Tip: Enable File Explorer Tabs in Windows 11 (Dev)

As you may have seen, Rafael Rivera revealed that File Explorer in the latest Windows Insider Program Dev channel build secretly supports tabs. Here’s how to enable this feature.

First, and most obviously, you must enroll your PC in the Dev channel of the Windows Insider Program (Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program). And you need to be using the latest build, which at this time is build 22472.1.

Then, download and extract ViveTool. (I did so on my desktop.) There are two files.

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Next, open a Terminal with administrative privileges, navigate to the desktop (or wherever you extracted those files) and use the following command:

./vivetool addconfig 34370472 2

Then, reboot. Voila! Tabs are available in File Explorer.

If you wish to remove this feature, use Vivetool again, but with this command:

./vivetool delconfig 34370472 2

You will have to reboot again, of course.

Thanks to Rafael Rivera for discovering this, and for the steps needed to enable it.

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Conversation 6 comments

  • johnlavey

    Premium Member
    10 March, 2022 - 2:56 pm

    <p>The download link referenced in the above article did not connect to the Vive Tool.</p>

  • pungkuss

    10 March, 2022 - 7:10 pm

    <p>This looks like a feature I am gonna like!</p>

  • cjmarotta

    Premium Member
    10 March, 2022 - 9:15 pm

    <p>A feature long overdue! I realize it’s the first version, but I would like to see all File Explorer windows open as new tabs. Right now it appears you can only get additional tabs by adding them by clicking the + next to the tabs. If you click a shortcut to a folder or drive on your desktop, it opens as another File Explorer window.</p>

  • Cardch

    11 March, 2022 - 3:13 am

    <p>Great news, though I cannot believe that it has taken until 2022 for this feature to (almost) arrive! And yet Paint 3D has come and gone. There is no justice in the world.</p>

  • johnlavey

    Premium Member
    11 March, 2022 - 9:23 am

    <p>working now, thanks</p>

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