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In Windows, you can create a shortcut to a folder (for example, by right-click and dragging the folder from the Windows Explorer onto the desktop and selecting “create shortcut here”). Then, when you double-click on the shortcut, Explorer opens back up and displays the contents of that folder. There are four default characteristics when this happens:

1. It will open a single pane window (no Explorer bar).


2. It will allow the user to navigate out of the folder (i.e. to the folder’s parent and beyond).


3. The default is for none of the items in a folder to yet be selected.


4. If there is already an open Explorer window displaying that folder, then the operating system will switch to that existing view, as opposed to opening a new one.

All of these behaviors can be customized.

The next step is to add certain “command-line switches” that Windows Explorer understands. These switches are as follows:

• /n forces it to open a new window, even if it duplicates a window that is already open.


• /e uses Windows Explorer view (multi-paned).


• /root,X restricts Explorer to showing only the contents of file folder X (and its sub-folders).


• /select,Y automatically selects Y (either a file or folder).

These switches can be used in any combination, in any order.