You might be aware of the tabs in Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, even some PDF readers allow you to open multiple files in tabs. This is useful as you dont open multiple instance of the same application again and again. Taking the same concept in Windows, Have you ever wondered why we open windows explorer again and again ? So today we will make Windows Explorer Tab Enabled.
This free utility which allows you to enable the tabbed browsing for you files on your computer, or in other words, it is an extension to the traditional Windows Explorer. And it doesn’t only enable just the tabbed browsing for files and folders so you can work with multiple windows, but also provides handful of other features which will definitely make you a fan of this utility. Name of this utility is QTTabBar.
Installation :
The setup file is really small, just 840KBs to download. Run the setup file and install the QTTabBar on your Windows system. Once installation is complete, it will ask for permission to close all your open explorer and relaunch it again. Keep it checked and click on Finish.
Since this software integrates with your windows explorer, this last step is required else you will not see the features in the already open window. It works in Windows 7, Vista and Xp.
Browsing the files and folders on your system using the tabs :
We have already mentioned that QTTabBar allows the tabbed browsing for the files and folders on your system, the snapshot below shows the same, have a look –
Now, here when we talk about the tabbed browsing, it isn’t like the tabbed browsing in Web Browsers, where you can simply open a link in a new tab, or launch a new tab and enter the URL. Here in case of QTTabBar, to open a folder as tab, you will have to use the ‘Browse folder’ option, to get this option, you will have to right-click anywhere in the open space, adjacent to the tab, as shown below.
Using the ‘Browse folder’ option you can open almost any number of folders as tabs. Also you can use the ‘Options’ to customize the QTTabBar for yourself.
A quick way to browse the folder contents :
As soon as you take your mouse pointer on any drive, or any folder, there appears a small blue button (looks like a typical download button you would have seen on many places while browsing the web), click on this button, and you can view the contents of this folder or drive, and also the subfolders, you can even launch a file directly from here. Have a look on the snapshot below.
You also get to have a preview of some supported file types, like jpg, avi, etc.
The Copy Tool :
QTTabBar comes with another awesome feature, the Copy Tool, which allows you to copy –
- Path of the selected file (works for multiple files as well)
- Name of the selected file (this too works for multiple files)
- Path of current folder
- Current folder name
- MD5 (this too works for multiple files)
- And Paths of all open tabs
Have a look at this snapshot below –
The file specific copy tools, i.e. the copy tool for file path, and file name, and MD5 work for multiple files as well.
Groups feature :
This feature named as Groups, allows you to create and access groups of folders in one go.
Here, the ‘libraries’ tab was opened as default, and later clicking on ‘Groups’ and then launching the group named as ‘NewGroup’ two new tabs were opened, as shown above.
You can create groups under the ‘Options’, launch ‘Options’ and click on the Groups tab, add folders (set of folders you want to launch in one go), name your group, and easily access them whenever you want.
Once you create a ‘Group’ it is registered under the groups button, as shown in the snapshot, and then you can easily launch your required group easily.
Launch you favorite application easily :
You can also register your favorite applications under the application button (the button with Windows icon on it), this too can be done going to ‘Options’ and then use the ‘Applications’ tab there, browse and provide the path to application file (.exe file) and now you can launch your favorite application in once click. Shown below is a snapshot of the applications –
Here you can see I have registered two applications, Chrome and Foxit Reader, now it’s definitely easier for me to launch any of these applications is one click.
Other tools :
The toolbar has handful of more buttons, which are useful in browsing, these buttons are –
- Open a new window
- Clone the opened tab, i.e. duplicate it.
Then are the buttons for closing, like –
- Close the current tab
- Close the window
- Close the tab in left of current tab
- Close the tab in right of current tab
So, this is all about the QTTabBar, I am in love with this awesome utility, this is one of the best utilities seen so far, definitely useful for you if you are into using tabbed browsing, also the other tools like browsing the folders and subfolders in one click feature is awesome, saves a whole bunch of clicks and makes you more productive.
Give it a try and share your views about it with us. | Download QTTabBar