Old dog, new trick: Microsoft is testing a tabbed UI for Notepad.exe in Windows 11

Notepad is one of the oldest Windows apps, and until the advent of Windows 11, it was one of the least changed Windows apps. It remains an abstract text editor, but it is I learned some new tricks in Windows 11, dark mode support selection, customizable font, multi-level undo function. (A developer is also managed to the harbour death to Notepad recentlytechnically qualifying it as a “Gaming Platform.”)

Another new Notepad feature is apparently being tested within Microsoft — a screenshot from an unnamed Microsoft employee shows the app’s new tabbed user interface, a feature Microsoft recently added to the venerable Windows Explorer. The screenshot was deleted shortly after it was posted (it’s funny because it has a giant “secret” banner at the top of it), but it has been preserved by Ports such as Windows Central who grabbed it before it was removed.

Microsoft may or may not release a tabbed Notepad—these kinds of features often make their way to public versions of Windows eventually, but even the stuff that’s available in Windows Insider builds of the operating system doesn’t always end up in the release version that rolls out to all PCs. .

Windows 11 and its apps are updated at an “whenever we feel like it” cadence these days, with both major updates once a year and periodic feature drops throughout the year. So if Microsoft deems a tabbed version of Notepad ready for release, we don’t need to wait for the big 2023 update to get it.