It’s been a long time since, all of a sudden, an Insider build of Windows 10 introduced us to a concept that we fell in love with: tabs . This is the feature that we all wanted to see in the following versions of the operating system, since other operating systems (such as Linux) had it. But suddenly, the feature disappeared, without warning, and without a trace. And, although hope is the last thing that is lost, after seeing the presentation of Windows 11 there was still a slight hope of being able to see these tabs again. Hope that, unsurprisingly, dissipated.
We do not know the reason why Microsoft does not allow opening windows within others in the form of a tab in tools such as Notepad or File Explorer. This simple feature greatly improves user productivity when performing such basic tasks as copying data or opening multiple text files. It has no explanation, and less when other company programs, such as Windows Terminal or Visual Studio Code , do support this.
At the moment Microsoft has no plans to add this feature to its new file explorer. Can it come in the future? Maybe, but while the time comes, it is possible to make use of this feature thanks to a tool called “QTTabBar”.
QTTabBar – Windows 11 File Explorer Tabs
QTTabBar is a simple program, completely free, whose main purpose is to add new functions to the Windows file explorer, as well as new folder views, to make it more useful to work with it. It is compatible with all versions of Windows, from 7 onwards, and is available in several languages, including Spanish.
Although this program has not yet been updated to officially support Windows 11, we have been able to verify that the tool, depending on .NET 4.0 , works without problems in the new Microsoft system. The activation process is a bit complicated, since we must open the classic browser and enable it from it, but, once activated, we can use them without problems in the new browser.
The truth is that, where they are placed, the browser tabs are perfect. We don’t know why Microsoft doesn’t decide to go native once and for all, as it would greatly improve productivity by working with multiple windows at once. Luckily, thanks to the community, we can always have what Microsoft does not give us.
You don’t like the new explorer? Try these options
Microsoft has renewed the Windows file explorer , simplifying its appearance and adapting it to the aesthetics of the new operating system. However, there are many users who were expecting an even bigger change, and the new file explorer seems insufficient and outdated to them.
Luckily, nobody forces us to use it. On the net we can find a great variety of alternatives for the explorer such as Total Commander , one of the oldest and most complete that we can find on the net, as well as Files, a UWP file explorer for Windows 10 which, for most of users, it is how the official Microsoft explorer should be.