File Explorer on Windows 10 enables you to open any FTP site. Listed here are the steps to spread out an FTP site in File Explorer on Windows 10.

Windows File Explorer is one of the most effective tools of them all. Not only for managing local files and folders but File Explorer also allows you to connect with remote servers by mapping them as network drives. When you map the network drive, you can browse, copy, or manage remote files exactly like you would together with your local files.

Apart from manually mapping network drives, you may also open an FTP site directly in the File Explorer itself. Many of the helpful if you want to quickly browse an FTP site in File Explorer without first adding it as being a network drive. For example, you are able to configure your Android phone as an FTP server and access the Android file system via File Explorer using the FTP address.

Within this simple and quick article, I will show a simple method to open FTP site in File Explorer in Windows 10.

The steps below will work in Windows 7 and Windows 8 & Windows 8.1.

Open FTP site in File Explorer

To spread out an FTP site in the File Explorer, follow the steps shown below.

1. First, open the File Explorer application. To achieve that, press the "Windows key + E" keyboard shortcut. You may also click on the File Explorer icon on the taskbar.

2. After opening the File Explorer, click on the address bar. This is when you have to type the FTP site address.

3. Within the address bar, type the FTP site address and press "Enter". In my case, the FTP address comes with a specific port number (9999). So, I typed the FTP address and its port number.

The FTP address could be within the below formats.

ftp://domain.com/
ftp://ftp.domain.com/
ftp://192.168.0.100/
ftp://192.168.0.100:21

4. As soon as you press the Enter button on your keyboard, Windows File Explorer will open the FTP site. Do keep in mind that if the FTP site is protected having a username and password, Windows will prompt you for all those details. In that case, type the username and password and click on the "Log in" button to spread out the FTP site in File Explorer.

Important notes to keep in mind

When connecting to FTP server in File Explorer, there are some things you must always keep in mind.

The FTP connection is unencrypted by design. This means anyone within the network to determine your work and transferring to and from the FTP server.
You can only open FTP sites in File Explorer. You cannot open SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) or FTPS (FTP with SSL/TLS) sites. The key reason for this is that File Explorer doesn't support encrypted FTP connections.
If you're opening the FTP site frequently, you can map FTP as network drive within the File Explorer. This removes the necessity to manually type the FTP address every time and makes your lifetime a little easier.
If you are unable to upload files to the FTP site, it could since the FTP server prohibits or doesn't give Write permission to an outside connection. This is a common security precaution for a lot of FTP servers.
Compared to third-party programs like File-Zilla, the FTP functionality in File Explorer is barebone. However, it's enough for many common tasks like accessing and copying files.
You cannot create an FTP server from File Explorer.