Where's the "Up" button?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ceed
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C

ceed

Hi,

It's always the little thing that gets you. I like Vista after having
turned off more crap than I had to in XP. What's left is a good
looking solid OS doing things fast. One thing though: Where's the "Up"
button in Windows Explorer? How do I go up one directory in one step?
I am hoping I am missing something obvious or I will have to go
hunting for an external file manager. I do not mind having to do that,
but I was hoping I didn't have to.

Linux has always had better file managers than Windows in my opinion.
I did however like Windows Explorer on XP to the extent I didn't
replace it. Without an "Up" button in Vista I'm back to be looking for
alternatives (for file manager that is, not OS...:)

//see and be ceed (stuffy nose)
 
It's always the little thing that gets you. I like Vista after having
turned off more crap than I had to in XP. What's left is a good
looking solid OS doing things fast. One thing though: Where's the "Up"
button in Windows Explorer? How do I go up one directory in one step?
I am hoping I am missing something obvious or I will have to go
hunting for an external file manager. I do not mind having to do that,
but I was hoping I didn't have to.
Click to expand...

The up button has been retired.

Click on the directory name you wish to go up to in the address bar instead.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*
 
ceed said:
Hi,

It's always the little thing that gets you. I like Vista after having
turned off more crap than I had to in XP. What's left is a good
looking solid OS doing things fast. One thing though: Where's the "Up"
button in Windows Explorer? How do I go up one directory in one step?
I am hoping I am missing something obvious or I will have to go
hunting for an external file manager. I do not mind having to do that,
but I was hoping I didn't have to.

Linux has always had better file managers than Windows in my opinion.
I did however like Windows Explorer on XP to the extent I didn't
replace it. Without an "Up" button in Vista I'm back to be looking for
alternatives (for file manager that is, not OS...:)

//see and be ceed (stuffy nose)
Click to expand...
You don't need an UP button in Vista's Explorer. Just click on the
portion of the path that you'd like to navigate to! HINT: look at the
top of the Explorer window--the full path is visible. :) Enjoy!

Dave
 
You don't need an UP button in Vista's Explorer. Just click on the
portion of the path that you'd like to navigate to! HINT: look at the
top of the Explorer window--the full path is visible. :) Enjoy!

Dave-
Click to expand...

I do not need the up button? Do I know you? :)

I do need it. I have a lot of my documents on an encrypted partition
represented by shortcuts in my Documents folder (for file saving
convenience reasons). In this context an up button is helpful.

Isn't the world wonderful: There's file managers out there on all OS's
I am using (OSX, Linux, Windows and even my Blackberry), so I still
can get what I need...brrrt, scratch that....want Take for instance
the file manager that comes with 7-zip. It lets you choose if you need
an up button or not in it's settings. Gosh! :)

//ceed
 
ceed shared these words of wisdom:
Linux has always had better file managers than Windows in my opinion.
I did however like Windows Explorer on XP to the extent I didn't
replace it. Without an "Up" button in Vista I'm back to be looking
for alternatives (for file manager that is, not OS...:)
Click to expand...

The Explorer has become really powerful. One of the biggest
improvements in Vista.
Under previous versions the Explorer on my machines was just more or
less living on charity <bg> and "Total Commader" (ex: Windows
Commander) was the most used instrument.

But there are really great features now and in the few weeks under
Vista my behaviour of working with files seems to be dramatically
changing.

As the others have already said, the UP-button is no longer needed.
In addition: One can simply use the Backspace key for togging to the
parent directory and back.

Rainald
P.S. As most often asked: The menu can be enabled via "Organize |
Layout"
 
As in previous versions of Windows, you can always use the backspace key on
your keyboard to go up.
 
ceed shared these words of wisdom:


The Explorer has become really powerful. One of the biggest
improvements in Vista.
Under previous versions the Explorer on my machines was just more or
less living on charity <bg> and "Total Commader" (ex: Windows
Commander) was the most used instrument.

But there are really great features now and in the few weeks under
Vista my behaviour of working with files seems to be dramatically
changing.

As the others have already said, the UP-button is no longer needed.
In addition: One can simply use the Backspace key for togging to the
parent directory and back.

Rainald
P.S. As most often asked: The menu can be enabled via "Organize |
Layout"
Click to expand...

I completely agree that Windows Explorer is better than in XP. I still
like the concept of an "Up" button. It's a intuitive way to work for
me with a lot of links and partitions to work with. So I can choose to
adapt a new way of working, or find a file manager which has the "Up"
button as an option.

In fact, what I would prefer is a file manager like Midnight Commander
on Linux which has a ".." on top of eich pane to go up. I always have
my folders set to display details and the "Up" button or a ".." to go
up is a concept I'm comfortable with. I have tried the port of MC to
Windows, but it's not very good. The 7-Zip file manager is actually
the best lightweight file manager out there now in my opinion.

