Where Things Are in the Window
Folders adds a folder tree to macOS, which keeps the structure of the filesystem visible while you browse. This page explains how that structure is organized for anyone used to File Explorer’s C:\ and D:\ model, lists the Folders settings that ease the transition, and gives a short keyboard shortcut reference.
One Tree, No Drive Letters
On Windows, each disk is identified by a letter, and a path begins with the letter of the disk it refers to. macOS does not use letters. There is a single tree, starting at /, and every file — your documents, your applications, the system, and any disk you connect — is located somewhere inside that one root.
A disk is therefore not a separate structure but a folder that appears inside the existing tree. Connecting a USB stick adds it inside the tree, not beside it.
This is what the folder tree shows directly: Macintosh HD is the entire filesystem. Expanding that one node reveals the same / that every path on your Mac is measured from, with your home folder, your applications, the system, and every mounted drive located somewhere inside it. No file on your Mac exists outside it.
Every other top-level node is either a shortcut to a particular place inside Macintosh HD, or a query that collects files from across it. None of them is a separate location. If you lose track of where a file actually is, the Path Bar shows the answer directly: click it to see the full path from Macintosh HD down to the current folder, with each segment clickable to jump straight there.
Reading the Tree
The set of top-level nodes is not fixed. You decide which of them appear, in what order, and in what colour, under “Folders › Settings... › Sidebar” — drag the handle to rearrange, and use the coloured dot to recolour an icon (the rainbow symbol means “follow the app’s theme colour”).
They fall into three kinds: Macintosh HD, which is the filesystem itself; shortcuts, which point to a particular place inside it; and queries, which are not places but collections assembled on the spot.
| Node | What it holds, in Windows terms |
| Favorites | Quick access. Add the selected folder with ⌃⌘T. Unlike Finder’s sidebar shortcuts, these expand like real folders. |
| Home | C:\Users\You — written ~ below, and holding the same Documents, Downloads, Desktop and Pictures folders. |
| Hard drives | C:\, and the further internal disks and partitions that Windows would letter D:\ or E:\. Macintosh HD is the root of the whole system, the / that every path is measured from. |
| External drives | External disks, USB sticks and memory cards. Windows assigns these a letter as well; macOS separates them from internal drives by kind instead. They appear under /Volumes when connected, and are removed with ⌘E. |
| Network shares | Mapped network drives. Go › Mount Network Share... (⇧⌘K) discovers SMB and AFP servers for you; pinning a share keeps it in the tree while it is unmounted. |
| iCloud Drive folder | The macOS equivalent of OneDrive in the navigation pane. |
| Cloud storage | Dropbox, Google Drive and the rest, gathered under a single node instead of scattered around your user folder. |
| iOS Devices (Folders Pro only) | iPhones and iPads connected by USB, browsable as ordinary folders — comparable to how a phone appears under “This PC.” |
| Recent files | Quick access’ recent files list. How far back it reaches is set with the “Recent files” setting in Settings › Folder Tree; the default is 30 days. |
| Tags | No Explorer counterpart. Colour tags and text tags belong to the file itself, so a tag gathers items that live in different folders without moving any of them. |
| Star ratings | The same idea, one to five stars. Off by default. |
| Note that Recent files, Tags and Star ratings are built on Spotlight, the system-wide index macOS keeps of your files. They can only show what Spotlight has indexed, so a drive excluded from indexing will not appear in them. | |
| Saved searches | Searches you keep and re-run, like Explorer’s saved searches or Finder’s Smart Folders. Off by default. |
| Trash | The Recycle Bin — except that every disk has its own, so deleting from an external drive leaves the file on that drive until the Trash is emptied. Off by default. What you can do with it depends on your version of Folders; see the FAQ. |
Three things that are not nodes but belong to the same picture:
Applications takes the place of C:\Program Files, and lives inside Macintosh HD. A Mac app is a single bundle rather than a folder of executables and libraries — drag it in to install, drag it to the Trash to uninstall, and use Show Package Contents to look inside one.
Hidden files are usually those whose names begin with a dot; ⌘. shows them. A file can also be hidden without a leading dot, by turning on the “Hidden” checkbox in the File Info panel. The .DS_Store files present in most folders are how macOS stores that folder’s view settings.
File extensions are hidden for known file types by default. Folders follows the system setting until you change it in Settings › File Views.
One further convention: paths use forward slashes rather than backslashes. If you type a path with backslashes instead — including a network path starting with \\ — Folders converts them for you.
