Integrate Tabbed Browsing Feature in Windows 7 Explorer

Here is a nice utility that would be useful if file management into Windows is something you have to go through often. You have some point experienced how painfully surfing between Windows can become, when copying or browsing a number of files at different location of your computer.
The Windows 7 explorer comes with some integrated feature like integrated search box etc, which definitely made it more usable that the previous versions of Windows. But still there is some cause of dissatisfaction when shuffling around between folders and drives. In the browser you can easily manage your activities in different tabs. This very same thing can be applied in the Windows Explorer. But by default, this is not available in Windows even in Windows 7.
In such scenario QTTabBar is a perfect solution. This utility allows you to surf in Widows Explorer like the internet browser by integrating the tab feature. Additionally, it has various options for advanced exploring in Windows 7.

Integrating tab feature in Explorer

Download QTTabBar and install it as usual. At the finishing stage of the installation, you can check the box to restart explorer immediately. Otherwise, you’ll have to restart the explorer manually to activate QTTabBar.

When you first time open the explorer after restarting, you will not notice any changes. You are just a step away from that. Click on “Organize”  button select Layout > Menu bar (skip this step if you’ve made the menu bar permanent in Windows 7 explorer).


Now you will notice the Menu bar at the top of the explorer window. Click on View > Toolbar > QT TabBar.

You will notice the name of the folder or drive that you are browsing on the active tab.

Here, the up button (was available in Windows XP explorer) returns. Just double click on the tab title to go to the parent folder. Drag and drop any folder to the menu bar to open that in a new tab.

Right-click on the tab title to close, copy the folder address etc. You can also switch between tabs by pressing the shortcut key Ctrl + Tab. This will show the list of opened tabs with a nice transparent background.

One more interesting feature of QTTabBar is that you will notice a down arrow when hovering the mouse on any folder or drive. Clicking on the down arrow will show the content files with the preview (if it supports) in a pop-up menu. It will also show the files under the subfolders.

So, you can easily browse the files under the folder or subfolder directly from the pop-up menu.
There are several options available in QTTabBar. To open the options, right click on an empty space of the tab bar and select option.

I found QTTabBar very useful and handy. So give it a try and drop your feedback at the comment section.