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Windows Vista - Explorer - Partially Hide Drive Letters

SUMMARY: Clean up the display in Windows Vista's "My Computers" folder by hiding drive letters from view.

When opening "My Computer", Windows Vista, by default, shows each drive's letter. Normally the first hard drive is labeled C:, a DVD drive may be labeled D:, and a removable media drive may be labeled E:, though this can change depending on your system and hardware configuration.

While drive letters have been in use since the MS-DOS days, some beginning Windows users may find these letters confusing. Thus, they can be hidden to some degree.

Note the screenshot below where drive letters are displayed in a left navigation pane (that can be turned off), though they are hidden in the main folder view.

	"Hidden" drive letters in a Windows Vista Explorer folder

To perform this tweak, access the folder options feature. Either:

* Open a folder in Explorer. Press the ALT key to temporarily show the menu, and then select "Tools" - "Folder Options".

* Click the Windows/Start button, type "folder options", and press ENTER.

* Click on the "Organize" button in an Explorer folder, and then choose "Folder and Search Options".

Then:

2. When the "Folder Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "View" tab.

3. Underneath "Files and Folders", uncheck "Show drive letters".

4. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.