I somewhat agree that I do not need the up button in Explorer, but
that doesn't mean I would like to have the option to use it if I want
to. The "Up" button is a logical representation of what's happening. I
could probably also get used to the blinker control on my car say "Go
Right" and "Go Left", but the simple arrow pointing left or right on
the control is what I am used to!... :)

//ceed
 
You don't need an UP button in Vista's Explorer. Just click on the
portion of the path that you'd like to navigate to! HINT: look at the
top of the Explorer window--the full path is visible. :) Enjoy!

Dave- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

You don't "need" anything. However, the Up button (and functionality)
is definately something I used, liked and made my life easier.
Replacing that functionality with a Previous Folder is ok if you want
to go to the previous folder. But now I am faced with having to go
grab the mouse instead of hitting backspace a couple times to traverse
up a couple directories.

One thing I used to really love about Windows was you *could* use it
without a mouse. That is becoming harder and harder.
 
You don't "need" anything. However, the Up button (and functionality)
is definately something I used, liked and made my life easier.
Replacing that functionality with a Previous Folder is ok if you want
to go to the previous folder. But now I am faced with having to go
grab the mouse instead of hitting backspace a couple times to traverse
up a couple directories.

One thing I used to really love about Windows was you *could* use it
without a mouse. That is becoming harder and harder.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Exaxctly! You put it much better than I did. It's a matter of
convenience and speed.

//ceed
 
ceed shared these words of wisdom:
In fact, what I would prefer is a file manager like Midnight
Commander on Linux which has a ".." on top of eich pane to go up. I
always have my folders set to display details and the "Up" button or
a ".." to go up is a concept I'm comfortable with.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I do not know anything under Linux anymore.
But the feature to go up one level with ".." and to the root with "\"
is what I'm used to from my beloved Total Commander.

BTW: If you are looking for an alternative or an additional
file-manager, don't miss to download Total Commander and check it out.
www.ghisler.com
It's good for at least 1001 things and I call it "my Swiss Army Knife"
<gbg> and there are literally tons of add-ons and add-ins for almost
everything.

The download is fully functional shareware which comes with a
rather tame nagging splash screen.
The price for the license is USD 34.- . And it's worth that for sure.

Rainald
 
I suppose that could be Microsoft's erroneous reasoning. That is only true
if you came from the parent folder. You may have come from somewhere else,
like a pasted in path. UP always took you one level up from the current
level. Backspace always takes you to the previously displayed path.

-Paul Randall
 
theclyde shared these words of wisdom:
However, the Up button (and functionality)
is definately something I used, liked and made my life easier.
Click to expand...

I see no reason why the removed it. Folks were used to it and would not
have hurt to keep it (even if it's *needed* anymore because there are
better instruments now.
Replacing that functionality with a Previous Folder is ok if you want
to go to the previous folder. But now I am faced with having to go
grab the mouse instead of hitting backspace a couple times to
traverse up a couple directories.
Click to expand...

Why not just click *once* on the proper directory in the path?
One thing I used to really love about Windows was you *could* use it
without a mouse. That is becoming harder and harder.
Click to expand...

That's right. But I can't see a relation to case discussed in here.
Or: Could you tell me how you managed to use the Up-Arrow without a
mouse? <bg,d&r>

Rainald
 
ceed said:
Hi,

It's always the little thing that gets you. I like Vista after having
turned off more crap than I had to in XP. What's left is a good
looking solid OS doing things fast. One thing though: Where's the "Up"
button in Windows Explorer? How do I go up one directory in one step?
I am hoping I am missing something obvious or I will have to go
hunting for an external file manager. I do not mind having to do that,
but I was hoping I didn't have to.
Click to expand...

At the left of the address bar there are two buttons with "Back" and
"Forward" arrows on them. Consider the "Back" button (or backspace key)
the Vista equivalent of the "Up" button in most cases.

If you have pasted a path into the address bar, then simply click on the
previous directory of the path to go up one level.
Example, let's look at the following pasted path:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Help Viewer\1.0\Resources\en

The Back button (or backspace key) will not go back one level here, i.e.
to "Resources" folder, so you would have to click on the word
"Resources" of the path in the address bar. Up one more level - click on
"1.0", up one more - click on "Adobe Help Viewer", and so on.

Also, you can click on the tiny arrows of the path in the address bar to
navigate around the directories of the same level, which will permit
modifying this path at that intermediate point to navigate to another
directory in a jiffy, i.e. this is much quicker than pressing the Back
button repeatedly, if the path contains a great many levels.

You could also simply click on the folder in the tree that is displayed
in the navigation pane.

