Windows 10 Will Reportedly Add Native Tabbed Windows For Apps

In a bit of news that could spark excitement in many Windows users out there, it's beginning to look like the next major iteration of Windows 10 (Redstone 3) is going to introduce tabbed applications, making it easier that ever to manage the slew of windows you have open.

If you're not familiar with tabbed applications, the screenshot below should help clear everything up. Instead of having a taskbar littered with entries, or a single taskbar entry needing to be hovered over to then choose which window you want, tabbed applications make for a more all-in-one approach, allowing users to access different documents from within the same application window.

Concept courtesy MSPowerUser

The biggest benefit of this is organization. It's hard to say whether what's seen in the shot above is going to change at all before Redstone 3, but it honestly doesn't look like it needs any additional tweaking at all. It looks great.

Fortunately, this mechanic will apply to regular Win32 apps and also UWP apps from the Windows Store. We're not quite sure the kind of development effort that will be needed to support tabbing in an application, but if Microsoft rolls the functionality out to its own applications, including those built into Windows, then Redstone 3 will instantly become a release many will suddenly begin anticipating.

Clover 3 is a popular third-party tabbed file manager

One area where tabbed browsing could prove extremely useful is with the file manager, Explorer. There are many solutions that exist out there to add tabbed browsing to Windows, so a built-in solution will negate the need for that additional software to be installed. Perhaps even better, the move will simply introduce people to tabbed applications - at least, those aside from a Web browser.

Bring it on, Microsoft. This is so long overdue, and in many regards, much needed.