Browser-style tabs for your desktop windows. Group windows from any apps and switch between them with a click or a shortcut.
Important
v2026.10.25-beta.1 preview: a command palette (Ctrl + Alt + P) for every command and setting, split views within a group, pinned tabs, a tab hover preview, a command line and Arabic. What's changed →
Windows 10 and 11. No installation: download WindowTabs.exe from
Releases and run it.
It runs in the system tray.
- Group windows: drag a tab onto another window's tab bar. Drag it away to ungroup.
- Group an app automatically: right-click its tab → Enable auto-grouping.
- Run any command or change any setting: press Ctrl + Alt + P and type its name (see Command palette).
- Settings: right-click a tab or the tray icon.
Grouped windows move and resize together. Tabs hide on maximized windows; point at the top edge to show them, or set Auto-hide tabs to Never.
| Action | Default |
|---|---|
| Next / previous tab | Ctrl + Alt + → / ← |
| Tab 1–9 | Ctrl + 1–9 (or Alt) |
| Search tabs | Ctrl + Alt + T; Alt + Enter on a window gives it a key of its own |
| New window of the current app | Ctrl + Alt + N |
| Switch tabs with the mouse | Scroll over the tab bar, or Shift + scroll over the window |
| Move the current tab | Ctrl + scroll over the tab bar |
| Close a tab | Ctrl + Alt + W, or middle-click |
Change any shortcut under Settings → Shortcuts. If Ctrl/Alt + number conflicts with an app, turn it off for that app from the tab's right-click menu.
Optional, off by default: switch on hover, a picture of a tab's window when the pointer rests on it, a leader key to pick tabs by letter (Alt + F, then the key on the tab), automatic tab colors, and an Alt+Tab replacement.
Drag files onto a tab and pause to bring that window forward. On a File Explorer tab, let go to drop them into its folder as Explorer would: Ctrl copies, Shift moves, right-drag asks, and Ctrl + Z in Explorer undoes it.
- Appearance: light, dark or follow Windows; Joined, Folder or Floating tabs; per-tab or per-app colors.
- Pinned tabs: right-click a tab → Pin to keep it at the front of its group, out of reach of Close others and Close all, across restarts.
- App rules: choose which running apps get tabs and which group automatically. Under Groups across apps, create named groups so windows of different apps join one group. Groups made by dragging tabs are remembered and listed there too.
- Split view: show two or more of a group's windows side by side or stacked, as in a browser or editor. Right-click a tab → Split view and pick a window for each side, or drag a tab to a window's edge. Drag the bar between the panes to resize them, right-click it to swap, equalize, switch direction or end the split. Shortcuts for a window on the right or below and for moving the focus between panes are under Settings → Shortcuts, unset by default.
- Workspaces: save groups and window positions, then restore them onto open windows; apps that are not running can be launched and their windows restored. Shortcuts to save one and to restore the last saved or restored one are under Settings → Shortcuts, unset by default.
- Taskbar: optionally combine each group into one taskbar button, which shows every app in the group.
- Languages: English, 中文, 日本語.
Ctrl + Alt + P opens the command palette: type a command's name and press Enter. Every tab menu action, split view command, workspace command and setting is there, with its shortcut beside it. A setting that is on or off shows a switch and is turned in place; a choice is picked from its list, a size typed and saved as you type, a colour picked, and anything else opens the settings window on it. Restore workspace… lists the saved workspaces. Alt + Enter on an action sets its shortcut, as Settings → Shortcuts does; a setting's shortcut opens the palette on its choices or its box. The window search (Ctrl + Alt + T) is a box of its own, over the group's tabs or every window.
Searching works the same in both boxes:
- Type words in any order; each can be part of a name, an app or a word a command is known
by, so
color tabfinds Tab color… andmergefinds Group this app. - Leave out the spaces, or type the first letters of the words:
movedownormdfinds Move down the list. These come after rows that have the words themselves. - Type a shortcut, starting with its modifier or function key, such as
ctrl+alt+torf5, to see which command or window has it. - The last search and recently used actions come first.