See also these:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/ddd07224-70eb-4078-bb9b-ecc90d00ee571033.mspx
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/8eb3b0f8-533a-4e63-b967-b090a7912cc71033.mspx

Marco
 
ceed said:
I completely agree that Windows Explorer is better than in XP. I still
like the concept of an "Up" button. It's a intuitive way to work for
me with a lot of links and partitions to work with. So I can choose to
adapt a new way of working, or find a file manager which has the "Up"
button as an option.

In fact, what I would prefer is a file manager like Midnight Commander
on Linux which has a ".." on top of eich pane to go up. I always have
my folders set to display details and the "Up" button or a ".." to go
up is a concept I'm comfortable with. I have tried the port of MC to
Windows, but it's not very good. The 7-Zip file manager is actually
the best lightweight file manager out there now in my opinion.

I somewhat agree that I do not need the up button in Explorer, but
that doesn't mean I would like to have the option to use it if I want
to. The "Up" button is a logical representation of what's happening. I
could probably also get used to the blinker control on my car say "Go
Right" and "Go Left", but the simple arrow pointing left or right on
the control is what I am used to!... :)

//ceed
Click to expand...

This link explains Microsoft inovation..
http://www.eweek.com/talkback_details/0,1932,s=25990&a=212872,00.asp?m=23919

Floyd
 
It's basically been replaced by the crumb trail at the top of the window.
It's not as abstract and quick (just "Up"), instead having the actual words
there, but in the end, it makes jumping up, say, 3 levels of the hierarchy
take less mouse clicks - single click for every jump, no matter how far.
 
Marco said:
ceed [Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:14:48 -0700] wrote:

Hi,

It's always the little thing that gets you. I like Vista after having
turned off more crap than I had to in XP. What's left is a good
looking solid OS doing things fast. One thing though: Where's the "Up"
button in Windows Explorer? How do I go up one directory in one step?
I am hoping I am missing something obvious or I will have to go
hunting for an external file manager. I do not mind having to do that,
but I was hoping I didn't have to.
Click to expand...

At the left of the address bar there are two buttons with "Back" and
"Forward" arrows on them. Consider the "Back" button (or backspace key)
the Vista equivalent of the "Up" button in most cases.

If you have pasted a path into the address bar, then simply click on the
previous directory of the path to go up one level.
Example, let's look at the following pasted path:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Help Viewer\1.0\Resources\en

The Back button (or backspace key) will not go back one level here, i.e.
to "Resources" folder, so you would have to click on the word
"Resources" of the path in the address bar. Up one more level - click on
"1.0", up one more - click on "Adobe Help Viewer", and so on.

Also, you can click on the tiny arrows of the path in the address bar to
navigate around the directories of the same level, which will permit
modifying this path at that intermediate point to navigate to another
directory in a jiffy, i.e. this is much quicker than pressing the Back
button repeatedly, if the path contains a great many levels.

You could also simply click on the folder in the tree that is displayed
in the navigation pane.

See also these:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/ddd07224-70eb-4078-bb9b-ecc90d00ee571033.mspx
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/8eb3b0f8-533a-4e63-b967-b090a7912cc71033.mspx

Marco
Click to expand...

Not to be rude or argumentative, but "back" and "up" are not the same
except in the event that the user has just been in a parent directory.
"back" is the previous directory, and "up" is the parent of the current
directory. While they COULD be the same, they are by no means usually
the same.

Dave
 
Vista is definitely new to get used to. Kind of like the jump from Windows
3.11 to Windows 95 or from Mac OS 9.x to OSX

There are features I am still learning and I have been using it daily for
about 6 months now.

I just figured out the "up" thing too.

As others were saying the "up" has been replaced but like you I didn't get
it either for awhile.

Basically Open Windows Explorer
Navigate to a Folder
Look BESIDE the <- and the -> at the very top of the screen.
You will see something like this:

(Picture of folder) > Username > Documents > MyFolder > MySubFolder

Now if you were in MySubFolder in Windows XP and you clicked the "UP"
button, it would take you back to MyFolder.

However, the COOL thing about Vista is that you can just CLICK on the actual
word MyFolder there and it will take you "Up" to MyFolder.

Also the best thing is instead of hitting UP 3 times to get back to
Username, you can just click DIRECTLY on the word Username and it will take
you there.

Far more efficient then the Up button.

Also if you double click on the bar away from the words, you will get the
real path where you are at.

Cheers,
Lara
 
At the left of the address bar there are two buttons with "Back" and
"Forward" arrows on them. Consider the "Back" button (or backspace key)
the Vista equivalent of the "Up" button in most cases.

