Microsoft’s latest Dev Channel Build for Windows 11 (22572) is chalked full of new features that include new inbox app previews and an improved universal search experience; however, it may be the hidden development that’ll have Insiders jumping for joy.
According to a find by engineer and Le Cordon Blue Alum Rafael Rivera, Microsoft buried some code in the latest Dev Insider build that could bring a tabbed interface to the File Explorer experience.
File Explorer tabs are back! (Windows 11 22572, feature 34370472) pic.twitter.com/U3t10Affdq
— Rafael Rivera (@WithinRafael) March 9, 2022
Other Insiders have since jumped at the opportunity to test run the code and try out the tabbed interface and it appears to be working as expected.
Here’s how the overflow looks. pic.twitter.com/7JyNrKvsCJ
— Xeno (@XenoPanther) March 9, 2022
Unlike when Microsoft’s Windows team introduced the idea of ‘Sets’ a few years back, the new implantation doesn’t seem to have a codename, official project name or a marker on any roadmaps.
When Microsoft first introduced the idea of Sets, it was an expansive concept that Windows devs hoped would be included in every instance of Windows apps, including the File Explorer. However, when the concept was briefly tested and then shelved, it seemed Microsoft had moved on and resigned itself to slide-out hamburger menus.
Yet, it seems the Windows team may have just been refining the experience and rethinking where a tabbed interface would be most effective.
Adding tabs to the File Explorer would satiate the pleas from power users as well as bring and added level of Windows management in line with what appears to be the focus of Windows 11.
While the tabbed File Explorer is not an official Insider release at the moment, we can still hope Microsoft sticks to the tabbed File Explorer concept this time around.
