6. Where are my libraries?

Now that you’ve found File Explorer, you might notice something is missing. The left pane lists Favorites, This PC (the location formerly known as My Computer), and Network. But it apparently doesn’t have Libraries.

Libraries—configurable pointers to Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos—help you organize your data files. They’re one of the best features added with Windows 7.

For instance, the Documents library by default contains both the My Documents and Shared Documents folder, and you can add or remove other folders as you wish. The folders aren’t actually in the library, but they appear to be.

The good news: Microsoft didn’t remove libraries; it just hid them. But why?

Probably because the company doesn’t really want you to store data locally. Microsoft would rather you stored everything in its cloud-based service, OneDrive, and pay for that privilege.

If that doesn’t sound like a good plan to you, restore those libraries. In File Explorer, go to the View tab and select Navigation pane>Show libraries.

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