Open Windows Explorer.
Browse to the folder containing the files you wish to count.
Highlight one of the files in that folder and press the keyboard shortcut CTRL + A to highlight all files and folders in that folder. Once all files have been highlighted, in the Explorer status bar you'll see how many files and folders are highlighted as shown in the below picture.


If hidden files are not shown, these files will not be selected.

You can also individually count a specific type of file, for example, only counting image files. Click on the Type column header to sort the files by type and then highlight the first file type you wish to count. Once the first file has been highlighted hold down the Shift key and while continuing to hold it down press the down arrow key, to individually select files. If there are a lot of files, you can also hold down the Shift key and press the Page down key, which will highlight files a page at a time.

If you need to use wildcards or count a more specific type of file, use the below steps for counting files in the Windows command line.