Many of us first encountered the tab function more than 10 years ago in the good old Opera browser based on the Presto engine. Since then, tabs have become the most important part of absolutely all browsers and are tightly embedded in the interfaces of many other programs. In Windows Explorer, unfortunately, this sought-after feature, which would allow us to work with the contents of several drives and folders in one browser window, is still missing.
We can wait and hope that someday Microsoft will finally listen to the tens of thousands of users who voted in the Windows User Voice to bring the tabs feature into Windows, but this is not at all necessary, because there are excellent third-party applications that allow you to bring tabs into Windows. A guide to reality.
I talked about one of these programs, but today we will talk about another tool called QTTabBar. Many of you have probably already heard about it.
Initially, QTTabBar was released for XP and Vista, and it became compatible with Windows 7 only in 2011, but through the efforts of another developer, because the creator himself moved away from the project for some time.
Now the original developer is at it again and has released a new version of QTTabBar that supports Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10.
Below are some main features of QTTabBar:
- Tabs feature in Windows Explorer
- Classic toolbar in Windows Explorer
- Instant preview of images, text and media files
Now let's talk about the features of QTTabBar in detail.
After installing the program, the tab bar or other panels will not appear automatically; they must be enabled manually. To do this, if you are using Windows 7, press the ALT key in Explorer to show the menu bar, and then enable the desired QT toolbar from the View menu. In Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 10, go to the View tab in the Explorer ribbon, click the drop-down arrow under the Options button, and enable the desired panel.
Add a tab bar to Explorer
To show the tab bar in the Explorer window, you need to enable the option QTTabBar(or QTTabBar - Bottom if you want the tabs to appear at the bottom of the window). After this, the “Open in new tab” option will appear in the context menu of all folders and drives. However, the developer has also provided faster ways to open drives and folders in separate tabs:
- single click with the mouse wheel on the icon of the element that needs to be opened;
- or pressing and holding the CTRL key and then double-clicking the left mouse button.
Adding a toolbar to Explorer
For those who prefer to see the classic toolbar in Explorer, the program offers panels QT Command Bar And QT Command Bar 2.
You can also add a vertical toolbar by enabling the QT Command Bar (vertical) option on the View tab.
With options in the toolbar context menu, you can remove or add new items, change size, label, button icons, and more.
Double panel view in Windows Explorer
Now let's talk about Dual-Pane viewing mode. QTTabBar allows you to add an additional folder bar to the Explorer window (on the left or bottom). To do this, you just need to enable the parameter Extra View (left) or Extra View (bottom) on the View tab (turning both options on will give you a triple pane). In this mode, the process of copying and moving files/folders from one place to another turns into great pleasure.
Dual-Pane (Left):
Dual-Pane (Bottom):
Preview different file types
QTTabBar also automatically adds preview functionality for images, text and multimedia files. Simply hover your mouse over an image, text, music or video file to see its contents almost instantly:
QTTabBar Settings
The program allows you to configure or disable almost all of its features. You can get to the settings menu by pressing Alt + O inside the Explorer window, or by right-clicking on the program panel and then selecting the “QTTabBar Settings” section in the context menu that opens.
You can customize the appearance of tabs, toolbars, menu style, keyboard shortcuts, enable/disable file previews, and much more.
Using the settings, you can also enable the Explorer window to be minimized to the system tray and block the ability to resize the window. These functions are located in the settings under "Window".
Performing system tasks in QTTabBar settings
Adding tabs and various panels to Explorer is far from the only thing QTTabBar is good for. In particular, with this tool you can:
- restore shell icon cache;
- clear the window size, position and appearance parameters;
- save the location of desktop icons;
- restore the location of desktop icons;
- clear query history in the Run dialog box, address bar, or search box;
- Remove recent items or programs from the Start menu.
You will find all these features in the Miscellaneous section of the System tab.
Features on the desktop
QTTabBar provides access to various sections of the operating system and Explorer folders by double-clicking the left mouse button on the desktop or taskbar.
This can be achieved by turning on the panel QT Tab Desktop Tool in the context menu on the taskbar.
After this, an invisible icon will appear in the notification area, which appears when you hover the mouse cursor over it. By right-clicking on this icon, you will access a menu that allows you to customize the content, functionality, and appearance of the QT Tab Desktop Tool.
