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Whenever you create a file or folder, Windows Vista scrawls a bunch of secret hidden information on it: the date you created it, its size, and even more trivial stuff. Sometimes it even lets you add your own secret information: lyrics and reviews for your music files and folders, or thumbnail pictures for any of your folders.
You can safely ignore most of the information. Other times, tweaking that information is the only way to solve a problem.
To see what Windows Vista is calling your files and folders behind your back, right-click the item and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. Here's what each tab means:
- General: This first tab shows the file's type, its size, the program that opens it, and the file's location.
 | Does the wrong program open your file? Right-click the file, choose Properties, and click the Change button on the General tab. There, you can choose your preferred program from a list. |
- Security: On this tab, you control permissions: who can access the file, and what he or she can do with it — details that only become a chore when Vista won't let your friend (or even you) open the file. If this problem develops, copy the folder to your Public folder. That folder provides a haven where everybody can access the file.
- Details: True to its name, this tab reveals minute details about a file. On digital photos, for example, this tab lists EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format ) data: the camera model, F-stop, aperture, focal length, and other items photographers love. On songs, this tab displays the song's ID3 (IDentify MP3) tag: the artist, album title, year, track number, genre, length, and similar information.
- Previous Versions: An obsessive collector, Vista constantly saves previous versions of your files. Made some terrible changes to today's spreadsheet? Take a deep breath, head here, and grab yesterday's copy of the spreadsheet. Vista's Previous Versions feature works in tandem with Windows XP's trusty System Restore.
Normally, all these details remain hidden unless you right-click a file and choose Properties. But a folder can display the details of all your files simultaneously, handy for quick searches. To choose which details appear — the word count in your Microsoft Word documents, for example — right-click any word listed at the top of a column. (Click More, at the list's bottom, to see dozens more details, including word count.) The following list provides additional information about folders and their properties:
- To change the way a folder displays your files, click the arrow by the Views button on the toolbar. A menu appears, listing the seven ways a folder can display your files: Extra Large Icons, Large Icons, Medium Icons, Small Icons, List, Details, and Tiles. Try them all to see which view you prefer. (Vista remembers which views you prefer for different folders.)
 | - If you can't remember what a folder's toolbar buttons do, rest your mouse pointer over a button. Windows Vista displays a helpful box summing up the button's mission.
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- Although some of the additional file information is handy, it can consume a lot of space, limiting the number of files you can see in the window. Displaying only the filename is often a better idea. Then, if you want to see more information about a file or folder, try the following tip.
- Folders usually display files sorted alphabetically. To sort them differently, right-click a blank spot inside the folder and choose Sort By. A pop-up menu lets you choose to sort items by size, name, type, and other details. Click More at the bottom of that pop-up menu's list to be astounded by the 250 ways you can sort files.
| - When the excitement of the Sort By menu wears off, try clicking the words at the top of each sorted column. Click Size, for example, to quickly place the largest files at the list's top. Click Date Modified to quickly sort by the date of their last change, instead.
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