A Detailed Guide in Using the Options Under File Explorer’s Share Tab (Part 1)

Windows 10 is finally going to be released in a day from now and everyone is excited to have it in their computers but in the midst of all the users who are excited to have it, there are also some who prefer to stay with Windows 8.1. While there are differences between Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, there are still big similarities between these Windows editions and one of the features that has not changed that much in Windows 10 is the operating system’s file management tool called File Explorer.

In our previous tutorials, we’ve given our readers a detailed view about the options that are found under the File Explorer’s “Home” tab but if you’ll see more tabs to the right of the “Home” tab which also contains several options under them as part of the new ribbon-based menu that was introduced in Windows 8 and was carried over to Window 8.1 and even to Windows 10’s Technical Preview Builds.

Now, as a continuation of the File Explorer ribbon-based options tutorial series that we have started, we’ll be talking more about the next tab that is found on top of the File Explorer Window which is labeled as “Share” and we’ll discuss what each option under it is used for so if you want to enhance your productivity while using Windows 8.1 or even the upcoming Windows 10 then be sure to read this tutorial towards the end. To start, let’s review the steps in launching File Explorer in these modern Windows editions.

How to Launch File Explorer

If you have a new Windows 8.1 machine then you’ll surely see a quick launch icon for the File Explorer that is pinned on the Taskbar and you can easily launch this tool simply by clicking on the icon itself as highlighted on the screenshot below.

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However, if you’re using a family computer that might have already been customized by other users that has access to it and the quick launch icon for the File Explorer tool has already been unpinned, you can simply launch it by using the “Windows + E” keyboard shortcut combination.

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Or you can also open the WinX menu by pressing the “Windows + X” keyboard shortcut combination then on the menu that pops-out from the bottom-left portion of your computer screen, you will simply need to look for the option that says “File Explorer” as highlighted on the screenshot below.

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Lastly, you can also open the File Explorer tool by using the “Run” box. To do this, you will need to press the “Windows + R” keys and after doing so, a small box that contains a text input box will appear on the bottom-left portion of the screen as you can see below. On this small box, all you need to do is enter the word “explorer” into the input box that is found on it then hit the “OK” button. After you do so, the File Explorer Window should open right away.

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Viewing the Options Under the Share Tab

Unlike the “Home” tab which took 3 tutorials to cover everything that is found under it, File Explorer’s “Share” tab contains fewer options under it but all of them are equally important with the ones that we have already discussed. To view the options under this tab, all you need to do is click on it from the top-left portion of the File Explorer Window as you can see on the screenshot below.

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After clicking the “Share” tab, you will be able to view all of the options that are found under it as you can see on the screenshot below and we will be learning what each one of these options are for as we move on.

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As you can see, there are just 3 group of options under the “Share” tab (unlike the Home tab that has 5) and these option groups are listed below together with short descriptions as overview on each one of them:

  • Send- This section contains options and methods that will help you send files and other stuff that you’re currently working on in File Explorer.
  • Share with- A very useful set of tools that offers access to different sharing settings on your existing network that has a Homegroup setup in it.
  • Advanced Security- If you want to make more advanced tweaks with the security settings of the files and folders that are saved in a certain location on your computer then this section is the go-to place for you.

How to Use the Options Under the Share Tab’s Send Section

Now, let’s take a look into each of he options that are found in the first group of options under the “Share” tab which is labeled “Send”. If you have just launched the File Explorer Window then you might notice that most of the options in it are grayed-out and unclickable but selecting a file of folder from a certain library like “Documents”, “Music”, “Download”, “Videos” and many others then the options under the “Send” group will become clickable.

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So now, let’s start by going over each of the options under the “Send” section. Let’s start with the very first one:

  • Email- Obviously, this option will open the default email client that is set on your computer and the file or folder that you have selected will automatically be attached. Once the email client opens, all you need to do is enter the email address to whom you’d like to send the file/folder to and include the message then hit the “Send” button on the left as highlighted below.

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After hitting the “Send” button, the email will automatically be sent to the recipient email address and as you can see, it is really easier to do than taking the longer process of launching your favorite browser, entering your email client’s website URL, logging in with your account and finally typing the message as well as the email recipient. With the help of the “Email” option, sending emails and attachments are now made a lot easier and quicker than ever!

Zip- Email attachments have certain size limitations which is just in megabytes so you really need to limit the file/s or folder/s that you send in a single email. If you encountered a file that has exceeded the limit allowed for email attachments then you can try to compress the file/folder using the “Zip” option. This feature found under the “Send” group of options will surely make bigger files smaller by compressing it so it can be prepared for sending.

Ooops! We’re Running Out of Space Again

As you can see, accessing the File Explorer Window in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 is really easy and the first two options found under the “Send” tab are both very useful as well but there are still three more options  under the “Send” tab which we will skip for now since we’re already running out of space this time. We will continue on with the remaining options under File Explorer’s “Share” in Part 2 of this tutorial so be sure to catch it later this week to learn more about the options that can help boost your productivity while you’re working with your Windows machine!