How to Enable Tabs for File Explorer on Windows 11 (2022)

Of late, Microsoft has been adding several promising new features to Windows 11 that users have been waiting for years. Microsoft has now enabled tabs in File Explorer on Windows 11, and most users are surely going to love it. We have already compiled a long list of upcoming Windows 11 features that include the new Task Manager UI, new Bluetooth menu, Efficiency mode in Task Manager, etc., so check out the article for more information. By the way, the tabbed UI in File Explorer is currently hidden in Windows 11, but we bring you a tutorial on how to turn on this feature right away. So without any delay, let’s go ahead and learn how to enable tabs in File Explorer on Windows 11 along with the new navigation pane.

Enable Tabs in Windows 11 File Explorer (Updated June 2022)

Note: This article was last updated on June 10, 2022, at 10:30 PM PST or 11:00 AM IST. The previous method worked with older Dev builds and not the new ones.

1. The option to enable tabs in the File Explorer along with a new navigation pane (SV2Navpane) is now available in the latest Windows 11 Dev build 25136 (released on June 9). So make sure you are enrolled in the Dev channel of the Windows 11 Insider program and have updated your PC to the latest OS build.

2. Next, you need to set up ViveTool, which will allow you to get tabs in File Explorer. Open this link and download the latest ZIP file.

3. Right-click on the downloaded ZIP file and select the “Extract All” option from the context menu. Then, right-click on the extracted folder, and select the “Copy as path” option.

4. Next, open Command Prompt with administrator privileges. You can do so by searching for “CMD” in Windows search and selecting the “Run as administrator” option in the right pane. It is important to open Command Prompt with admin privileges, else you will see an error while running the command to enable tabs in Windows 11 File Explorer.

5. In the Command Prompt window, type cd and paste the path you copied above. Right-click on the CMD window to paste the path. It will look something like the screenshot below. Note: the file path will be different for your PC. You will move to the ViveTool folder inside Command Prompt using this command.

cd "C:UsersArjunDownloadsViVeTool-v0.2.1"

6. Finally, execute the below command. It will enable the new tabbed UI in File Explorer on Windows 11.

vivetool addconfig 37634385 2

7. Next, run the below command to enable the new Navigation pane called “SV2Navpane” in the File Explorer. Now, restart your PC.

vivetool addconfig 36354489 2

8. And here it is — tabs in File Explorer and the new Navigation pane, working flawlessly in Windows 11. Note that the ability to re-arrange tabs in the File Explorer is currently not supported, and you can’t pull out tabs to create a separate window (as you can do with most best Windows browsers) for a particular folder. The feature is half-baked right now, but we expect Microsoft to improve the tabbed UI before its release to stable users.

Tabbed UI in File Explorer Finally Comes to Windows 11

So that’s how you can get tabs in Windows 11 File Explorer along with the new Navigation pane. You no longer need to rely on the popular third-party Files app (Free) featured in our best Windows 11 apps list to get a tabbed UI in the File Explorer. Anyway, that is all from us. If you want to enable the new Bluetooth menu in Quick Settings on Windows 11, follow our linked tutorial. And if you wish to set Windows 11 taskbar icons to never combine, we have a nifty workaround for that too. Moreover, if you have any questions, let us know in the comments below.