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After what felt like Microsoft’s radio silence since April, the company announced that a major 2022 update for Windows 11 is available to all users starting today (September 20), with tabs in File Explorer as one of its tentpole features.
Microsoft’s Insider Program (opens in new tab)that lets you try out features in development for Windows on your PC has suggested a number of ways to speed up your workflow, in addition to improving the divisive taskbar and Start menu.
This one new update (opens in new tab) brings not only better customization to the taskbar, but also better accessibility features that bring live captions across the operating system, and a more natural human voice for text-to-speech functions.
Finally there are tabs in Explorer
Tabs in File Explorer may not sound that important, but once you start playing with the feature as you move files, you’ll wonder how you did without it after all this time.
Adding a new tab is just like your web browser, by pressing . to push CTRL + T to make a new one appear in the same window. Dragging and dropping files between tabs is easy enough, so you can rearrange photos and games without having multiple Explorer windows to do it like before.
However, accessibility is another feature of tent poles (opens in new tab) for the first major update of Windows 11. Natural voices for narration and text-to-speech are finally replacing the robotic voices of previous Windows releases, making your opinions and statements more humane than before.
In addition to this improvement, there are also live subtitles that are now system wide, not just limited to a few applications like before. You can enable this by going to . to go Settings > Accessibility > Live Subtitles, where these captions are at the top of the screen. Thanks to this new update, Microsoft Teams calls, videos and more will be displayed with subtitles.
Granted, there are better customization options for the taskbar, but this will be seen as a small victory in the war for this part of Windows 11, as users will still be limited in how they can change its appearance.
In any case, this new update is proof that Microsoft has listened to feedback and is a great example of how it is addressing the accessibility needs of Windows 11 users.
If you don’t see the update on your PC yet, our guide should give you an idea of how to access it.