Is It Possible For A Personal Folder, Which Was Accidentally Dropped Into the Windows 7 AERO Area (Thus Becoming A Tab In Firefox), To Get Published To The Internet By Accident?
This is my first experience with an ACER laptop and also with Windows 7. This may be a silly question but: How likely is it that I accidentally published something to the internet? I had the Mozilla Firefox browser minimized and was trying to move a folder from an external hard drive to my desktop. While I was dragging the folder, the Mozilla Firefox browser became maximized. Then I couldn't see a bare area of the desktop except for that which is on top of the Mozilla Firefox window. That area turned out to be the transparent AERO part of the window. Dropping the folder in that area caused another tab, which had my folder's name, to appear beside the Firefox tab. I clicked on it and was shocked to see my folder contents with what appeared to be live links to the files. I x'd out of it. To test what had happened, I created a folder on the desktop and dragged it to the AERO area. Again a tab came up with the folder name. I clicked on it and it showed the folder with contents. It also had a place to click to go up one level. I clicked it and it showed me the contents of my entire desktop. I was so scared, I x'd out of it immediately without investigating any further. Is it possible that I accidentally published my private files to the internet? I asked ACER since Windows 7 came pre-installed. They said it wasn’t possible, but said I should check with you Firefox guys anyway.
I know, I know, some people shouldn't even own a computer. This will probably make history as the stupidest question, but thanks in advance for any help.
Chosen solution
No, don't worry, you didn't publish anything on the Internet. Firefox is able to navigate through folders on your computers. When you dragged your folder over Firefox, it opened the folder and showed you the folder's contents.
If you do it again and look in Firefox's url bar, you'll see that the address begins with "file:///". That's a 'link' to something in your computer, not an online location.
I attached a screenshot of a folder I dragged into Firefox. You'll see that when I moused over one of the files, it appears as a link. That's normal; it's just highlighting the file you hovered the mouse over. It's also normal to have the option to go up to a higher directory. : )
I hope this helps.
Read this answer in context 👍 1All Replies (2)
Chosen Solution
No, don't worry, you didn't publish anything on the Internet. Firefox is able to navigate through folders on your computers. When you dragged your folder over Firefox, it opened the folder and showed you the folder's contents.
If you do it again and look in Firefox's url bar, you'll see that the address begins with "file:///". That's a 'link' to something in your computer, not an online location.
I attached a screenshot of a folder I dragged into Firefox. You'll see that when I moused over one of the files, it appears as a link. That's normal; it's just highlighting the file you hovered the mouse over. It's also normal to have the option to go up to a higher directory. : )
I hope this helps.
Modified by melakopf
Wow, that was fast! Yep, that image is just like the one I had. Thank you so much melakopf. I feel so much better now! Have a wonderful day and take care.