Is it possible to get rid of the tabs in CMD and Notepad

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Is it possible to get rid of the tabs in CMD and Notepad

Peter Barclay 20

I have no clue why everything has to look like a browser. The added "functions" are things I wouldn't even call bugs as they literally make the apps useless and attempting to use them could be lethal to the human species. Fortunately most can be shut off., what about the TABS?? Is there possibly any way to get rid of the tabs?

I am once again trying to give Windows 11 a try. So far the functions lost make it impossible to switch. I'm not kidding, live depend on me being able to do what I need. So far I have not gotten everything I need available to me. This item isn't a life critical one but doesn't help give me hope I'll be able to trust lives to this OS.

Also I've gotten very accustomed to hitting start run and typing in the app I want to start because the start navigation and ability to find the actual program I want has been impossible since windows 10. The idea there is no way to organize your apps makes have a GUI almost pointless.

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Answer 1

Hello Peter Barclay,

I understand your frustration, and I want to acknowledge it directly that when you rely on your system for critical work, even small changes in the interface can feel disruptive. Windows 11 introduced several design updates that make some apps look more “browser‑like,” and I understand how the tabs feature in File Explorer may feel unnecessary or even distracting if it doesn’t fit your workflow.

At this time, File Explorer tabs are built into Windows 11 and cannot be disabled through a simple setting. The only way to remove them completely would be to use third‑party tools or registry modifications, which I cannot recommend for a production environment because they can introduce instability or security risks. What you can do is continue using File Explorer in single‑window mode , tabs don’t force themselves into use, so if you prefer, you can simply open separate windows as before.

Regarding your point about Start → Run, that functionality is still present in Windows 11. Pressing Win + R brings up the Run dialog, and you can type the name of the app or command exactly as you did in earlier versions. For organizing applications, while the Start menu no longer supports the same folder structures as Windows 7 or classic versions, you can pin apps to the Start menu or Taskbar for quicker access. Many power users also rely on the search bar: pressing the Windows key and typing the app name will usually bring it up faster than browsing menus.

I hope this helps,

If this guidance proves helpful, please kindly click “Accept Answer” so we know we’re heading in the right direction 😊. And of course, I’m here if you need further clarification or support.

Domic Vo.

Peter Barclay 20 Reputation points

2025-12-03T22:38:45.5366667+00:00

Yeah, I appreciate that you're trying to make suggestions but they aren't helping. Am I supposed to pin EVERY application to the start, taskbar or something. You might as well tell me Microsoft's new plan is to put all files in the root directory with no filters and people just have to scroll through them randomly till they find what they need.

You're talking to someone who use to program MUI's before GUI's ever existed. You're talking to the guy who had to explain to Microsoft how we were doing multi-organizational hosting with Exchange 5 (way before 2000) just so they could come out with this cool thing called Hotmail. You're talking to the guy, while Windows 2k was still in beta, and Microsoft was bragging this new security and organizational application called Active Directory was going to support 1 Million objects, it took me only 6 months to design an architecture to show it was capable of supporting Trillions. Although it did take me another year of working with buddies who started up VMware to create an environment to do it. And we were only able to create 186.4 billion concurrently running virtual machines. It was completely homogeneously run on Microsoft products. Even the ROUTERS were running windows server with multiple quad-nic cards.

The point here is, the purpose of an OS is to provide the user the ability to run applications. BEING PRETTY and catering to morons is just lowering standards or education and technology. It goes against enabling people to be more productive, creative and innovative. This is WHY I am seriously moving away from using Microsoft. The ONLY reason I've lasted this long is because of things like Classic Shell and doing registry changes.

Answer 2

Ok, I was able to solve my problem. I did a full restore to windows 10. The fact that you can't turn off focus mode and the problems with both notepad and CMD and their new behavior were just straws that finally broke the camels back. This OS is completely non-functional for me and actually creates major safety threats due to the loss in functionality. There are so many changes that have to be made just to restore 70% of the functions. It makes it more time consuming than writing a whole new OS. The other 30% that cannot be restored make the removal of windows 11 critical. I'll either be skipping this version or more likely switching our systems to Linux. Thanks for trying to help though.

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Is it possible to get rid of the tabs in CMD and Notepad

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