Both elements:

Windows XP and Windows Vista' explorers consist of two panes [left & right] the left pane is known as the tree.

• the tree represent the root of your hard drive - various other drives and folders is also visible on the left [tree] side. Normally, a computer has an a:\drive = floppy drive is visible, if your computer is equiped with one - these days it's optional to have a floppy drive as they seem to be going out of fashion (becoming absolete) - new computers don't have floppy drives. An optional Flash Stick for backing up and transferring files is the norm.


• The right-side [pane] represent the content(s) of a drive, files in a folder a folder and sub-folders.