- ↑ / ↓ and Page Up / Page Down move, Enter runs, Esc goes back or closes, Tab goes round the window search's scopes, Ctrl + U clears what is typed and Ctrl + Backspace deletes a word.
The same commands run from a command line, in the running WindowTabs:
WindowTabs.exe --command next-tab
WindowTabs.exe --command tab-color Blue
WindowTabs.exe --workspace "Project A"
WindowTabs.exe --group "C:\Program Files\App\app.exe" notepad.exe
WindowTabs.exe --commands--group starts the programs and puts the windows they open into one group, and
--workspace restores a saved workspace; either also starts WindowTabs when it is not
running. --commands lists every command with its id.
Settings save automatically to %AppData%\WindowTabs\WindowTabsSettings.json.
For portable use, put that file next to WindowTabs.exe.
Export, import and reset are under Settings → Support.
To update, exit WindowTabs from the tray and replace the exe. Settings are kept.
- No tabs on a window? Check Settings → App rules. Dialogs don't get tabs.
- Odd behavior after upgrading? Settings → Support → Reset to defaults (your old settings are backed up first).
- Run as administrator? Not needed and not recommended. Windows blocks some input between admin and normal windows, and groups of normal windows keep a taskbar button each even with Combine taskbar icons on; the group's tab menu says why.
- Dropping files on a tab does nothing? Windows blocks dragging from an app into one running as administrator.
Still stuck? Open an issue and paste the troubleshooting report from Settings → Support. It leaves out window titles and paths.
WindowTabs is an F# WinForms app on .NET Framework 4.8, with a small C# project for Win32 interop. To build on Windows 10 or 11:
1. Install the tools
- .NET 10.0 SDK: choose the Windows SDK installer (usually x64).
- .NET Framework 4.8 Developer Pack: the runtime alone is not enough to build.
2. Download, build and run
Open a new PowerShell window in the folder where you want to keep the source:
git clone https://github.com/leafOfTree/WindowTabs
cd WindowTabs
dotnet build WindowTabs.sln # Debug: WtProgram\bin\Debug\WindowTabs.exe
dotnet build WindowTabs.sln -c Release # Release: WtProgram\bin\Release\WindowTabs.exe (single exe)The first build downloads NuGet dependencies and needs internet access. Run the
generated exe to start WindowTabs in the system tray; exit it before rebuilding,
as the running exe locks the output. If dotnet is not found, reopen PowerShell
after installation.
Alternatively, use Visual Studio
Install Visual Studio 2026, select
the .NET desktop development workload, and keep its default recommended
components. Open WindowTabs.sln, set WtProgram as the startup project, and press
F5.
AI-assisted contributions are welcome. Make sure you understand and have tested your changes. See AGENTS.md, architecture and testing.
- Threads: each tab group runs on its own UI thread, and the main thread owns
settings and window discovery. Calls between them go through the adapters in
Shared/Services.fs. Read architecture before touching this. - UI text: every visible string lives in
Shared/Strings.fswith English, Chinese and Japanese. Machine translation is fine for a first draft; native speakers can refine it. - Settings: names, defaults and ranges are declared once in
Shared/SettingsCatalog.fs; the Settings window, search and reset all read from it. - DPI and themes: use logical pixels and scale with
Dpi.scale; check your UI in light, dark and high-contrast modes.
Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.
- Committers and reviewers: contributors
- Approvers: @leafOfTree
Release binaries are built from source by GitHub Actions (release.yml), and every signing request is approved by a maintainer. AI coding agents assist with development, but all changes are reviewed and merged by a human maintainer.
This program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it.
Created by Maurice Flanagan in 2009 (mauricef/WindowTabs), continued by redgis and payaneco. MIT license.