Difference between Open/Explore?

[styley]

When you right click on files etc. it gives you the option to open the file and explore the file. They both seem to do the same thing but is there a difference?

[Buenchico]

The only time I've noticed a significant difference is when there's an 'autorun' program present.

Imagine that you've got a movie DVD in your drive and you right-click on the icon for your DVD drive. Selecting 'open' will have the same effect as double-clicking the icon, i.e. it will play the DVD. Selecting 'explore' will display all of the files on the DVD, in the same way as it would for any other drive or folder.

However, selecting 'explore' rather than 'open', with a normal folder, should also open a panel which shows the location of the folder on a file tree. This can be useful if you want to move data between different folders.

Chris