Windows Explorer does just about anything you would need it to with respect to file management, however one complaint you may see people have is that it lacks speed when doing file copies. If this is something you have noticed, a utility you should try is TeraCopy. TeraCopy is a program optimized for doing one thing- copying files fast.

Personally, I do a lot of work with virtual machines (copying, moving, etc.) which have a file size of at least 8 GB so this looks like something I am going to give a try. Does anyone already use TeraCopy or another similar program? If so, what is your experience?

If you run your own web site and run Perl, PHP scripts or the like, there will be instances where you have to edit some files from time to time.

The long way to do it is to download the file you need to edit, modify it, then upload it back.

The short way is to edit the file "live" on the server directly. Using Notepad++ this is easy to do with it’s built-in FTP feature.

First, enable FTP folders by clicking the small yellow folder icon at top:

You will see a right and bottom pane appear, similar to this:

In the FTP Folder window at right, click the settings icon (the gray one that looks like a gear).

You’ll get a window like this:

Click New (bottom left button) to start a new profile.

Enter Profile as the friendly name you want to remember this FTP server by, such as "My FTP Server".

Enter Address as the FTP server you want to connect to, followed by your username and password.

If using Windows XP, you don’t have to set anything else up.

If using Vista or 7, you do have to set the Use profile cache directory to a local writable folder (such as My Documents for your local Windows account). If you don’t do this, you will not be able to edit any files "live".

When done, click OK.

To the left of the settings icon you clicked is a blue plug-looking icon:

Clicking this will bring up your server list. It will show the entry you just created. Click your entry and you will establish an FTP session with your server.

From there you can double-click any file you want (as long as it’s text based) to edit, seen below.

After double-clicking a file it will open in the editor as a tab (each successive file you open will create more tabs). Make your edits, then save the file with the save button or CTRL+S, and it will be saved direct-to-server.

A freeware utility called Rename Master is all you need to mass-rename any type of file you want to in Windows XP or Vista. While it’s true you can mass-rename file extensions from the command line in Windows, it’s not so easy to touch a specific part of a filename. But with Rename Master you can do this easily. See video below for details.

This chapter is a video presentation.

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Sharing files and folders between computers is one of the most common applications for a network. You can share single files, folders, even whole drives (bad idea!) if you want to.

Sharing a folder is convenient because you simply have to tell Windows to share the folder rather than tell it to specifically share every file in that folder. Windows will automatically create a folder called “Shared Documents” which has been designated to be shared on your home network. To view this folder, launch the Windows® Explorer (Start / All Programs / Accessories / Windows Explorer) and then select My Computer. Your Shared Documents folder will be present. ANY FILE you place in this folder will be available on your home network to other participating computers.

You might not want to be limited to moving everything into “Shared Folders” in order to share it, however. So, you can tell Windows to share any folder you want on your hard drive. Before continuing, please note:

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