Three Shortcuts for Using Windows Explorer More Efficiently

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Windows Explorer is the main interface to files and folders so anything that makes its use more efficient is welcome. Here are three shortcuts to help make managing files and folders easier.

Resize a single column in Details View

If you are using Windows Explorer in Details View, you may find that the columns are not wide enough to display the entire length of entries. An individual column can be changed to the proper width by double-clicking the separator bar at the right-side of the column.

Keyboard shortcut to resize all columns in Details View at once

To resize every column so that all data shows, hold down the Control key and press the + key from the numeric keypad (not the + key from the regular part of the keyboard). This not only works in a Windows Explorer folder display but also in certain applications that display columns of data. It may be necessary to expand the window to see all the columns after they have been resized.. The next tip gives a quick method to do this.

Quick way to enlarge a Windows Explorer window to full screen

You may be familiar with the simple shortcut that uses the key F11 to expand most common browsers to full screen. Not as well known is that this shortcut works for Windows Explorer also. Note that this gives a somewhat larger view than the one obtained by maximizing a window. It can be very handy if you have a lot of files listed in a folder. This method works for all views. To return a window to its previous size, press F11 again.

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