TidyTabs is a free and commercial program for Microsoft Windows devices to add tabs to all windows using drag and drop operations.
While tabs have been very popular in the browser world for the last decade or so, the same cannot be said for the rest of programs that you run on Windows or other operating systems.
Most programs on Windows don’t support tabs, but will spawn multiple program windows instead if you open several instances.
A range of programs has been created in the past to introduce tabs on Windows. Quite a few programs were created specifically for Windows Explorer. Programs like QTTabBar, Better Explorer, Clover or Tab Explorer all add tabs to Windows Explorer so that multiple locations can be accessed quickly using tabs.
A second range of programs was designed to introduce tabs on a system-wide level. Programs like WinTabber or Windows Tabifier used a shell approach, while Stick pinned tabs to the top of the screen.
TidyTabs
TidyTabs takes the whole concept to a new level. It allows you to join program windows using simple drag and drop operations.
The free version is limited to three tabs per window max and several other restrictions. It does not allow you to reorder or rename tabs, use middle-clicks to close tabs, and does not support multi-monitor setups. The pro version does away with all those limitations for a one-time payment of $9.00.
Tabs are added automatically to each window, but they are not displayed when there is only one program attached to it.
You may move the mouse cursor to the top of the window to display that single tab.The tab is either displayed on top of the window if it is not at the very top of the screen, or in the main title bar of the program if it is.
You may then use drag and drop to merge the window with another open program window. Once you have merged windows, tabs become visible in a semi-transparent design.
Tabs are closed when you close a program window, or when you right-click on a tab and select one of the closing options there (close active tab, other tabs, all tabs).
You may change the default behavior in the settings. First, you may open the appearance settings from the application’s system tray icon to change tab transparency settings.
You can for instance set the transparency level of inactive windows to 0% which would mean that tabs would not be displayed anymore.
A switch to the behavior tab of the settings enables you to make single tabs visible as well, and to enable tabs when using full screen applications.
Another useful feature is the ability to set up exclusions. You may use a blacklist approach, which blocks programs you select from the program’s functionality, or a whitelist approach which only allows programs on the list instead.
Closing Words
TidyTabs is a well designed program that does not use a whole lot of system resources while it is running.
The program is easy to use, and gives you full control over when tabs are displayed on the desktop.
It is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows starting with Windows 7 and going all the way up to the latest version. (via Deskmodder)