Explorer in the first builds of Windows 95 had a feature that’s missing even now.

Throughout the history of Windows development, Microsoft had a lot of interesting ideas that were eventually abandoned for some reason. Sometimes they are justified: the logic of the system has changed, priorities have shifted, the design has been redesigned. But sometimes developers removed options that were subsequently very lacking for years. Perhaps the most obvious example is the function of creating tabs in Explorer. It was in early builds of Windows 95, but was later abandoned and still hasn’t been brought back. This was mentioned in the Windows On Windows blog.

Back when Windows 95 was being developed under the code name Microsoft Chicago, File Explorer had an option hidden in the View menu: you could activate tabs. True, they functioned as quick links to recently opened folders, but the fact itself is important – in the early builds of Windows 95, the built-in “Explorer” boasted tabs.

Why Microsoft eventually abandoned this option is unclear. Why it didn’t implement it after years of fan requests, even in Windows 11, is even more incomprehensible. Now, to use the file manager with the tab function, you need to resort to third-party utilities; they cannot be activated using standard system tools.

Source: Trash Box

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