Microsoft Testing Tabs Feature for Notepad App in Windows 11

JAKARTA - The Notepad application in Windows 11 seems to have a new tab feature. This information was accidentally announced by a Microsoft employee on his social media.

The employee, who is a senior product at Microsoft, posted a screenshot of the tabbed version of Notepad on his Twitter page, "Notepad in Windows 11 now has tabs!," he wrote in the announcement.

Unfortunately, the Tweet was deleted a few minutes later. However, Windows Central and several Windows fan Twitter accounts have saved the screenshot image and it has gone viral.

With the presence of this feature, users can open multiple folders and directories under one window, just like a web browser where users can open multiple web pages under one window.

As well as revealing a new tab interface within the app, the screenshot also includes an internal Microsoft warning, "Confidential. Do not discuss features or take screenshots."

The alert indicates that the tabs feature is still in early internal testing at Microsoft, but that it will likely arrive to Windows Insiders in early 2023.

If Microsoft rolls out a tab feature for Notepad, it will be the first built-in app to get a tabbed interface after Microsoft added tabs to File Explorer earlier this year.

Microsoft originally tested tabs in all its Windows 10 apps four years ago in a tool called Sets. This included support for tabs within Notepad and File Explorer, but Microsoft ultimately canceled the project and never shipped it to Windows 10 users.

Cited from The Verge, Sunday, December 25, Microsoft may have canceled the Sets feature for Windows 10, but that hasn't stopped Windows users from using third-party tools and apps to animate tabs in various parts of the operating system.