Whenever you open a system window in Microsoft Operating Systems or when you open Finder in Mac, you will see the folders and files in a particular view.  You may want or need to change that view because one view may be easier to deal with than another.  This How To page will explain the various views and give the reasons you might prefer one view over the other.

Windows:

1)  Let's start by opening a (My) Computer window:

           
              Vista View                                                              Windows 7 

2)  Click on the drop-down menu.

       

      Vista                                                       Windows 7

You will notice that in the Vista Operating System picture, we are currently looking at Medium Icons while in the Windows 7 view we are on the Details view.

Mac

In Mac's Finder application, there are four views available: Icon View, List View, Column View and CoverFlow View.  You change views by clicking on the appropriate icon.

You might choose a view based on your needs at the time you open up a window.  What are some of the reasons you might want a different view?  Let's say you wanted to find a file you just saved to your computer today but you forget what you named it.  As long as you know where you saved it, you can go to that folder (let's say "Documents") and change the view to Details.  Then, you can click on the date column and put the files in date order.  Presto!  You'll be able to immediately see which file or files were added today.

Try opening a window yourself and check out the various views.  Think of a time when you might prefer one view over another.