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Files & Folders
Burning CDs & DVDs
CD Burning (single-session CD-R's)
As CD burners have become standard over the past few years, the ability for the user to easily save files to CD has become increasingly necessary. Thus, both operating systems include built-in support for burning data to CD-Rs (recordable or "write once" compact discs)...
CD Burning (multi-session CD-RW's)
In addition to burning CD-Rs, both operating systems are capable of burning CD-RWs - rewritable compact discs, which can be erased and reused. Mac OS X and Windows XP treat CD-RW discs differently, however...
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In addition to burning simple CD-Rs and CD-RWs, both operating systems support writing to DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. Both can burn the cross-platform compatible ISO-9660 format, though only Mac OS X writes to that format by default. Windows XP also supports HighMAT format...
Browsing the File System
File System Browsing (Finder vs. Explorer)
Both Mac OS X and Windows XP offer robust tools for browsing the files and folders on your computer. OS X's file browser is called the Finder, while XP's is called Windows Explorer...
When working with your filesystem, it's important to be able to sort and group your files according to the information you need at the time. Both operating systems can sort filesystem window contents by Name, Size, Type, and Date Modified. When sorting by name, both operating systems perform an alpha-numeric sort on your files — when it encounters numbers, it will sort them numerically (0, 01, 1, 02, 2) rather than alphabetically (0, 01, 02, 1, 2). There are, however, key differences in each operating system's implementation...
Working with Files & Folders, Basic
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The primary way of opening and saving files on both Mac OS X and Windows XP is through dialog boxes. Both operating systems allow you to type the first letters of a file or folder in an open/save dialog box to jump to the nearest match. In save dialogs for both operating systems, you can click on a file listed and the filename text box will be auto-populated with the name of the file you clicked on. Both operating systems allow you to create folders from within open/save dialogs. Both have keyboard shortcuts to call up an open dialog, as well as quickly save an open document with a dialog ("save as") or without ("save")...
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Both Mac OS X and Windows XP provide access to recent applications and documents from a system-wide location - via the Apple menu on OS X and the Start menu on XP. In addition, applications on both operating systems provide quick access to recently-opened items under the File menu...
Copying, Replacing, & Moving Files/Folders
Mac OS X and Windows XP are on par with each other in terms of copying and moving files and folders. Both have a "smart copy" feature when moving files into a folder that contains other files with the same names. However, each behaves differently when copying a folder to a location containing another folder with the same name...
Both operating systems allow you to rename files in the filesystem...
Forbidden Characters in Filenames
Both Mac OS X and Windows XP place restrictions on which characters are allowed to be used in file/folder names...
Both Mac OS X and Windows XP have a method of creating a file that is a link to an item elsewhere in the file system. OS X calls these links aliases, while XP calls them shortcuts. Each operating system has a different method for creating aliases/shortcuts...
What should an operating system do if the user renames a file that is currently open in another application? Mac OS X and Windows XP have different methods for dealing with this scenario...
Deleting Large Numbers of Files
How do both operating systems deal with manipulating large numbers of files? To find out, we ran some simple tests...
Managing Deleted Files (Trash vs. Recycle Bin)
Both operating systems have a location for storing unwanted files for later deletion (or to act as a safeguard against accidental deletion). Mac OS X has the Trash, while Windows XP has the Recycle Bin...
Working with Files & Folders, Advanced
Creating & Opening Compressed files
Compression lets you package a file or files such that they will be smaller than their actual size; this makes it easier to transfer files through email, for example, or conserve space for backups. Files cannot be used while they are compressed; as such, the user must be able to decompress files if they are to compress them in the first place. One of the most common compression methods (or "encoding schemes") is ZIP format (.zip). Both Mac OS X and Windows XP have built-in support for creating and opening compressed .zip files...
Both Mac OS X and Windows XP support data encryption of files, though each operating system takes a different approach. XP allows encryption on an individual file/folder basis, while OS X simply encrypts the user's entire Home folder...
Searching
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With the amount of data we store on our computers increasing all the time, being able to effectively find files and data is critical. Both operating systems have built-in methods to assist in locating files. In addition to XP's built-in search functionality, Microsoft provides a separate search tool called Windows Desktop Search (WDS), which is available for free download either by itself, or as part of the MSN Toolbar Suite. This section will compare OS X's built-in search technology (called Spotlight) to Windows XP's built-in search and Windows Desktop Search...
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To find files efficiently, it's important to be able to customize how your searching system behaves. You may want to restrict searching to certain drives or folders, or you may want to hide certain files so that they don't display in search results.
In addition, both Mac OS X and Windows XP rely on the process of indexing to deliver accurate, up-to-date search results. Because indexing uses processor power and can initially take an extended period of time, both operating systems give you some amount of control over how indexing functions...
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Sometimes, a simple search by a file's name or its contents won't be enough for your needs. You may wish to find files that fit a very specific set of criteria, and a simple search will be too broad for this purpose, forcing you to sift through many irrelevant files. For this reason, both Mac OS X and Windows XP let you perform complex searches in different ways.
Both operating systems let you use quotes to specify an exact phrase to search for. For instance, searching for "happy days" (with quotes) will find all files that contain that exact phrase, but will ignore files that contain the terms "happy" or "days" individually...
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Both operating systems have the ability to save searches so that the user can quickly and easily access their results at a later point in time. OS X calls saved searches "smart folders;" XP has no "official" name for these, so we'll refer to them as "saved searches." Since smart folders/saved searches are just search criteria, they're not actually folders, and therefore they don't actually contain any files. Rather, they simply display the files that match the search criteria you specify in their settings. Both smart folders and saved searches can reside anywhere on your computer...
Working with Metadata
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In the earlier days of personal computers (say, the 1990s), searching for files on your computer meant knowing either all or part of the name of the file you wanted. If you were looking for a file you created a year ago, for example, but couldn't recall what you had named it, you were basically out of luck.
As the number of files we work with grows on a regular basis, we need ways of searching for these files other than by their name. Thankfully, modern operating systems have become a bit more sophisticated. Nowadays, operating systems can create a database of the contents of your files (the process of doing so is known as indexing). By indexing the contents of your computer's hard drive, you can search for a file based on its content in addition to its name. Thus, as long as you know what a file is about, you can find it — no matter what you might have named it...
Indexing File Contents & Metadata
Being able to view, edit, and search by file contents and metadata is only as powerful as the content that your operating system is capable of indexing. If your operating system can't index the kind of content that you tend to work with, indexing will be of no use to you. Simply put, the more information that each operating system indexes, the more information there is to search by, and the more specific you can make your searches...
Total weight of this section: 220 points
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