Dear @Ken Mallen,
Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.
We apologize for any inconvenience you may encounter when using our services/ products. Based on your description, kindly try these following steps:
Revert the new Edge tab layout (go back to classic horizontal tabs)
What you are seeing is Vertical Tabs. Edge occasionally enables or nudges this after updates. You can turn it off completely:
- One‑click toggle
- In Edge, look at the top‑left of the window. Click the “Turn off vertical tabs” toggle (it looks like a tab strip icon).
- If you do not see it, continue with the steps below. (Vertical tabs are a built‑in feature; they were introduced a while back.)
- Settings path
- Go to Settings > Appearance.
- Find “Tabs” and turn off:
- Use vertical tabs (or Always show vertical tabs)
- Automatically group tabs (if you are seeing stacks/containers, this can add to the clutter).
- Restart Edge.
- Keyboard navigation back/forward (when Backspace feels broken)
- Chromium browsers stopped using Backspace to go back years ago. Use:
- Alt + left arrow to go back, Alt + right arrow to go forward
- Or your mouse’s Back button.
- If you prefer Backspace, install the Microsoft “Go back with Backspace” extension from the Edge Add‑ons store (quick fix).
- Turn off “tab grouping/stacking” behavior (optional, if you see colored group chips or stacks)
- Right‑click any tab > Ungroup.
- In Settings > Appearance > Tabs, turn off options that mention Groups or Tab actions menu.
- Close and reopen Edge.
- Multi‑monitor sanity tips
- Disable “Use vertical tabs for all windows” so each window keeps the horizontal strip.
- Keep one window per monitor for simpler task‑switching (Edge remembers per‑window tab orientation).
The issue with RPMSG files not opening automatically in Outlook
Rights-protected messages (.RPMSG) rely on Information Rights Management (IRM) or Microsoft Purview/AIP policies. Whether these files open successfully depends on the Outlook client in use:
- Classic Outlook for Windows: Fully supports RPMSG if you are signed into the correct account.
- New Outlook for Windows: Some IRM features (including RPMSG) are not fully supported yet. If you need this, switch back to Classic
- Outlook on the Web (OWA): Works if the message came via OME (you’ll see “Read the message” link).
Kindly try these following steps:
- If you are using New Outlook, install or switch to Classic Outlook for Windows and open the .RPMSG file there.
- Confirm you are signed into the correct account or tenant with rights to the content.
- If the message was sent via OME, open it from the original email using the “Read the message” link rather than double-clicking the .RPMSG file.
If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.