People who own many digital devices nearly always have a
card reader, and for very good reasons. This article is for
people who aren't sure about card readers. We'll start by explaining
what they are.
A card reader plugs into your computer. It allows you to read and write from
various memory cards, such as MMCs (MultiMedia Cards) and SD (Secure
Digital) cards. Early card readers were clumsy. The ones on the
market today are easy to use.
A card reader acts just like a removable drive.
Typically, the way you use it is you put your card in the reader and
then plug the reader into a USB port. Windows then recognizes the
reader and assigns one or several drive letters to it.
You can then read and write to the drive through
your computer's file interface. You can then do
any of the other file management functions permitted by your
computer's file interface (Windows Explorer).
We have encountered users who do not know what this
file interface is. If you are such a user, you are at a huge
disadvantage. You need to spend a little time to become familiar
with Windows Explorer. This is a wonderfully useful tool that has
been in every version of Windows from the first one.
Do not confuse Windows Explorer with Internet
Explorer. One is for exploring your computer via Windows, the other
is for exploring the Internet.
Beginning with Windows 2000, Microsoft buried the
Windows Explorer icon
in the Start Menu rather than putting it in some place that makes
sense. Actually, the best situation would be to have Windows
Explorer come up as your default
screen.
Because of this very bad decision by Microsoft, you do not
(by default) have ready access to the main tool you
should be using to manage your files and thus all of the photos,
documents, and other information on your computer.
To fix that, right mouse click on the Windows
Explorer icon and drag a copy to several places, such as the
QuickLaunch bar, the main Start Menu, and the Desktop.
The
Desktop is a very poor place to store shortcuts. One reason is
because Windows has to redraw them all any time you access the
Desktop, and this lengthens your bootup time. There are other reasons,
too. Why Microsoft has tried to make the Desktop the locus of computer
operations is something that defies logic.
Also:
-
You need to set your Explorer
view to "File Details" so you can see the file date and other
crucial information. This is how you prevent working with the
wrong files.
-
You need to set your Explorer
up to show the file extension. This is how you can tell what
file you have. Get rid of those large, obnoxious icons that tell
you essentially nothing. You can find the appropriate settings
by looking through the menus in Explorer.
With
Windows Explorer set up correctly, you can use your
Card Reader to maintain files between your various devices, drives,
folders, and subfolders. It's much like managing a 5-drawer paper
filing cabinet, but faster and easier.
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