What is file and folder definition. File, Folder and Shortcut on the computer: what is it? Hidden files or folders

In order to start using a computer, the user needs at least a little idea of ​​what he is working with. Therefore, you first need to understand the standard concepts.

What is a file - these are all the icons that you see on the monitor, any information on the computer is considered to be files.

A photo is a file, a song is a file, a movie is a file, and everything else is also files.

But there may be folders among the files, and you need to be able to distinguish them. What is a folder?

A folder is a storage location for your files. Initially, a folder is an empty storage where you can put your files. This will help you put things in order in your computer, because using folders you can put music to music, photos to photos. Thus, you can create at least a whole media library with your files and easy navigation. Let's take a look at this clearly.

We are looking at how we can make convenient navigation, for example, we named the main folder my computer, so as not to throw everything into it, we create a few more necessary folders, documents and a gallery in it.

In the gallery folder, we create several more folders, photos and music, in order to separate photos (figure - 3,4) and music (figure - 5) separately.

In the folder documents, we still have one direction, abstracts in which we add text files(figure - 1.2).

Thus, you can create an entire library on your computer by sorting files into folders. On different computers the folders may look different, but the standard ones are like in my pictures.

So, a folder is a storage in which we put our files so that they do not lie in the same heap. But sometimes, the folder we need is very far in our gallery and we have to click on other folders for a long time to get to it, which makes the work a little awkward and time-consuming. However, this is not necessary for quick access you can create a separate shortcut to any folder and then you can get to the folder we need in just one click. (Click - one click)

What is a shortcut is a quick path to your file or folder. The label is like mirror reflection your file or folder, which can be taken out to any convenient area of ​​the computer, usually shortcuts are brought to the desktop in order to get instant access to the necessary information.

For example, my entire computer is divided into 6 parts (main folders):

These folders are located on your hard drive, which means you have to make a lot of clicks to get to them. But I often use the pictures folder, because I have a gallery of photos in it and I want to have instant access to it. What do I need to do?

We right-click on the folder we need, in the pop-up menu we look for the send item, then go to the "Desktop (create shortcut)" tab, click to select with the left mouse button.

Now if we look at the desktop, we will see a shortcut on it, which allows us to move to the picture folder with one click.

Agree, this is very convenient, over time you will get used to it, and your desktop will contain shortcuts to all the folders and files that you use. And remember, a shortcut is just a mirror image, if you delete the shortcut, then the folder or file itself will not be affected in any way. How to distinguish the original folder from the label? Very simple, take a closer look at the bottom left of the icon, if you see an arrow, then this is a shortcut.

I would also like to draw your attention to the gross mistake of all newcomers. Almost all novice users do not pay enough attention correct creation folders and don't use shortcuts at all.

They just create desired folders right on the desktop, because they do not yet know that all the folders that are located on the desktop are saved on the hard disk that contains the operating system, so each new folder will slow down your computer, as a rule, this leads to errors and malfunctions.

Therefore, never unnecessarily create folders on the desktop, be literate from the very beginning, set up shortcuts for comfortable work and don't litter your operating system.

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Ask a Question

What's the difference between a file and a folder?
What is a file extension, what is it for?
What is an executable file?
What is a hidden file or folder?

To these questions, we, my dear reader, will try to find answers.
What is the difference between a file and a folder.
A computer is a device that executes a series of commands. These commands must be somehow recorded and saved. Files are used to record this information. File as a document page. One contains commands, the other contains the data with which it works. The third one displays the results of the work. Sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands are used for the program to work. various files... In order not to get confused in this variety, we need folders. Just as sheets of documents related to one project are kept in a folder, so files related to one program are placed in separate folders.

From here we conclude:
a file is a collection of information of a certain type, collected and written to disk;
folder is where files can be located.
Why did I write "... may be"? Because the folder can be without files. If we create the folder ourselves, it will be empty. The file can also be empty.

Let's try to create a folder. We will create it on the desktop. To do this, left-click on the free space on the desktop.

