If you don’t organize computer files directories and applications, what are the implications of this?
To start with we have a messy and cluttered computer, meaning it’s harder to find things.
You will be using more of the computers hard drive space than you need to, which means you could run out of space, a slower computer which is more liable to be less resilient.
If you have never organised computer directories, files or applications before, be prepared for this to take a while, but once done it’s very easy to keep it clean.
The way I personally organize computer files etc is by date and type.
For example most people have lots of files such as graphic or photos, music and files such as Word documents PDF files and Windows already provides us with the following structure which is halfway there.
But this can make it pretty messy as all Documents are currently stored in the Root of My Documents, this can be improved by creating another folder called Documents, this way we now have folders for each subject.
If you have lots of photos which can soon run into thousands then having a single directory is just not enough, the easiest way is to break them into date order and then create folders within My Pictures as below
I use months as we take around 1-200 per month and this way it makes it very easy to find any we are looking for.
Organize Computer Files
To actually organize your computer files to begin with its usually just a case of creating your directories and then performing a search, *.doc, *.xls or any other format you use, and then moving the files from there into your chosen directory.
When it comes to photos again run a search such as *.jpg to find all jpeg graphics files, then order them by date and move the chosen ones into your directory structure.
This also offers a good way to clear out files and photos you no longer need.
Once you have finished now it will only take a few minutes to keep everything tidy.
Don’t forget to ensure you have a files backup to make sure you never lose anything, Windows comes with a few great little options built in such as Offline Files and its own back application.
Organized computer files help to make a faster more resilient machine
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