppy (A:) with the RIGHT mouse button, see a neat new menu appear. Click on Properties. Now you have two options: Tools and General. Under tools you can correct errors on the disk (also Back up and defragment). Click on general and see a neat pie chart about how much space is used on your disk and you can label your disk. Type a label like your name in the label.

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

9. How to get a Print out of the files in a folder.
   
   • This operation will require Paint Shop which is on the L:\ drive in the PaintPro folder.
     
   • Use Explorer to display the files of the Data folder.
   • Press <Print Screen>.
     ( This will put a copy of the complete display screen in the paste buffer.
   • Next press <Alt><Tab> to shift to use Explorer.
   • Find Paint Shop on the L:\ disk in the PaintPro folder.
   • Double click on the PSP.exe file to run it.
   • Select the Edit menu option and select Paste to paste the buffer into a window.
     This pastes the whole desktop into a window in PaintShop.
   • To use the mouse to select and cut only the window where the Explorer is displaying your files use the following instructions.
     
     • Select the blocking tool.
     • Click on the top left of what you want.
     • Hold the left mouse button down and drag the mouse to the bottom right of what you want.
     • When you have the cursor positioned where you want it, let up on the mouse button and the selection will be displayed.
     • Now select Edit menu option and select Copy. The selected are is now in the paste buffer.
     • To paste this out, click on the File menu ,and Print. When the print dialogue box comes up, press <Enter> This should print [hard copy] a copy of the Explorers display of your files.
   • Now repeat this for an Explorer display of the small icons and another display showing all the file details.

    

10. RUN the freeware program NEKO and LANDER

    NEKO Instructions

    

    To run NEKO from Explorer, just double click on it. When you finish the program double click on the box in the upper left corner of the screen to return to Explorer. Capture two or three cats from Neko. Press <Print Screen> to capture the screen. Capture two or three cats from NEKO using <Print Screen>. Use Paint shop/pro to crop to just the cats. If you run four NEKO's at the same time, try to get 4 cats in different poses. Run Paint Shop/pro to crop just the cats.
    This may seem like a frivolous activity, but it is a good example of the Windows operating system and good practice running many programs at the same time.
    Save your cats in Paint Shop/pro in the .WPG [word perfect graphics] format and insert it into your report as a graphic.

    Lander Instructions

    
    • Double click on the file named Lander.exe.
    • Now click on the maximize button near the top right of the Lander window.
    • Look for a flat portion of the ground where you must land the Lander.
    

    Click on Game so you can restart the game and change options.

    The options in this menu allow you can extend your fuel, give yourself stronger rocket engines ... thrusters and even change gravity. Good luck spaceship captain!

    Use [Print Screen] to capture a several screen images to show that you ran Lander and Neko. Earn a little extra credit if you land safely and capture and print out the congratulations dialog box. Print out your mob of cats or other evidence that you ran Neko or Wneko.

     

    Report

    Now carefully write a multipage report that contains graphics from the exercises above carefully labeled. Also write a summary of what you learned.
    Paste in some cats and Lander. Remember "more in this exercise is better" up to a limit. So more cats in more poses, the spaceship icon are all good. BUT remember these documents can get large - over 1,000,000 bytes and so they may take up a whole floppy disk or even be too large to fit on a disk.

    

    I find that if you copy a typical graphic from PaintShop/Pro or Paint and paste it into Word Perfect, the resulting file was 276,000 bytes, BUT saving the graphic and retrieving the graphic file in .WPG format resulted in a file of only 64,000 bytes i.e. more than 4 times smaller. So the most compact way to import graphics into Word Perfect is to save them on your disk as a .WPG file and then in Word Perfect to click on Graphic...Image... then double click on the proper graphics file. You can also decrease the color depth in Paint shop/pro, it will save space.

    YOUR REPORT SHOULD HAVE THE FOLLOWING:

    • For a grade of B -

      A Cover page and a one page summary of what you learned.

      Graphics from Explorer of the files on your floppy disk or K:\ drive both as icons and with full details and sorted.

      Graphics of the new folder should be added and the old junk folder and junk files removed.

      Images captured from Lander and NEKO.

    • For a grade of A - All of the above and include a graphic of the directory of your K drive and the directory of your zip disk. with a graphic that indicates that you won the Lander game.

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This page is Copyright 1998 by J. Barry DeRoos. All Rights Reserved.
This page may be distributed and used freely, provided that the copyright notices remain intact.
Last Modified: July 29, 2002.