The Network folder is one of those
special folders that you can place on your Desktop or view from within
Internet Explorer. It shows you what devices are viewable on your
network and provides buttons for adding network devices and printers,
establishing a remote connection, and more.
In the Network folder, you can highlight a
computer and double-click it or press the Open button on the Network
tab of the ribbon to drill down into the contents of the host. In this
manner, you can expose whatever shared content or devices exist on that
system. For example, when the host BIGBOY is opened ,
you see that there are two network printer shares available, as well as
a network share called Users. You can tell that they are network
resources because the icons display network cables. Whether you can
actually access these shares depends on whether the owner gave you the
rights to do so.
Network shares within a connected host
Notice that the address in the address bar is >Network>BIGBOY, which is in the “breadcrumbs” format. You can click elements of a breadcrumb to move around. If you click inside the address bar, it changes to \\BIGBOY, which is the actual address in UNC (Uniform Naming Convention) notation. The Users folder would have the path \\BIGBOY\Users.
If you enter this string into the address bar or into the Run dialog
box, Windows Explorer will show the contents of the Users folder.
To view your network and currently connected devices from Windows Explorer
1. Press 
+E to open Windows Explorer.
2. In the left pane, scroll to the bottom and tap or click Network.
To view your network and currently connected devices from the tile-based Start screen
1. On the tile-based Start screen, start typing network.
2. Select the Network app when it appears.
The Network folder opens .
The Network folder
Tip
I like to show the Computer, User’s
Files, Network, Recycle Bin, and Control Panel folders on my Desktop.
To do this, open the Desktop Icon Settings control panel and enable
those check boxes.