If you have pasted a path into the address bar, then simply click on the
previous directory of the path to go up one level.
Example, let's look at the following pasted path:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Help Viewer\1.0\Resources\en

The Back button (or backspace key) will not go back one level here, i.e.
to "Resources" folder, so you would have to click on the word
"Resources" of the path in the address bar. Up one more level - click on
"1.0", up one more - click on "Adobe Help Viewer", and so on.

Also, you can click on the tiny arrows of the path in the address bar to
navigate around the directories of the same level, which will permit
modifying this path at that intermediate point to navigate to another
directory in a jiffy, i.e. this is much quicker than pressing the Back
button repeatedly, if the path contains a great many levels.

You could also simply click on the folder in the tree that is displayed
in the navigation pane.

See also these:http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Wi...soft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/8eb3b0f8-533a-4e6...

Marco
Click to expand...

Yes, the new way may be more efficient and/or elegant, but the Up
button is so friggin' intuitive to use.It's like "I dug myself so far
down so take me to the surface before I drown!": Clicking the actual
text in the path could actually take me all the way to the surface in
one go, but as you all know coming up that fast could get you the
bends.. :)

"Back" in not the same thing and clicking some text isn't either. All
in all the new Explorer are now more like the file manager in Next
which is the basis for the one in Mac OS X which I never liked. The
next thing from MS is probably the side scrolling ways of OS X. The
removal of the Up button and the full clickable path is the first
step.

//ceed in motion

I
 
ceed shared these words of wisdom:







Sorry, I do not know anything under Linux anymore.
But the feature to go up one level with ".." and to the root with "\"
is what I'm used to from my beloved Total Commander.

BTW: If you are looking for an alternative or an additional
file-manager, don't miss to download Total Commander and check it out.www.ghisler.com
It's good for at least 1001 things and I call it "my Swiss Army Knife"
<gbg> and there are literally tons of add-ons and add-ins for almost
everything.

The download is fully functional shareware which comes with a
rather tame nagging splash screen.
The price for the license is USD 34.- . And it's worth that for sure.

Rainald- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Thank you for the Total Commander tip! After 10 mins of playing with
it I went and purchased the thing. That's file management on steroids.
I now have file management options I could not ever think up in my
wildest geeky dreams! :)

//ceed-o-rama
 
David said:
Marco said:
ceed [Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:14:48 -0700] wrote:

Hi,

It's always the little thing that gets you. I like Vista after having
turned off more crap than I had to in XP. What's left is a good
looking solid OS doing things fast. One thing though: Where's the "Up"
button in Windows Explorer? How do I go up one directory in one step?
I am hoping I am missing something obvious or I will have to go
hunting for an external file manager. I do not mind having to do that,
but I was hoping I didn't have to.
Click to expand...

At the left of the address bar there are two buttons with "Back" and
"Forward" arrows on them. Consider the "Back" button (or backspace key)
the Vista equivalent of the "Up" button in most cases.

If you have pasted a path into the address bar, then simply click on the
previous directory of the path to go up one level.
Example, let's look at the following pasted path:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Help Viewer\1.0\Resources\en

The Back button (or backspace key) will not go back one level here, i.e.
to "Resources" folder, so you would have to click on the word
"Resources" of the path in the address bar. Up one more level - click on
"1.0", up one more - click on "Adobe Help Viewer", and so on.

Also, you can click on the tiny arrows of the path in the address bar to
navigate around the directories of the same level, which will permit
modifying this path at that intermediate point to navigate to another
directory in a jiffy, i.e. this is much quicker than pressing the Back
button repeatedly, if the path contains a great many levels.

You could also simply click on the folder in the tree that is displayed
in the navigation pane.

See also these:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/ddd07224-70eb-4078-bb9b-ecc90d00ee571033.mspx
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/8eb3b0f8-533a-4e63-b967-b090a7912cc71033.mspx

Marco
Click to expand...

Not to be rude or argumentative, but "back" and "up" are not the same
except in the event that the user has just been in a parent directory.
Click to expand...

That is why I used the terms "equivalent" and "in most cases": Consider
the "Back" button (or backspace key) the Vista equivalent of the "Up"
button in most cases.
"back" is the previous directory, and "up" is the parent of the current
directory.
Click to expand...

Isn't the previous directory always the parent of the current directory?

Look at the following path:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile\chrome

If "chrome" is the current directory, "profile" is the parent directory.
If "profile" is the current directory, "defaults" is the parent
directory, and so on.

The Back button would permit climbing down the tree to the root.

This notion is also more accurate than the "up" idea, because one moves
*down* from the directory tree branches to the root.
The real "up" (into the branches) would therefore be forward, which is
also available in Vista - obviously only *if* the whole path has been
expanded previously in the current operation.
While they COULD be the same, they are by no means usually
the same.
Click to expand...

Unless the path has been pasted into the address bar, the Back button
can be considered the same as the old Up button.

Marco
 
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