Tabs have shaken up Web browsing in a good way, but they haven't quite migrated into file management yet, though it seems like a no-brainer.
Rob Lightner
Rob Lightner is a tech and gaming writer based in Seattle. He has reviewed games, gadgets, and technical manuals, written copy for space travel gear, and composed horoscopes for cats.
You should now see a new toolbar in Windows Explorer. Right-click an empty space on the bar to bring up QTTabBar's extensive Options menu. There's a lot of customization possible, but for most users, the defaults are fine.
Step 2: QTTabBar Options.
There are two ways to open a new tab. The simplest is to hit Ctrl-N; this clones the current tab, but you can easily browse to whichever new folder you like. The second is to click the scroll wheel on your mouse when highlighting a folder; this opens that folder in a new tab.
Step 3: QTTabBar with multiple tabs open.
Things get more familiar from here. Ctrl-Tab lets you navigate between tabs, and you can see folder contents easily by clicking a tab's icon.
There's quite a bit more you can do with QTTabBar, including dragging and dropping, improving readability, and more. It extends the functionality of Windows Explorer quite dramatically, I think, though I occasionally see somewhat slower response time. It's a trade-off I'm willing to make.