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You now drag tabs out of File Explorer to open them in a new window

Windows 11 Build 25290 that was yesterday released in the Dev channel, comes with a new hidden feature that enables drag-n-drop of tabs out of the window. It will open in a separate window. Sadly, it still doesn't allow dragging the tabs between open File Explorer windows.

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Starting in version 22H2, File Explorer on Windows 11 is supercharged with tabs. The tabbed interface is quite similar to what modern web browsers have. You can open multiple tabs in one window, and re-arrange them with drag-and-drop. But the ability to move a tab of the current window wasn't implemented until now.

Windows 11 Build 25290 fixes that inconvenience. It finally allows you to undock a tab to turn it into a separate window. But this feature is hidden. Traditionally for work-in-progress options, you need to use ViveTool. To enable tab drag-n-drop out of a window, do the following.

Enable Tab Drag and Drop in File Explorer

  1. Download ViVeTool from GitHub, and extract it to the c:\vivetool folder.
  2. Right-click the Start button or press Win + X, and select Terminal(Admin).Open Admin Terminal
  3. In either PowerShell or Command Prompt terminal tab issue the following command: C:\vivetool\vivetool /enable /id:39661369.Enable Tab Drag And Drop In File Explorer
  4. Restart Windows 11.

You are done! Now you can drag a tab outside of the current File Explorer instance, and it will open in its own window!

If you found any negative side effect from enabling this feature, it is easy to disable it. Simple execute the following command, again in Terminal running as Administrator.

C:\vivetool\vivetool /disable /id:39661369

It is nice to see Microsoft improving tabs in File Explorer. Eventually, they may add the now-missing ability to re-arrange tabs between open windows.

Windows 11 Build 25290 is also notable for bringing up two new widgets, and also comes with badge notifications in the Start menu.

via PhantomOfEarth

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

One thought on “You now drag tabs out of File Explorer to open them in a new window”

  1. What we need the most is “open new links/calls as tabs, instead of windows” option. They put that in Notepad from the beginning.

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