Displaying—or Hiding—Different Panes
There are quite a few things you can customize about Windows Explorer. Let's start with the Explorer window itself—and the various panes that are displayed.
By default, Explorer displays the navigation and details panes, as well as a small library pane, above the details pane, that displays information about the current folder or library. You can also opt to display a preview pane, to the right of the details pane, that displays a preview of any file you select in the details pane, as shown in Figure 6.5. It's kind of useful, but cuts down on the available real estate for navigation and browsing, which is probably why it's turned off by default.
Figure 6.5 The Explorer window with the preview pane displayed.
To select which panes are displayed in the Explorer window, follow these steps:
- From within Windows Explorer, select Organize, Layout.
- Check those panes you want to display.
- Uncheck those panes you don't want to see.
Pretty easy.