In our continuing series to get you ready for the release of Windows 7, we thought it would be a good idea to take a look at perhaps the biggest change to Windows Explorer: Libraries. You'll run into Libraries each time you open a Windows Explorer window and they come pre-configured on each new installation of Windows 7, but what are they for and how do you use them? Their concept may seem a little confusing at first, but they are actually very handy if you know how to use them.

To understand how to use Libraries in Windows 7, you first have to know what they are. In a way, they are "saved searches" that search pre-configured locations on your local PC, as well as other PCs nearby on the network. With many homes having more than one computer, documents and multimedia content can end up getting strewn across multiple computers and finding one specific file among several computers can be daunting task. Libraries aim to end that problem as they act as a virtual "file cabinet" where each library holds links to all file types that fit under that library's contents. This differs from the traditional file organization that Microsoft has employed since XP, where each user as a "My Documents" (or Documents in Vista/7), "My Music", "My Pictures", etc., in the sense that these libraries hold links to files across many computers and are automatically populated. For example, if you place an MP3 file into the traditional "My Photos", the file will reside on your local hard drive in that folder and can be found only by a complex method of computer networking. If you place the same MP3 file into the Music library, it will save the file into the library's default save location and can be accessed from any Windows 7 computer on the network in a very easy fashion.

Each Windows 7 computer comes with four preset libraries: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos, but you can create as many libraries as you want (more on that later). In the screenshot below, you can see that I have my computer's Pictures library open, which shows folders containing photos from several different locations on both my local computer, and the few other computers on my home network. There are three locations currently being "indexed" for photos: (1) C:\Users\Alex, (2) C:\Users\Public, and (3) \\SERVER (which is a folder on my Windows Home Server). Clicking on any of the folders in this Pictures Library allows me to browse through them and open any file just as if it was a regular Windows Explorer folder. You can also delete and manage these folders and files too. If you were to drag another picture file into the Library and put it into no specific folder, it would be saved to the Library's default save location, but you can drag it to a folder listed in the Library and it will be saved there, even if it is located on another computer.

To manage specific settings for a certain library, click on the text after the word "Includes:", such as "3 Locations" in the screenshot above. This will bring up the Library Locations dialog where you can modify the locations that Windows 7 will show for a specific library and the default save location for the situation described above. In this dialog box, you can add and remove locations and set the default save location by right-clicking a location and choosing "Set as default save location". Locations can be moved up and down the list to vary the order they will appear in the library.

Creating a new library is simple, just go back to the main Library's window in Explorer and click "New Library" on the top toolbar, which will allow you to set a name for the new Library and double-click it once you're done. In this example, I created a library titled "Financial Documents" where I'd like to have easy access to various financial related files located on many computers on my network. Clicking on the "Include a Folder" button in the newly created library, I can select any folder that I want to be shown inside this particular library.

Right-clicking any library in the main Libraries Explorer window and choosing Properties will show another dialog that is similar to the Library Locations dialog, but with a little more features. Here you can specify a specific file category to optimize the library to best display the files for that type and whether or not to show this library in the navigation pane on the left of every Explorer window.

If you choose to delete the whole library from the Libraries Explorer window, it will not delete any of the files or folders that were previously located "inside" the library because they were never really inside the library to begin with. But remember, if you delete specific files or folders from the library itself, it will delete the files from their original location.

If you have multiple computers running Windows 7, you can share your libraries across the network with these computers via a HomeGroup network. You don't need Windows 7 on all your computer, however, to enjoy libraries. You can still use them to organize files on your local computer as well as files on networked computers running other versions of Windows.

View other Windows 7 related reviews, articles, and guides at our Windows 7 Resource Center.