The shell uses a single hierarchical namespace to organize all objects of interest to the user: files, storage devices, printers, network resources, and anything else that can be viewed using Windows Explorer. The root of this unified namespace is the desktop.
In many ways, the shell's namespace is analogous to a file system's directory structure. However, the namespace contains more types of objects than just files and directories. Familiar file system concepts, such as filename and path, have been replaced by more general and powerful associations. This overview discusses some of these associations, outlines the organization of the shell's namespace, and describes the functions and interfaces associated with the namespace.