Microsoft keeps adding useful and crucial features to Windows all the time. There are often helpful features, but some users will want to stick to the old style. One such feature is the tabs feature in Windows File explorer. It allows users to open multiple instances of File Explorer in the same window, thus relieving them to open it every time. This article will discuss how to disable or enable tabs in File explorer in Windows. This feature works on Windows 11 and should be available in the future version of Windows.
What Is the New Tab feature in Windows File Explorer?
The new ‘Tabs’ feature in the Windows file explorer is useful. As you may have already anticipated, the feature works like tabbed browsing in any popular browser. With this feature, users need not open separate windows. It will just add tabs in the same window. You can, however, choose to open a particular file, folder, or directory in a new window. The feature was rolled out with Windows 11 22H2.
Let’s now understand how to disable and enable tabs in Windows file explorer.
Enabling Or Disabling Tabs in Windows File Explorer
To enable or disable tabs in Windows file explorer, you must perform a few tweaks and execute a few commands. Please make sure that you understand the steps thoroughly before performing them; also, during the process, make sure to keep a check if you are going right. Here’s all that’s covered:
- Enabling Tabs Feature in Windows File Explorer
- Disabling Tabs Feature In Windows File Explorer
File Explorer in Windows doesn’t offer any direct setting or toggle that can disable or enable features. It should arrive on time, but we will use a third-party tool to disable or enable this feature.
1] Enabling Tabs Feature in Windows File Explorer
If you are one of the users who, even after having the latest Windows update are yet to receive the feature, then you can enable it using this method. This method involves downloading and running a few commands with Vivetool, an open-source tool to create overrides on the Windows system. Here are the steps:
- First of all, download and extract the ViveTool zip file. Download Here.
- Once the folder is extracted, go to its location and right-click. Then, click on Copy as path from the context menu.
- Now, head over to the start menu, search for the command prompt, right-click it, and run as administrator.
- Paste the following code into the command prompt. (Replace ### with the path we copied in the previous steps.)
cd "###"
- This loads the Vivetool in the command prompt. Now, execute the following commands one by one to enable the tabs to feature in Windows explorer.
vivetool /enable /id:36354489
vivetool /enable /id:37634385
Once done, restart your computer, and you’ll find the tabs feature available on your Windows file explorer.
2] Disabling Tabs Feature In Windows File Explorer
If you are one of the Windows users who don’t find the feature that appealing and would love to revert to the no-tabs version of Windows explorer, follow these steps:
- Download and extract the Vivetool zip file. Download here.
- Now, go to the location of the extracted folder, right-click and then Copy as path from the context menu.
- Now, head over to the Start menu and search for Command Prompt. Now, right-click it and run it as administrator.
- In the command prompt, paste the following command to load Vivetools. (Replace ### with the path you copied in the previous steps.)
cd “###”
- Now, execute the following commands one by one to disable the tabs feature in Windows file explorer.
vivetool /disable /id:37634385
vivetool /disable /id:36354489
Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
Conclusion:
Tabs in File Explorer avoid confusion when you use ALT + Tab to switch between all open Windows. You have all of them in one place, and you can use CTRL + Tab to switch between all the tabs. You can also drag and drop files between open tabs, making it useful when moving files. However, if you still don’t like this feature, you can always turn it off using the tool.
We hope you found the article insightful and know how to enable and disable Tabs in File Explorer in Windows.
How Do I Open Multiple Tabs in File Explorer?
Once you open File Explorer, press Ctrl + T to open a new tab. If you want to open a folder or drive or This PC or any network drive in a new tab, right-click on it, and choose to open in a new tab. You can also open a new window if you want to separate it. That said, there is no way to group the tabs, so if you are grouping similar folders, use tabs or a new window feature.
