Summary

This is the first in the series of articles on Windows 7 Libraries. Throughout this series, you will learn what libraries are, what they mean to you as a Windows 7 user, and how you can take the full advantage of this new feature in Windows 7.

Overview

So, what is a library? A Windows 7 Library is a "virtual" folder which presents an easy to manage, consolidated view of all the "regular" folders included within it.

Let's explore this description a bit. The term virtual because, unlike regular folders, a library itself does not contain any content underneath it. It only contains pointers to the actual folders that a user includes in the library. After folders have been included, clicking on the library displays the content from these multiple folders into a single view.

The actual power and usefulness of Windows 7 libraries lies in the fact that users can not only include folders from a local machine but from remote machines too. So, the actual location of the folder is not a concern when we talk about libraries.

In-Built Libraries

If you are a Windows 7 user, then you are already using libraries, knowingly or unknowingly. Windows 7 comes with some of the most common libraries that are required by virtually every Windows user. Documents, for instance, in Windows 7 is a library. By default, it includes the folder C:\Users\«username»\My Documents\. Other in-built libraries include Music, Videos, and Pictures.

Users can create their new libraries if required, or can customize the in-built libraries adding or removing items from the list of included folders as per their needs.

For instance, if you have a desktop machine and a laptop and clicking on the Documents library of your desktop machine, you want to see not only the local documents but all of the document files from your laptop machine too, then you can include the My Documents folder of your laptop in the Documents library of your desktop.

Libraries and Windows Shell

Libraries are an integral part of the overall Windows User Experience. Windows 7 shell and libraries are tightly integrated which means that actions (such as Cut, Copy, Paste etc.) that can be performed on regular file system items can be performed on items being displayed in a library too.

Although a library is only a virtual folder i.e. it cannot contain items but still, users can save files in a library. The way it works is that every library has a default save location associated with it and when user saves a file to a library, Windows automatically saves the file to the designated save location instead. All this is done behind the scenes and is thus transparent to the user.

The default save location can easily be changed at any given point of time which will be explained in the next article of this series.

Conclusion

So, in this article you have learned that Libraries in Windows 7 is a very simple and interesting concept. With libraries, Windows 7 tries to address the issue of users' data scattered all over the place. Moreover, because libraries behave and look exactly like any other regular folder on your PC, there is no learning curve involved.

What's next? The next articles in the series explain in detail how to create and manage libraries.

1. Windows Libraries In Detail - Part I
2. Windows 7 Libraries In Detail - Part II
3. Windows Libraries In Detail - Part III