Windows and File Management: Shortcuts, NTFS and Recycle Bin

The correct answer is B, F2. Selecting a file in File Explorer and pressing F2 puts its name into edit mode, so the new name can be typed directly; the same result is got by right-clicking and choosing Rename. A is wrong because F1 opens Help and Support in Windows and in most Microsoft programs. C is wrong because F5 refreshes the contents of the active window, which is useful when a newly saved file does not appear in a folder; in a browser it reloads the page. D is wrong because F12 has no renaming role in Windows; in Microsoft Word it opens the Save As dialog box, which is why it tempts candidates who recall only that it has something to do with file names. Remember the trio F2 to rename, F5 to refresh and F3 to search.

The correct answer is B, it is deleted permanently without going to the Recycle Bin. The Delete key alone moves a file from the hard disk to the Recycle Bin, where it occupies space until the Bin is emptied and from where it can be restored. Holding Shift while pressing Delete bypasses the Bin, so the entry is removed at once and ordinary recovery through the Bin is not possible. A is wrong because that is the effect of the Delete key used by itself. C is wrong because deletion never moves a file into Documents; only cut and paste or dragging moves a file to a chosen folder. D is wrong because compression into a zip folder is a separate operation performed through Send to or a compression program, and it does not delete the file.

The correct answer is B, New Technology File System. NTFS was introduced with Windows NT and is now the normal file system for the disk on which Windows itself is installed, because it supports file and folder permissions, encryption, compression, journaling that helps recovery after a crash, and very large volumes and files. A is wrong because NTFS is a disk file system and not a protocol for transferring files over a network; that work is done by FTP and by network file sharing. C and D are wrong because no such file systems exist; they are invented expansions placed in the options. For comparison, FAT32 cannot hold a single file larger than four gigabytes, and exFAT is preferred on pen drives and memory cards because it crosses that limit and works on more than one operating system.

The correct answer is C, colon. Windows reserves nine characters for paths, drives and wildcards and will not accept them in a file name: the backslash, the forward slash, the colon, the asterisk, the question mark, the double quotation mark, the less than and greater than signs, and the vertical bar. The colon is reserved because it follows a drive letter, as in C colon. A is wrong because a hyphen is allowed and is commonly used to separate words in a file name. B is wrong because the underscore is allowed and is the usual substitute for a space in names meant for the web. D is wrong because the full stop is allowed and is in fact required, since the part after the last full stop is the extension that tells Windows which program should open the file.

The correct answer is A, subdirectory. Because a folder, also called a directory, can contain further folders, the storage of a drive takes the shape of a tree, and a folder held within another is its subdirectory or subfolder. B is wrong because the root directory is the topmost folder of a drive, the one that contains everything else on it and has no parent; it is written as C colon backslash. C is wrong because a partition is a logically separated part of a physical disk that the operating system treats as a drive with its own letter, not a folder. D is wrong because a cluster is the smallest unit of disk space that a file system allots to a file, a hardware-level block of sectors; a small file still occupies one whole cluster, which is why the size on disk can exceed the size of the file.

The correct answer is B, clipboard. The clipboard is the area of main memory in which Windows keeps whatever was last cut or copied, so that it can be pasted into the same program or another one; since it lives in volatile memory, its contents are lost when the computer is shut down or restarted. A is wrong because cache memory is the small, very fast memory between the processor and the main memory that stores frequently used instructions and data to speed up processing. C is wrong because a register is a storage location inside the processor itself, holding a single operand or address during execution. D is wrong because buffering is the general technique of holding data while it moves between devices of different speeds, as when a video is loaded ahead of playing; it is not the named store used by cut, copy and paste.

The correct answer is B, Windows + E. The letter E stands for Explorer, and this combination opens File Explorer, earlier called Windows Explorer, which is the program used to browse drives, folders and files. A is wrong because Windows and D together show the desktop by minimising every open window, and pressing it again restores them. C is wrong because Windows and L together lock the computer and return to the sign-in screen, which is the correct habit when leaving a machine unattended. D is wrong because Windows and R together open the Run dialog box, into which a command such as cmd or control can be typed. Candidates should also remember Alt and Tab for switching windows, Alt and F4 for closing the active window, and Ctrl with Shift and Escape for Task Manager.

The correct answer is B, taskbar. The taskbar holds the Start button, the search box, the buttons of pinned and running programs, and at its right the notification area or system tray with the clock, network and volume icons. It can be moved to another edge of the screen or hidden, but it stays at the bottom by default. A is wrong because the title bar is the top strip of a single window, carrying the name of the document and the minimise, maximise and close buttons. C is wrong because the status bar is the strip at the bottom of a program window that shows information such as the page and word count in a word processor. D is wrong because a scroll bar is the vertical or horizontal bar used to move the view within a window whose contents do not fit on the screen.

The correct answer is C, it is deleted directly and does not go to the Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin is maintained for the fixed drives of the computer; removable media such as pen drives and memory cards, and files deleted over a network drive, have no Recycle Bin, so Windows warns that the file will be deleted permanently. A is wrong because a pen drive keeps no Recycle Bin of its own for this purpose. B is wrong because the Bin of the computer stores only what was deleted from its own hard disk partitions, not from removable media. D is wrong because no hidden folder named Deleted is created; recovery in such a case needs special software, which is why candidates should treat a deletion from a pen drive as final and copy important files before clearing them.

The correct answer is B, any number of characters. Searching for star dot docx lists every Word document in the folder, and searching for rep star lists every name beginning with those three letters, because the asterisk stands for any sequence of characters including none at all. A is wrong because the character that stands for exactly one character is the question mark, so note question mark dot txt matches note1 dot txt and noteA dot txt but not note12 dot txt; mixing up the two wildcards is the standard trap in this question. C is wrong because no wildcard is reserved for a space; a space is simply typed. D is wrong because Windows search has no wildcard restricted to digits, although full regular expressions, used by programmers, do provide one.

The correct answer is B, Task Manager. Task Manager lists the running applications and background processes with the processor, memory and disk they are using, and it is the tool used to end a program that has stopped responding. A is wrong because Control Panel, the older settings window, is opened from the Start menu or by typing control in the Run box. C is wrong because Device Manager, which lists the hardware attached to the computer and the state of its drivers, is reached through Control Panel or by typing devmgmt dot msc in the Run box. D is wrong because Disk Cleanup, which removes temporary and unnecessary files to free space, is a separate maintenance utility. Candidates should also remember the older combination Ctrl with Alt and Delete, which now opens a security screen from which Task Manager can be chosen.

The correct answer is B, FAT32. FAT32 records the size of a file in a thirty-two bit field, so the largest single file it can hold is one byte short of four gigabytes; a large film or disk image therefore cannot be copied to a FAT32 drive even when free space is plenty. A is wrong because NTFS, the New Technology File System used for Windows hard disks, supports files far larger than four gigabytes along with permissions, encryption and journaling. C is wrong because exFAT was designed precisely to remove this limit on flash drives and memory cards while remaining usable on more than one operating system. D is wrong because ext4 is the common file system of Linux and also supports very large files; it is placed here as the distractor for candidates who recall only that it is not a Windows file system.