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Microsoft Experimenting Tabs Experience On File Explorer, Other Apps On Windows 10 (windowscentral.com)

Posted by msmash on from the what's-next dept.

Microsoft has begun experimenting with browser tabbing experience on all apps in Windows 10, including File Explorer. From a report on WindowsCentral: According to sources familiar with the matter, Microsoft is currently experimenting internally with a new feature called "Tabbed Shell", which brings the familiar browser tabbing module to all app windows in Windows 10, including the File Explorer. Per our sources, Tabbed Shell is a feature being worked on at an OS level, and doesn't require work from app developers to take advantage of it. By default, Tabbed Shell works with any app window, whether it be Photoshop, File Explorer, or Microsoft Word. Any UWP, Win32 or Centennial app will work. Much like in Edge, you'll find a tabbed interface at the top of a window where you can switch between instances of the same app.

10 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Split View by Jamu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not like a split view would be useful for copy files from one location to another. Nope, we get tabs. Thanks Microsoft.

    --
    Who ordered that?
    1. Re:Split View by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You could always install Midnight Commander.

      https://midnight-commander.org/
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Commander

    2. Re:Split View by Solandri · · Score: 2

      A split view is only necessary if you're dragging and dropping. For a tabbed view, all you have to do is copy (or cut for move) and paste. Click, ctrl-c (or ctrl-x), then ctrl-v in the other tab.

      I had been using QTTabBar to add tabs to file explorer windows (Clover 3 and TabExplorer are other options). Unfortunately it interferes with context menus, and I had to go back to a half dozen file explorer windows scattered all over the desktop. Native tab support would be most welcome.

      A split view should be easy to add though. I'm thinking of emacs where you could have multiple files open simultaneously and cycle through them, and also split the edit box into multiple windows and (optionally) show different files in each window. Considering this functionality dates back to the 1980s, you have to wonder WTH Microsoft has been doing all this time.

  2. Re:Typo in title by Pfhorrest · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't you know, prepositions so 20th century. Nowdays our cars need washed and we experiment tabs experience.

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  3. Re: Like Linux? by Dracos · · Score: 2

    So if Linux has a feature, Windows can't?

    Not exactly. If MS finds a feature in any other OS, their first consideration is whether they can implement it in a strange and/or overzealous way.

  4. Re: it's the 1990s all over again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Are they reinventing MDI?

  5. Re: Like Linux? by erapert · · Score: 2

    So if Linux has a feature, Windows can't?

    Nobody said that Windows can't have a feature. GP's point was that Microsoft shouldn't get any accolades for implementing something that has been available, depending on configuration and DE, in Linux for over a decade. You don't get a blue ribbon for catching up to where the rest of the racers have already been for some time.

    Also, Microsoft has a very very long way to go to catch up to the customization that GTK and KDE have had for decades. That hideous blinding white was one of the reasons I switched away from Windows in the first place.

    Plus, this is more than just the file explorer, it's ANY application.

    Fluxbox has had this for a very long time. (I used fluxbox for years).
    But why use tabs for organization if you could have your window manager (i.e. Awesome, i3) handle the arrangement for you automatically instead?

  6. Excel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Excel needs with tabs. Opening another instance of Excel so you can compare or flip between two spreadsheets is a monumental pain, and it's incomprehensible why Microsoft let it go on this long. Oh, and be able to detach a tab and have it become another window on its own. Because Excel, dammit.

  7. Re: Like Linux? by haruchai · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So if Linux has a feature, Windows can't?

    Not exactly. If MS finds a feature in any other OS, their first consideration is whether they can implement it in a strange and/or overzealous way.

    That explains Powershell

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  8. Re:Typo in title by zlives · · Score: 2

    I am one who welcomes our preposition-less overlords.