In the menu that opens, select the item "Create" in the figure marked - 1. An additional menu opens, in which we select the item "Folder" and click on it with the left mouse button. By default, the folder name is " new folder". Once created, this name is highlighted and we can immediately change it by typing the name we want. Rice. New folder.
If you leave the default name and create another folder, it will be named "New folder (2)" and so on. Agree that if we try to find something, it will be difficult to remember in which folder what was saved, after some time. We'll have to open each one and watch the contents.
Therefore, we immediately give a meaningful name to the folder so that we know what is in it. If you did not manage to change the name, and it was saved by default, there is nothing wrong with that. This can be corrected at any time. We click on the folder with the right mouse button and in the menu that opens, select the item rename. The folder name is highlighted, and we can change it, in our example we will name the folder "Phones". We go inside the folder, for this we double-click on this folder with the left mouse button and find ourselves inside the folder. Here we see the inscription "This folder is empty".

File creation

Let's create a file - a text document. We click on the free space of the folder (in this case, we have it all free) with the left mouse button, select “Create” in the menu, in the next - “Text document”.
A document is also created - the default name is "New Text Document". Change to "Important phones", and press the "Enter" key (or simply click on the free space in the folder).
We have created new file, Text Document. It is now empty. To open it, double-click the left mouse button on the file. By default, the file opens in Notepad. We write the text we need.
If, after we have written everything, try to close the Notepad program, a warning window will appear "Do you want to save the changes in the file"
- followed by the name of the file and the path where it is saved. If you click "Save", "Notepad" - closes, the data is saved to our file. If you select "Do not save" - ​​the program is closed, changes are not recorded. If you select "Cancel", the document continues to be edited.
To correctly close the "Notepad" program after the completion of editing the document, in the upper left corner of the window, click the left mouse button on the "File" menu item
, in the drop-down submenu, select the item "Save". After that "Exit".

File types

The folder icon (also called "Icon") looks like this -.
Since the contents of the files can be different, the icons for the files are more varied. Examples of icons:
Some files store texts of documents, others - drawings or photographs, and others - music or videos. There are executable files - programs. In order for the computer to understand what is in a particular file, there are file extensions. The file extension is hidden by default. To see the file extensions in the operating room Windows system 7 it is necessary to press the button
"Start" - "Control Panel" -
"Folder options", Fig. 3 open the "View" tab, in additional parameters uncheck the box - "Hide extensions for registered file types". After that, press the "Apply" button, then "OK".

Everything is simpler in Windows 8. In the folder, above the icon icons, there is an action bar with objects located in this folder. If we click on the triangle next to the picture of the folder, we have a menu with three items. In order to see the file extensions, you need to click the mouse next to the item of the same name (point - 1). Now we see extensions for our icons (highlighted with frames). It is by these extensions that the computer understands what is in
file.

The main types of extensions are:
txt, rtf, doc, docx - text documents;
xls, xlsx - spreadsheets;
jpg, jpeg, gif, tiff, bmp, png - graphic files;
avi, mp4, mpeg - video files;
mp3, wav - sound files;
com, exe - executable files, programs;
htm, html - web pages;
ppt, pps - electronic presentations.
Depending on the file type, double click mouse, operating system, opens it in a certain program... So the file with the .txt extension opens in notepad, and the .doc file in Microsoft Word or, for example, in OpenOffice (alternative free, free office suite). When we have several programs to open a certain type of file, we can open such a file in a program other than the default program. To do this, right-click on the file and in context menu select the item "Open with ..." - in the list of proposed programs, select the required one.
You can change the default program for a particular file type. To do this, click Start - Control Panel - Default Programs - File Type Mapping ...

When we select a different application for the file, the file icon will also change.

What is an executable file

All program files are executable files. Executable file extensions - .com, .exe. Almost all programs are launched by files with these extensions. Another type of executable file has the .bat extension, which is a text file with written commands for the operating system.

Hidden files or folders

Important files necessary for the operation of the operating system are hidden from regular user... These files are called system files. We will be able to see these files if we uncheck the “Hide protected system files»
In the figure, number 2 marks the system (hidden) folders, number 3 - files. Icons of hidden files and folders are semi-transparent. If these files are damaged, the operating system may stop working, so they are made hidden.

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Any information that is on the computer is presented in the form of files.

A file is an object that contains some information. It can be: audio, video, text or image.

The file type is determined by what information it contains: audio file, video file, text file, etc.

Each type of file is divided into formats, for example, a video file can be mp4, avi, wmv, images can be png format, jpeg, bmp.

The same situation is with text and audio files. The file format is its specific internal structure. And it is from this structure that the way of storing information in it depends.

