File Explorer tabs coming to Windows 11 – finally!

M icrosoft will add tabs to Windows 11’s File Explorer in October, just weeks after it released the first Feature update (version 22H2) for the operating system.

The feature is part of what the company’s Chief Product Officer Panos Panay called an “additional set of experiences” to support the recent update.

He wrote online ( www.snipca.com/43493) that tabs in File Explorer was the most requested feature from Windows 11 users.

Panoy added that the new feature will “help you organise your File Explorer sessions like you do in Microsoft Edge”. Our main screenshot shows two tabs open at the top left 1, above a revamped homepage where you can pin Favourite 2 and recently used files 3.

There are several other features coming in October, including a new-look Photos app that adds a “gorgeous gallery” to make it easier to find and view your pictures, as well as back them up to OneDrive.

Also new is an ‘overflow’ menu for Windows 11 that will make more icons appear above your taskbar when you’ve filled up the existing space.

If you open more programs than the taskbar can fit, a three-dotted button will appear ( 1 in our screenshot below).

Clicking this shows the overflow bar 2, which in this case contains icons for Microsoft’s Camera, Paint, Solitaire, Outlook and Command Prompt.

Microsoft says the overflow contains many options that already exist in the main taskbar, including pinning programs to it, and Jump Lists, which show files recently opened in a program when you right-its icon.

This batch of features is the first in Microsoft’s plan to release new tools more frequently, so you don’t have to wait until an annual Feature update.

WHAT WE THINK

You wait ages for a decent Windows 11 update, then two arrive at once. The 22H2 update restored popular tools from Windows 10, while these latest features – or “experiences” as Microsoft clumsily calls them – have the potential to turn 11 into a truly great operating system. But we still don’t fully understand Microsoft’s update strategy. Our best guess is that it will continue with one annual Feature update and add more tools whenever they’re ready. If so, these regular mini-updates should be given a name everyone can understand.

NEW VERSION OF WINDOWS 10 ALSO COMING

October will be a busy month for Microsoft, with the 22H2 Feature update also coming for Windows 10. However, it’s expected to contain far fewer new tools than the equivalent update for Windows 11, released on 20 September.

Microsoft said earlier this year that the update would have a “scoped set of features”, which surprised many users because early builds of 22H2 for Windows 10 had consisted of small fixes only, and no new tools.

It’s likely to be a small download, and should take only a couple of minutes to install.

You’ll like this… Type nasa dart into Google and press enter ( www.snipca.com/43508)

but not this… Ukraine warns that Russia is planning “massive cyber-attacks” ( www.snipca.com/43509) ■