The Tabs feature is now available in File Explorer. You can use Tabs in File Explorer to open multiple folders and drives on separate tabs in a single window, copy files and folders between tabs, switch between opened tabs, rearrange tabs, and more. This feature is improved further and now you can drag Explorer Tab to a New window in Windows 11. Earlier, the ability to drag a tab out from a File Explorer window as a separate window was not there, but now this can be done easily.
Do note that this option has come with Windows 11 preview build 25290 or higher. Also, it is an experimental feature that remains hidden by default. You need to use ViVeTool on Windows 11 to activate and use this feature. It is a popular command-line tool to enable hidden features of Windows 11. We will show you how to do that with step-by-step instructions.
Now before proceeding further, here is some important information that you should know. You cannot select and move a tab or multiple tabs from one File Explorer window of Windows 11 to another. You can only drag a single tab out at a time and open it in a new window. Also, once you drag out a tab, you cannot add that tab back to the same or another File Explorer window. If you will try to do so, it will re-open in a new File Explorer window only. Hope we will get these options too as the feature improves.
How to drag Explorer Tab to a New window in Windows 11
The steps to drag an Explorer tab to a new window in Windows 11 are as follows:
- Get the latest version of ViveTool from github.com. The tool is downloaded in a ZIP file. Extract the downloaded ZIP
- Access the folder where you extracted the ZIP file and select the ViVeTool.exe application file
- Press the Ctrl+Shift+C hotkey to copy the path of the ViVeTool application
- Run Command Prompt as administrator
- Paste the path of the ViVeTool.exe application
- Continue the command with an enable parameter and an id parameter that includes the feature id (drag support for a File Explorer tab in this case). Your complete command would be:
ViVeTool.exe /enable /id:39661369
Once the command is executed successfully, restart your Windows 11 computer.
Related: File Explorer Tabs missing in Windows 11
Now launch a File Explorer window and add tabs of your choice. You can use the Ctrl+T hotkey to quickly open multiple tabs in File Explorer. Or else, use the + icon available on the top part of File Explorer to add a new tab. If you want to open a particular folder or a drive as a new tab directly, then open the right-click menu for that folder or drive and use the Open in new tab option. Now press and hold the mouse cursor on a File Explorer tab and drag it out. Release the mouse button and that particular tab will open in a new window.
In case you need to disable this feature, you can execute the same command with a disable parameter and the same feature id. The command would be:
ViVeTool.exe /disable /id:39661369
Hope this helps.