The file extension essentially says what kind of information is recorded in it - these are text files and all kinds of pictures, music records, etc. The file extension must not be changed, as this may lead to the loss of information recorded in it. To change the format of any file, you need to use special programs-converters.
It is the file extensions that allow the operating system to determine the type of file and associate them with certain programs, which in turn can open them when needed.

You cannot simply remove or change the extension in the file name because the operating system will not be able to recognize the file and open it. Instead, you will need to manually specify which program to use to open the given file.

There are also file properties such as creation or modification date and file size. This data can sometimes come in handy when working with files.

In addition to the above properties, the file also has attributes that are used by programs or operating system when working with it. The attribute determines the access rights to the file. To view the attributes of a file, you need to right-click on the file and click "properties".

The picture shows that this file has attributes: read-only and hidden, if you check the checkboxes and save, but there are additional attributes that can be viewed if you select the "others" item.

It is important to know that if a file has a checkbox next to the "read-only" attribute, then you cannot do anything else but look at the file with it. If you put a checkbox next to the "hidden" attribute and save, then the file will disappear. But it will not disappear from the computer, but simply will not be displayed.

Files can be divided into two categories:
Programs are files written in a special programming language and intended for execution, have the exe extension. Typically, programs are installed in the Program Files folder on the C drive.

Documents are files created in a specific program, in which they can be modified, if necessary.
The operating system knows which program is intended to work with each specific file... This is indicated by the file extension.

It often happens that several programs are installed on your computer that can open the same file. In this case, one of these programs is set as the main "default" to open this type of file.

In order to sort the files somehow, such a concept as a folder was introduced. The folder helps you sort documents on your computer and give them a certain structure to make it easier to find a particular file.

A folder can contain one or more folders, and these internal folders, in turn, can contain other folders. Thus, a kind of directory is obtained in which all files are sorted by type of ownership or in some other way.

This arrangement of files is very convenient for users.
Folders have properties and attributes. You can view them by calling the context menu on the folder of interest and selecting the properties item.

To work with files, special programs have been created, which are called file managers. By using file manager you can perform any actions on files that you need: copy, rename, delete, move, etc.

To copy a file from folder to folder, you need to move the mouse cursor over it, press the right mouse button and select "copy".
Then call the context menu on the folder to which the copy will be made, but this time select the "paste" item.

Thus, this file will be copied to the folder we need. You can also move the file to another folder, but in this case you need to use the "cut" and "paste" item.
If you want to delete a file, then you need to select the file with the mouse with a single click, and select the "delete" item in the context menu.

After deletion, the file is not completely deleted from the computer, but is placed in the "trash" on the desktop of your computer.

Recycle Bin is also a folder, but a system folder that has a specific task to store deleted files in front of them complete removal from a computer.

If you deleted a file by accident, you can restore it from the trash can. To do this, you need to open the trash can, select the files that need to be restored with the mouse and click the "restore" option.

After that, the file will be restored to the location from which it was deleted.
To measure the size of files, they came up with special units called bytes. All information stored on a computer is stored in binary form. And the smallest unit of information is called a bit. A bit can have only two values: 0 or 1. Therefore, the system is called binary. Eight bits make up one byte. It is in bytes that information on a computer is measured.

The international system of units has shared with us prefixes: kilo, mega, giga ... But in the computer world, these prefixes do not quite coincide with ordinary life. We are used to the fact that a thousand grams is one kilogram. In computers, things are a little different. Here 1KB = 1024 bytes, and 1GB = 1024 MB.

Why they came up with this is not necessary to know, because when working on a computer, we usually operate with file sizes approximately and this is enough. You can simply add that one character (letter, number, etc.) is one byte.

Throughout our lives, many of us, without even noticing it, put everything in boxes, drawers and folders. Take the same kitchen. Plates lie with plates, knives, forks and spoons usually lie in a dryer, or on a special stand. We store spices either in jars or in bags. Clothes and bedding are in our dressers or wardrobes. Women needlewomen keep their threads, ribbons, beads, buttons, and tools in special chests and boxes. They will never leave it anywhere.

Men also store their tools in special boxes and boxes. A good craftsman has each screw in size in a special drawer with retractable cassettes. And if he has a workshop, then, like a good master, he will find any instrument with his eyes closed.

Collectors of stamps, cards, badges, and coins put their treasures in separate envelopes, folders and boxes.

We all try to keep the same documents, passports, diplomas, TIN, pension certificates, and other securities in one place.

The same thing happens with us on the computer. Only in this case we do not store material things, but information in the form of files.