You can download QTTabBar for Windows 7 and later versions of the operating system on the official website of the developer. The program is completely free and supports both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows.
Have a great day!
I first encountered information browsing through tabs ten years ago in the Firebird browser (previous incarnation), and since then they have appeared in almost every user interface. Tabs make it easy to view large amounts of data in separate, organized blocks. Once you try to use tabs, you fall in love with them forever. So why are there no tabs in Explorer?
The devil knows... Fortunately, many enthusiasts understand how necessary tabs are in Windows. Just imagine how much time you'll save by working in one window with many tabs instead of multiple windows flooding your screen.
In this article we will look at three programs that will allow you to add tabs to Windows.
Of all the similar utilities I've seen, Clover 2's appearance is the best when it comes strictly to user interface aesthetics. The tabs are at the top (as is customary) and look the same as in the Chrome browser. Tabs open/close without any problems and can also be rearranged in any convenient order.
The only drawback I encountered is the cumbersome opening of new tabs. New tabs are created by dragging folders onto the panel. There is no option to open a new tab by right-clicking or middle-clicking. For me, this mechanism is a little inconvenient. Although, if this is not a problem for you, then you will love Clover 2.
Clover 2 is developed by Chinese programmers and the program's home page may be a little confusing since most of the materials are in Chinese.
Honestly, QTTabBar is my favorite program from this list (for adding tabs). It may not look as aesthetically pleasing as Clover 2, but it looks discreet and integrates seamlessly into Windows. The tabs are neat and unobtrusive, and you won’t be distracted while using the program.
The main thing I like about QTTabBar is how easy it is to open folders in new tabs: you just need to click on the middle mouse button. Plus, there are many functions for individually customizing the appearance of tabs. For example, you can save open tabs and then automatically reopen them the next time you open File Explorer.
TabExplorer is not bad, but it comes last on my list of preferences (compared to the two previous programs). The program performs the functions it is supposed to, allowing users to manage multiple windows using tabs. There are also several settings: for example, the ability to enable/disable TabExplorer (if you suddenly get tired of it).
However, compared to Clover and QTTabBars, TabExplorer has some minor performance issues. It seems that opening and closing tabs is not very fast (with a slight lag). Besides, I personally don’t like it when tabs are located outside of Explorer.
However, try TabExplorer, you might like it. My criticism is based largely on personal preference. As they say, there are no comrades according to taste.
Conclusion
Who doesn't love tabs? They are very convenient to use in Windows OS. Perhaps I've overlooked other similar utilities? I would be very grateful if you report them in the comments.
Which allows you to add tabs to all Windows applications and makes it possible to combine several windows with tabs into one. You can, for example, open several Windows Explorer windows and group them into one window with several tabs. This is very easy to do, and the utility works just fine! In this article I will explain how to set up and use .
Installing WindowTabs
After installing WindowTabs, a tab appears in every window of any running application.
Using WindowTabs
As I mentioned, WindowTabs adds tabs to any application window. For example, the figure shows the Computer window with a tab. Apart from adding tabs, which also provide access to WindowTabs settings, the utility does not make any other visible changes to the interface. This makes me very happy: the program copes well with its main task and does not overload the system with a bunch of unnecessary additional functions.
If you grab the window by the tab and drag it, it will shrink and become transparent.
Next I opened the Documents window, and there was a tab there too. To combine Computer and Documents into one Explorer window with multiple tabs, I clicked on the Documents tab and dragged it over to the Computer window. At the same time, the “Documents” window shrank and became transparent (see figure).
To get one Explorer window with multiple tabs, you need to drop a smaller transparent window over a tab of another window.
By dragging the Documents window to another window, I dropped it over the Computer tab and ended up with one Explorer window with two tabs (see picture). You can switch between tabs using the cursor or the +[left arrow] or [right arrow] keys.
The free version of WindowTabs allows you to combine up to three tabs in one window.
As I already mentioned, the free version of WindowTabs allows you to group up to three windows. For example, I added a third “Pictures” tab to Explorer, and when I tried to add a fourth, a warning about the limitation appeared.
