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

Windows File Explorer is one of the most powerful tools of all of them. Not just for managing local files and folders but File Explorer also allows you to connect with remote servers by mapping them as network drives. Once you map the network drive, you are able to browse, copy, or manage remote files just like you would with your local files.

Apart from manually mapping network drives, you can 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 while using FTP address.

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

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

Open FTP site in File Explorer

To open an FTP site within 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 the File Explorer icon on the taskbar.

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

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

The FTP address can be within the below formats.

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

4. Once you press the Enter button on your keyboard, Windows File Explorer will open the FTP site. Do remember when the FTP site is protected with a password, Windows will prompt you for all those details. In that case, type the username and password and click the "Log in" button to open 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 should always bear in mind.

The FTP connection is unencrypted by design. What this means is anyone in 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 main reason with this is the fact that File Explorer doesn't support encrypted FTP connections.
If you're opening the FTP site frequently, you are able to 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 bit easier.
If you cannot upload files towards the FTP site, it could because the FTP server prohibits or doesn't give Write permission to an outside connection. This can be a common security precaution for many FTP servers.
Compared to third-party programs like File-Zilla, the FTP functionality in File Explorer is barebone. However, it's enough for most common tasks like accessing and copying files.
You cannot create an FTP server from File Explorer.

That's all.