Windows laptop:
Managing files
This course explains how you can save and organise your files so they’re easy to find. You’ll also learn how to change the picture on your desktop background and set a new profile picture.
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Transcript
Welcome to the Windows laptop: Managing files course. In this course you'll learn how to organise your computer's desktop. We'll show you how to organise your files and folders so you know where everything is. You'll also learn how to choose the background picture you see on the desktop. And how to change the profile picture you see when you sign in to your computer.
To follow along with this demonstration your Windows computer must have the latest edition of Windows, which is Windows 10. All Windows 10 computers work in a similar way. But because each computer maker does things a little differently, some of the screens in this video might vary from those on your computer. Don't worry though. You should still be able to follow along.
It should take around 15 minutes to complete the video. But you can pause, or rewind, to check any steps you're unsure about.
Before you begin, make sure your Windows computer is installed with Windows 10, plugged into mains power, properly connected to a mouse, switched on, and showing the desktop. Each time you sign in to your computer, you will see what's called the desktop. The desktop is the main screen of your computer. And is a quick way to find the apps, files, and folders you need.
Your desktop will have icons on it, and these represent the different applications and files that you or your computer have stored on the desktop.
There are several different ways to organise and access the files on your computer. But files stored on the desktop can be quickest to see and open. Of course the more files you put on the desktop, the more you might find it cluttered and hard to use. Luckily, tidying up is really easy. Here's how.
First, right click anywhere on the desktop. You can do this wherever you like, as long as it's not on top of an icon. When you right click with your mouse, a context menu will appear and show a list of options. Point the mouse to the View option, but don't click the button just yet. After a moment another panel will appear alongside the context menu. This is a list of the desktop's view options and you can use these to tidy up. The first three options change the size of all the desktop icons. But we'll skip this. Feel free to come back and experiment with them later. The remaining options change how the icons line up on the desktop. Each can be switched on or off and will show a tick to the left when they are on.
The most useful of these options is the option Auto arrange icons. Go ahead an click it once to turn it on. You'll see that the menu disappears and quick as a flash, all the icons on your desktop went over to the far left and arranged themselves into rows and columns, very tidy!
If you'd like to go back to being able to place icons all over the desktop, just repeat the previous steps and click Auto arrange icons again to turn it off.
A tidy desktop can still be a disorganised desktop, especially if you have a lot of files, so you might like to sort them into some kind of order. Right click on the desktop to open the context menu again. This time point the mouse to Sort by, and hold it there for a moment. Another side menu appears with four options for sorting your desktop icons. If the menu suddenly disappears don't worry. Just hold the mouse pointer steady over the words Sort by again, and the side menu will come back.
Now let's look at the Sort by options.
Clicking on name will sort the icons in alphabetical order.
Size will sort them in order of how much space each file takes up on your hard drive.
Item type will group files that are alike. It'll put all your pictures together for example.
Date modified will arrange all the icons from newest to oldest.
Try out each option to see how they work. When you've finished, it's time to get ready for the next step by turning off the Auto arrange icon setting. Right click on the desktop to show the context menu. Then point the mouse to the View option. Now click on Auto arrange icons to turn it off.
If you have lots of files to organise, you can group them together under one folder. For instance, you might have some files on your desktop from your latest health checkup. And other files for a planned garden renovation. To organise these files better, you can sort them into folders.
For this demonstration, we'll organise some files into two separate folders, one labelled Gardening and one labelled Medical.
First, right click on an empty part of the desktop to show the context menu. Then move the mouse pointer to New and hold it here for a moment, and a list will appear to the side. At the very top of this list you'll see Folder. Click it, and a new folder will appear on the desktop. The folder will be called New folder and the name of the folder will be highlighted. You can just start typing now to change the name to Gardening. Press Enter to finish. Great, your new gardening folder is ready to use!
Now let's repeat these steps to create another folder. This time let's call it Medical. You can now start organising your files into the folders.
For this demonstration we'll place gardening files into the Gardening folder. Use your mouse to click once and hold on a file. Now move your mouse to drag the file to the Gardening folder. When it's over the folder remove your finger from the mouse to release the file. When you let go of the mouse button the file disappears. That's because you've dropped it into the gardening folder. Don't worry if it doesn't work the first time. Just try it again by repeating the steps. You can repeat these steps for all the files you want to organise on your desktop. When you've dropped all the files you want into each folder, your desktop will be neat and tidy.
Now let's check out your new folders. To see the files inside a folder, double click on the folder. A window will open showing all the files inside. If the files appear in a list like this, you can click on this button in the bottom right of the window to show a tiny picture preview for each file. This is known as a thumbnail. A thumbnail helps you quickly see which file is which. Files that aren't photos or pictures will show an icon instead of a thumbnail. The icon will let you know what kind of file it is. To open a file within the folder simply double click on it. When you're done you can click the cross in the top right corner to return to the desktop.
Now your desktop is organised, you might like to personalise it a bit more. Let's look at how you can change the picture that takes up the whole background of the desktop.
To change the background first right click once on the desktop to open the context menu. At the bottom click on Personalise. The Windows settings menu appears showing the Background options. Click on one of the small square pictures to make it your background. You'll see the desktop change right away to show the new picture. You can also use a personal photo or another image that you have saved on your computer for a background. Just click on the Browse button to find it. You could use a picture of your garden or even something you downloaded from the Internet like the New York skyline. You can use any kind of image you like. Well done, you're just about finished with this course!
But before you go let's take a look at setting your profile picture. Your profile picture appears in the circle on the sign in screen above your email address. It might also appear on emails you send to others, in some applications, and web browsers.
It's safe to set a profile picture that's a photo of yourself, but if you're not comfortable with the idea, don't worry. Your computer will work just as well without one. Since Windows settings is still open, click on Home in the top left corner. Now click on Accounts. The right panel will show Your info, including your sign in name and the email address you use.
If you sign in with a Microsoft account, to change your profile picture, look for create your picture under the profile photo.
If your computer has a webcam, click on Camera and a window will appear to help you take the perfect selfie.
If you don't have a camera or would rather not use your own face as the picture, click on browse to search for one. A File Explorer window will then open showing the Pictures folder for your account.
Find the picture you'd like to use and double click it. Now Your info shows the new profile pic, Very snazzy To close and save your new profile click the little cross in the top right.
Congratulations, this is the end of the Windows laptop Managing files course. When you're ready feel free to continue with some of the other courses to learn more about what your Windows computer can do.