Restoring Open Tabs on File Explorer after Restart?


jvickers

jvickers

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Hi, wonderful community.
Does anyone know of a way to restore/retain all the open tabs in file explorer after a restart? I poked around in preferences a bit but couldn't find anything.

Thanks!

Edit: Just to clarify, I mean all the tabs in the same file explorer window.
 
Windows Build/Version
22624.1616
Last edited:

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jvickers said:
Does anyone know of a way to restore/retain all the open tabs in file explorer after a restart? I poked around in preferences a bit but couldn't find anything.

Thanks!

Edit: Just to clarify, I mean all the tabs in the same file explorer window.
Click to expand...
Well, that was a question I had wondered about too, so after some research I found this advice:

  1. Open File Explorer and open all the tabs you want to restore.
  2. Click on the "View" tab in the top menu bar, and click on "Options" on the right side of the ribbon.
  3. In the "Folder Options" window that pops up, click on the "View" tab.
  4. Scroll down until you see "Restore previous folder windows at logon" and make sure it is checked.
  5. Click "Apply" and then "OK" to save your changes.
  6. The next time you restart your computer, all of your previously open file explorer tabs should be restored.
Unfortunately it doesn't quite work. all previously open explorer tabs are restored alright - but as individual explorer windows 😡
 

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Thanks for the response, @Bree.

I already had that box checked. You're right that it doesn't quite work but opens things as individual explorer windows. If you could drag one explorer window and merge it with another, I'd be happy with that, but you can't do that, either. I think I'm going to see if it's reported to the Feedback hub and upvote it. If it's not, I'll stick it on there.
 

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Bree said:
Well, that was a question I had wondered about too, so after some research I found this advice:

Unfortunately it doesn't quite work. all previously open explorer tabs are restored alright - but as individual explorer windows 😡
Click to expand...
I reported it to the feedback hub. I'm sure they have larger fish to land, but at least they'll be aware of it.
 

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Is there any external application we can use in the interim?
 

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jvickers said:
If you could drag one explorer window and merge it with another, I'd be happy with that, but you can't do that, either.
Click to expand...
Of course you can do this! It's just like with Edge. You both "tear away" tabs from a window, or add a window as a tab to another window. Simply grab a window BY THE TAB and drag it to the window to which you want to add it. Drag it to the right of the last tab.

NOTE: I don't know if behavior is different in some insider builds, but the above applies to both 23H2 as well as 24H2 preview release builds.
 

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That comment you quoted was made before that feature was implemented.

And the original question here has still not been correctly implemented by Microsoft
 

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