The utility allows you to specify which applications require tabs and which do not.
Settings
By right-clicking on any tab, you can open the settings window with the “Settings” command. On the Filtering tab, you can specify which applications require tabs and which do not (by default, tabs are added to all windows). For example, Internet Explorer has built-in tabs, so I don’t need additional ones. To disable them, I selected the “Disable tabbing for the following applications” option and added “iexplore.exe” to the list (see figure). Now tabs appear in all windows except Internet Explorer. In the same way, you can include in the list the names of the executable files of any other programs for which tabs are undesirable.
On the “Advanced” tab, you can enable additional options - for example, automatically hiding tabs for inactive and full-screen windows.
On the Shortcuts tab, you can change the keyboard shortcuts for managing tabs. On the “Advanced” tab, you can enable some other useful options (see figure). For example, by default, WindowTabs shows only one application icon in the taskbar, which, when clicked, opens the current tab. To display all windows in a group in the taskbar, you can uncheck the “Hide taskbar buttons for tabbed windows” checkbox. I use the “Automatically hide tabs on inactive and maximized windows” option so as not to overload the screen with unnecessary elements. Just hover over the window to see hidden tabs.
Other applications
I described how WindowTabs works using Explorer as an example, but tabs are added to all other applications. If, for example, you need to have a Word document and an Excel spreadsheet on hand while working on a project, you can combine them into one window with two tabs for quick access.
In the latest versions of Windows (7, 8, 10), the standard file manager – Explorer – has acquired new convenient features, which speeds up the work of managing folders and files. For example, in Windows 10 Explorer, system folders and computer drives are placed in the left panel for quick access. In addition, you can easily move any folder to the special “Quick Access” panel by right-clicking on it and selecting the “Pin to Quick Access” context menu command.
After this, the speed of working with folders and files increases significantly. But despite all these improvements, Windows Explorer has a significant drawback, for example, to copy or move files, you need to either move for a long time between folders in one Explorer window, or open two Explorer windows: with a source folder and a destination folder.
We are all familiar with the tab interface, such as in popular browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera. Thanks to this interface, we do not need to switch between a large number of browser windows in search of an open site, which significantly saves time.
Fortunately, there is an independent team of developers in the world that has created a similar tab interface for Windows Explorer. This interface runs on Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 and is called Clover. The program is free! Although Clover has a Russian interface, installation takes place entirely in Chinese, since Clover developers are Chinese. Luckily, the installation process only takes 3 steps.
Clover installation
Download the installer. When you try to download a program, some antivirus programs block the download, perceiving the program as a virus. The developer warns that the Avira Anti-Virus antivirus detects the program as a virus, I would like to add on my own that Avast also blocks the program, therefore, in order to download it, you need to temporarily disable the above antiviruses if you have any of them installed. Run the installer and close Windows Explorer. On the home screen, click on the large button with the inscription in Chinese.
Then the installation completion window will appear, where you should click on the large Chinese button to close the installation window.
It is not necessary to launch the program from a shortcut. Since Clover integrates with Windows Explorer, you can click the Explorer icon on the taskbar, or double-click the This PC shortcut on the Desktop to see the changes in Explorer. The tab interface in the Explorer window will look like this:
To enable the Russian interface language, click on the button with a wrench next to the tabs, the settings window will open, select Russian in the list of settings.
Close the settings window and restart File Explorer.
If after completing the above steps, the Clover tabs interface language has not changed, follow these steps:
1. Close Clover;
2. Right-click on the Clover shortcut on the Desktop and select “Run as administrator”;
3. Go to Clover settings and change the language to Russian;
4. Close the settings window and restart Clover.
Now you can work with tabs in Windows Explorer, similar to working with tabs in popular browsers. To open a new tab, you need to click on a special button on the tab bar, just like in browsers: Chrome, Firefox and Opera. To open and close tabs, the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+T and Ctrl+W are available, respectively. To open a folder in a new tab, there are 3 methods available to suit your taste:
- Hold down the Ctrl key and double-click on the folder;
- Point to the folder and click on the mouse wheel;
- Drag and drop the folder onto an empty space in the tab bar.
