In this part 17 of my Windows 7 tutorial I’ll continue with part 5 of a tour of Windows Explorer.

For me, of all the Windows 7 new features Libraries is by far its most useful.

Libraries is best described as a way to organize data located in multiple folders on various internal hard drives and/or external hard drives and flash drives.

You can create Libraries of your own or expand on a default Windows Explorer Libraries.

Libraries can be found at the top of your Windows Explorer Navigation pane. By clicking on the triangle to the left of a Library the Windows Explorer folder or folders it points to is listed.

To demonstrate how useful a Library can be I’ll recreate how I expanded my Music Library.

I’ve a many gigabyte collection of music singles and albums. And although I very seldom listen to most of them, I’d not feel comfortable knowing they were not but a mouse click away.

My favorite singles resided in Windows Explorer’s Music folder. The remaining singles and albums are sorted into four collections (folders) based on their popularity.

Unfortunately the four collections collectively require over 90 gigabytes of disk space. Too many gigabytes to include on my C: drive. So I’ve relegated them to an internal hard drive - D.

Prior to Windows 7 if I decided to play a selection(s) from one of my four individual collections I’d have to open my D: drive, try to remember in which collection the selection was stored, and then had to open and search through that collection for the single(s) or the album(s).

But now with Windows 7 I can expeditiously find any single or album in my collections because I added my four collection folders to my Music Library by:

1. Clicking on Start > Music (the default Library folder that points to my C Drive ‘My Music’ folder where my favorite music is stored).
2. Clicking on the (0 locations) of ‘Music Library: includes 0 locations’ located in the upper left of the Music Library pane.
3. Clicking on ‘Add’ and then scrolling down to my D: Drive, clicking on Collection 1 and on the Music Libraries Location panel clicking ‘Include folder’.
4. Repeating steps 2 - 3 to add my other three collections.

Now when I click Start and Music or click on the Windows Explorer icon on my Taskbar and Music, my Music Library includes my default Drive C: My Music folder followed by my four internal Drive D: music collection folders.

Here’s wishing you a Good Boot.