Where Things Are in the Window
| File Explorer | Folders |
| Navigation pane | The Folder Tree (⌥⌘S). Which top-level nodes appear is set in Settings › Sidebar. |
| Address bar | The Path Bar. Clickable by default, or a plain editable path if you prefer; it can sit at the bottom of the window or under the toolbar. |
| Quick access, pinned folders | Favorites (⌃⌘T to add). Unlike Finder’s sidebar shortcuts, these expand like real folders. |
| Details view | Table View (⌘3). Right-click the header to choose which columns to show, or to reset them. |
| Preview pane | The Info Panel (⌘I) for details and metadata, and Quick Look on ␣ space for a full preview. |
| Status bar | The Status Bar (⌘/), which carries the Selection Info. |
| Ribbon | The Action Toolbar (⌥⌘/), offering the commands that apply to the current selection. |
Settings to Ease the Transition
The following settings can make Folders behave more like File Explorer. All of them are optional, and can be turned off again once the macOS conventions feel familiar.
| General › Navigate back with delete key | Binds the ⌫ delete key to Back, the same thing backspace does in File Explorer. The default is off. |
| General › Cut via Trash | On by default: ⌘X moves the items to the Trash immediately and puts them on the clipboard, so the operation also works with other apps. Turn it off for File Explorer’s exact behaviour, where nothing happens until you paste — at the cost of it working only inside Folders. |
| General › Show Path Bar as | A plain editable path instead of breadcrumbs, if that is what your eye is looking for. Path Bar position moves it up under the toolbar. |
| File Views › File extensions | Set it to always show extensions if their absence makes them harder to identify. |
| View › Group Folders First | Folders before files, as in Explorer. On by default — nothing to change here. |
| General › Quit when the last window is closed | Makes closing the last window quit the app, the way Windows does it. The default is off. |
Keyboard Shortcuts
⌘ command takes the place of Ctrl in most shortcuts. Folders keeps these close to Finder’s own shortcuts rather than inventing separate ones, so most of the list below also applies outside of Folders, in Finder and elsewhere on the Mac.
| File Explorer | Folders |
| CtrlC / CtrlV | ⌘C / ⌘V |
| CtrlX — cut | ⌘X |
| CtrlShiftN — new folder | ⇧⌘N |
| CtrlN / CtrlT / CtrlW | ⌘N / ⌘T / ⌘W |
| Alt← / Alt→ | ⌘[ / ⌘] |
| Alt↑ — up one level | ⌘↑ |
| Delete — Recycle Bin | ⌘⌫ |
| CtrlA / CtrlZ | ⌘A / ⌘Z |
| CtrlF — search | ⌘F |
| CtrlL / AltD — type a path | ⇧⌘G |
| AltEnter — Properties | ⌘I |
| CtrlShift1…6 — views | ⌘1…4 |
| — | ␣ space — Quick Look |
Finder has no Cut command. Its equivalent of moving files is to copy them with ⌘C and then press ⌥⌘V at the destination, which moves instead of copying. Folders supports this too, as Move Item Here; the ⌘X shortcut in Folders is an addition for convenience and is not a macOS-wide convention.
A few other Folders shortcuts do not match Finder: ⏎ return opens a file, where Finder uses it to rename (this can be changed in Settings › General › Pressing return); F2 also renames; ⇧⌘K discovers network shares, where Finder’s ⌘K opens Connect to Server; and dragging without a modifier key always moves an item, where Finder decides between copying and moving based on whether the destination is on the same disk.
The complete list of shortcuts is on the Keyboard Shortcuts page.
Ideas Windows Does Not Have
A few concepts with no File Explorer counterpart. Except for the Shelf, these are macOS-wide ideas rather than features specific to Folders, and you will meet them again elsewhere on the Mac.
Quick Look. Select an item and press ␣ space to preview it without opening an app. It handles documents, images, video, archives and more.
Aliases and symbolic links. A Windows .lnk corresponds to two separate ideas here: a symbolic link points at a path and is understood by the command line, while an alias keeps tracking its target even after the target is moved or renamed. The practical difference in Folders: a folder symlink expands in place in the Folder Tree, exactly like a real folder, while an alias instead opens its target, closer to how a .lnk behaves. Either kind can be traced back to its target with Reveal Original. Folders creates symbolic links by default; “Settings › General › Create links as” changes that, and Paste as Symlinks (⇧⌘V) or Paste as Aliases (⌃⌘V) select one per operation.
Tags and ratings. Colour tags, text tags and star ratings are attached to the file itself, so items that live in different folders can be gathered without moving any of them. The tree has nodes for them.
The Shelf. A Folders-specific feature: collect files from any number of folders by dropping them onto the Shelf, then move, copy or compress the whole collection at once.
Every menu command and every setting is documented in the User’s Guide. If something you relied on in File Explorer appears to have no counterpart here, ask — the answer is often that macOS refers to it under a different name.