Clover's tabbed interface has a very convenient bookmarks bar for quick access to folders. To add a folder to the bookmarks bar, go to the folder, right-click on the bookmarks bar and select Add Bookmark.
Windows Explorer can hardly be called a full-fledged tool for working with operating system disks and files. Rather, this is a very good implementation of organizing computer space in the style of minimalism.
Sooner or later, any “mature” beginner will need a more productive alternative in the form of third-party file managers. Almost all third-party file managers, in addition to having additional functionality, allow you to work with system files in several mini-windows inside the program window or in separate tabs. Naturally, this cannot but contribute to more efficient work with the computer.
Microsoft is in no hurry to improve System Explorer. Even in the version in Explorer that is being prepared for official release this year, apart from the changed icon design, we will not see anything radically new. As for working with tabs, it seems that the software giant doesn’t like this idea at all. Take, for example, the history of the evolution of the standard browser. The standard Windows browser acquired the ability to open sites in different tabs within a single window, rather than in separate windows, much later than third-party browsers, in particular, and .
It is in vain that Windows developers do not consider the idea of gradually developing the functionality of Explorer (at least in small steps). For example, the same ability to work with several tabs in a single Explorer window would hardly complicate the work of beginners with the operating system. Just one unfortunate button to open a new tab, like in a browser, would not even be noticeable. This would be the same system explorer with a tree-like display of computer sections and folders on the left and displaying their contents in a window on the right. Only when working with several active windows would there be more order and convenience.
The idea with system explorer tabs can be implemented without the participation of Microsoft developers. Everything that they haven’t done will definitely be done, if they haven’t already, by third-party developers. Thus, a small program called Clover from Chinese developers will help give a single-window system explorer a convenient interface with support for many open tabs, the installer of which can be downloaded from Yandex.Disk.
Clover is completely free to use. Clover is not, it is a small add-on for the system explorer that is built into it, adding a mechanism for working with multiple tabs, similar to a browser.
The updated Windows Explorer interface will certainly appeal to fans of the world's No. 1 browser - . After installing the Clover program, the system explorer will be very similar to Chrome: the panel of tabs that appears will be made in the style of Google browser tabs.
Windows Explorer will transform into something similar to the Google Chrome browser immediately after installing the Clover program. You don't even need to restart your computer. When you uninstall the program, all its functionality will disappear without a trace, and the system explorer will take its previous form, and a reboot will also not be required.
Just like in browsers, the context menu brought up in the redesigned Windows Explorer tabs will offer options for organizing those tabs.
By holding down the system explorer tabs with the left mouse button, they, like browser tabs, can be swapped.
In addition to implementing tabs in System Explorer, Clover remembers previously opened tabs and restores them when you open Explorer. As in browsers, previously opened Windows Explorer tabs will open when you start it exactly in the same state in which they were closed. The only thing you need to check is whether this option is enabled in the settings that appear in the system explorer thanks to the Clover program. The settings button will be in the upper left corner. Click it, select “Settings” and, if the “Last open pages” option is not checked, check it.
Clover also adds a bookmarks bar to Windows Explorer. Bookmarks from any browser exported to a .html file can be added to the system explorer panel so that you can quickly get to your favorite sites while working with computer files. Export your browser bookmarks and add them to Windows Explorer. As in the previous case, click the button in the upper left corner, select “Settings”, click “Import bookmarks from HTML file” and select the exported “.html” file. Check to see if the “Always show bookmarks bar” option is checked.
We can delete some of the bookmarks, leaving only the most visited sites in the Explorer panel, so as not to look for them in the tinsel of other selected web resources, as happens in the browser bookmarks of many users.
In addition to bookmarks of your favorite sites, you can also add local shortcuts to applications, folders, and files to the Windows Explorer panel. To make the latter conveniently located at the top of the system explorer, just drag them onto the panel.
You can turn Explorer into something like the Google Chrome browser using the Clover program in all versions of Windows. As already mentioned, Clover is only an add-on to the system explorer, and not a separate file manager, and therefore the brainchild of Chinese developers will work in a single process with “explorer.exe”, without separately consuming the resources of the computer device. And this is great news for owners of budget netbooks and older PC builds, because they will be able to improve the efficiency of their work without fear that adding new functionality may affect the overall performance of the system.
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